The accessibility of cinema in Spain in 2019 is analysed
CESyA UC3M
2/18/20
Madrid is the autonomous community with the highest rate of cinema adapted for people with sensory disabilities, according to the latest report by the Agenda Cultural Accesible (Cultural Accessibility Agenda) of the Centro Español del Subtitulado y la Audiodescripción (Spanish Centre of Subtitling and Audio-description, CESyA in its Spanish acronym). This centre of research and technological innovation for disabilities is managed by the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), depends on the Royal Board of Disability of the Ministry of Social Affairs and 2030 Agenda and collaborates with the Spanish Committee of Representatives of People with Disabilities (CERMI, in its Spanish acronym).
The number of accessible cinema sessions for deaf and/or blind people has been monitored by CESyA since 2014. This information can be checked through the Agenda Cultural Accesible (ACA), an integral service available in the form of their website or a free application for IOS and Android. This tool enables the offer of culture adapted for people with sensory disabilities to be checked from any smartphone or tablet, including cinema, theatre, museums and live events. In addition, the ACA provides a filter by region and type of service of accessibility: subtitling, audio-description or Spanish Sign Language (SSL).
According to the results of the ACA from 2019, Madrid offered 24,304 cinema sessions adapted for people with sensory disabilities and became established as the autonomous community with the greatest offer of adapted cinema, followed by Catalonia with 17,174 accessible sessions, Andalusia with 12,508, the Valencian Community with 11,829 and the Basque Country with 6,475.
In 2019, the screening offer with services adapted for blind and/or deaf people has increased by 1.71 per cent, that is to say, 1,507 accessible screenings more than in 2018. “Accessibility has come to stay”, states Belén Ruiz Mezcua, general manager of the CESyA and professor of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the UC3M. “In 2014, when we founded the ACA, there were only around 5,000 accessible screenings. Now there are nearly 85,000 more sessions and the figure increases each year”, she adds.
From January 2014 to December 2019, there were a total of 332,957 adapted cinema sessions in Spain. Approximately a third of this total corresponds to the Community of Madrid which, in the last five years, has held 101,343 accessible screenings. Catalonia takes second place with 52,523 screenings, followed by Andalusia with 40,822, the Valencian Community with 33,609 and the Basque Country with 30,983. On the other hand, the smallest figure corresponds to the Balearic Islands with 24 screenings since 2014, followed by Cantabria, Murcia, Extremadura, the Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla, where there are still no accessibility services.
More information:
