Equal Fares Mean Equal Access: Responding to Qantas' Media Statements
AUSLAN VIDEO HERE: https://youtu.be/gx30skQ3Ecw
2,600+ signatures and counting!
The petition has now been featured across media outlets, Yahoo News and news.com.au, and I’m incredibly grateful for the traction and attention this issue is finally garnering. Links to both articles are below.
In their statement to the media, Qantas claimed that “36 out of 42 New Release films and 19 out of 25 'Feel Good' films had closed captions,” adding that “while we try to provide a wide range of content, not all distributors provide closed captions.”
This response completely misses the mark.
Like every other supplier Qantas works with, the airline enforces strict quality control. They wouldn't accept spoiled food from catering suppliers, faulty parts from aircraft manufacturers, or uncertified safety gear, so why are they accepting incomplete, uncaptioned media from entertainment distributors? Qantas has the commercial leverage to mandate 100% closed captions across all licensed media. As a stopgap, they could simply choose not to load uncaptioned titles until distributors deliver the accessible files. Pointing fingers at distributors doesn't absolve Qantas of responsibility, nor does it fix the flight experience for Deaf and hard of hearing passengers. Equal fares must mean equal access.
To see what the onboard reality actually looks like, I flew Sydney to Auckland and back last Friday (a same-day turnaround) and catalogued their entire inflight entertainment library. The real world numbers speak for themselves:
Movies: Excluding foreign-language films with translated subtitles, 60 out of 211 movies had no captions (only 71.56% coverage).
TV Shows: The gap is even wider - 57 out of 181 shows had no captions (only 68.51% coverage).
While this is an improvement, it’s still far off from 100% captioned content.
Why force Deaf passengers to dig through obscure submenus when accessibility should be the default? If every title were captioned, everyone could browse the full catalogue equally, and Qantas' interface would be cleaner without needing a segregated "Captioned" category.
The demand of this petition remains clear: Qantas must mandate 100% closed captions across its entire inflight entertainment fleet. They have the tools and the power to make it happen. Let's keep sharing and applying the pressure!