Excerpts from Break A Finger Audit 2025:
There are levels of accessibility and engagement for events. Starting with basic access, this could mean just booking hearing, side of stage Auslan Interpreters for events. Ultimately, we aim to work with organisations to build their capacity to work more holistically with the Deaf Community and have them as partners, participants and leads in co-designing events and offerings. For a film festival, this could extend to how Deaf films are curated and selected; how the Deaf Community is engaged via events led by and for Deaf people; how Deaf performers, Deaf talent and Deaf Interpreters are booked; as well as providing hearing Auslan Interpreters for appropriate events as a more routine process.
Captioning of films
Overall the captioning observed on the launch night was of a high quality. It’s worth noting that music, sound effects and background noises should also be included in captioning so that Deaf audiences get the full picture of what is happening on screen. Where possible “open” captions are preferred-
General social media/website accessibility
If videos are embedded in a website or used on your social media, captions should also be added to show you are an accessible organisation/event. This would be both for produced content such as film previews but also interviews or any other kind of marketing engagement. It’s always preferable that videos are released with the captions already complete rather than the Deaf Community being told to wait for accessibility to be added at
another time. Consider having some standard rules for making videos visually accessible across platforms- YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and website.
For a higher level on inclusivity, it would be great to have an Auslan video on your homepage of a Deaf community member signing a summary of what Tilde is all about and how the Deaf community is welcome etc, but this is something you could work towards down the track once you have some projects completed with the Deaf Community.
To ensure an accessible and welcoming film and panel night, in addition to the feedback form the launch event, our recommendations would be:
- All films as well as any other video messages, for example: sponsor messages, welcome to country videos, be captioned following the standards outlined.
- Panelist and MC information such as full names, bios, questions (and panelist answers if these are preprepared) and speaking notes be provided ahead of time.
- Time allowance for pre-briefing with panelists, performers and presenters before event so all can discuss how to work effectively together.
- Time allowance for tech set up to include lighting, seating and all positions where Interpreters will sit/stand be finalised keeping in mind that if presenters / performers positions change then so too, the interpreting positions may need to change. At this stage it is also worth talking about how people will exit and enter the stage so as to not block the interpreting but also how the Interpreters will do this when they change so this is smooth.
- Agreed messaging and language for Auslan accessible events. Break a Finger will do Auslan promotion for the event.