HOYTS KIOSK IMPROVE ACCESSIBILITY

HOYTS KIOSK IMPROVE ACCESSIBILITY

Tuesday, 24 June 2014 Media Access Australia

Entertainment giant Hoyts has increased its number of DVD rental kiosks nationally, as well as improve the access information about the titles each kiosk holds.

Launched in 2009, Hoyts Kiosk offers new release movies to the general public via a vending machine (kiosk). Kiosks take payment via credit card and rentals can be kept for up to ten days. There is also the flexibility of reserving online through the Hoyts Kiosk website (link is external) to ensure your title is available, and returning rentals to any kiosk location.

When Media Access Australia first tested a kiosk in 2012, it was found that title accessibility information was not displayed on the kiosk screen. This meant that people requiring closed captioning or audio description to watch DVDs were unable to use the kiosks without prior knowledge of a title’s accessibility. This was reported to Hoyts at the time.

We are pleased to report that Hoyts Kiosk now includes audio description and closed caption information for each title, if available, on the title’s information screen.

DVD kiosks are a growing trend, often found in shopping centres and other central public gathering points. This trend is counteracting the closure of DVD rental stores but retaining disc rental as an option where streaming video may be too slow due to slow broadband.

Hoyts website:

www.hoytskiosk.com.au/

Media Access Australia Website:

www.mediaaccess.org.au/latest_news/cinema/hoyts-kiosk-improve-accessibility