Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Screen Australia launches Access Coordinator Training Program

26/07/2023

26 07 2023 - Media release Screen Australia launches Access Coordinator Training Program

Screen Australia has announced a new Access Coordinator Training Program designed to train and support up to 12 people in this new and integral production role. The bespoke training program will be delivered by UK inclusion consultancy Bridge06 in partnership with the New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC), Screen Canberra, Screen NSW, Screen Queensland, Screen Tasmania, Screen Territory, Screenwest, the South Australian Film Corporation (SAFC), VicScreen and the Australian Film Television Radio School (AFTRS).

The Access Coordinator role is an emergent below-the-line crew position becoming more standardised worldwide, and works with film and television productions to bring expert knowledge and experience in facilitating required adjustments and access provisions for Deaf/Disabled or Neurodivergent (DDN) talent in front of and behind the camera. In this role, Access Coordinators ensure that these adjustments are implemented and play a vital part in increasing and sustaining ongoing inclusion of DDN talent and crew in the screen industries.

Screen Australia's Seeing Ourselves 2: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Australian TV Drama examined the diversity of main characters in 361 scripted Australian TV and online dramas broadcast between 2016 and 2021 and how this compares to the Australian population. The report found that while 18% of the Australian population identified as having a disability, only 6.6% of main characters represented disability in TV drama. This means that disability remains very much under-represented and signals more work needs to be done to ensure more people living with disability are reflected in our screen stories.

The Access Coordinator Training Program has been introduced to address this under-representation, support an increase of disability representation across the Australian screen industry and guide the sector to become more inclusive and confident in providing access for people with disabilities.

Screen Australia's Head of Industry Development Ken Crouch said, This new program is an important step in meeting the increasing need and demand for inclusive jobs and content that speaks to and represents all Australians. There is a long way to go in improving the representation of disability on our screens and behind our cameras, and I am excited about what this program means for people of the DDN community. I can't wait to continue to work with the Australian screen industry on implementing this new program and moving towards a more inclusive ecosystem.

Te Tumu Whakaata Taonga The New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC) CEO Annie Murray said, Accessibility is a major barrier that excludes some people from participating equitably in the screen sector and we are excited to work in partnership with Screen Australia and Bridge06 to launch this program for the first time in Australasia. This training is part of a much-needed change to increase representation and remove barriers.

Sara Johnson and Julie Fernandez from Bridge06 train and represent Access Coordinators in the UK and carried out the first formalised training for the role in 2021, funded by British training body ScreenSkills. Julie works as a full time Access Coordinator and together they work with broadcasters and producers to help embed it into the production landscape.

Bridge06 founders and course facilitators, Sara Johnson and Julie Fernandez of Bridge06 said, The Access Coordinator is a vital piece of the jigsaw to sustainable change for DDN talent and we are excited to continue our collaboration with Sofya Gollan in bringing the role to life in this important production community. We are delighted to be partnering with Screen Australia and NZFC to bring the power and importance of the Access Coordinator role to this production sector, as we continue to collaborate with partners across the globe.

Successful applicants will participate in the immersive training program held in Sydney from Monday 30 October to Friday 3 November 2023. During the program recipients will receive best practice training and standard working templates from world leading experts, on-set practical training module and will be supported for the following six months as they transition into working in the role.

People who identify as a person living with disability, from Deaf/Disabled and/or Neurodivergent (DDN) communities who are committed to improving disability representation and removing barriers to inclusion are encouraged to apply.

Applications are now open and close at 5pm AEST Thursday 24 August 2023. For more information on eligibility and to apply, see the guidelines here.

Support available If you require this information in an accessible format such as:

Word Document Version

Audio and closed captioning

Or if you require this information in another language or format, you can contact Screen Australia's Industry Development team on 61 2 8113 5800 between 9am and 5pm Monday to Friday.

For more information from Bridge06, please contact: 44 7971 058 864 | [email protected]

About Bridge06 Bridge06 is an Agency for Access Coordinators and Inclusion consultancy committed to joining the work being done to increase Disability Representation in the Film, Media and Entertainment Industries and beyond. Created and run by TV Drama Executive, Parent Carer, CODA and long-time disability advocate Sara Johnson and full time Access Coordinator, Actor and Disability Consultant Julie Fernandez. Together they are focussed on encouraging an Access First approach and believe strongly that the rollout of the Access Coordinator as a paid and valued position, is the entry point towards achieving this. Bridge06 is committed to working with and alongside disabled-led organisations and individuals, advocacy groups and companies,
LINK: https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/sa/media-centre/news/2023/07-26-acc...
See more stories from screenaustralia

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

04/08/2026

Dalet Announces Commercial Availability of Dalia, Bringing Media-Aware Agentic AI to Enterprise Productions

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

04/07/2026

Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in Dolby Cinemas Across Japan, Presented in Dolby Atmos and Dolby ...

April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...

01/06/2026

Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026

January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026 Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...

28/05/2026

NAB, MPA and NCTA Defend Current TV Ratings System

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

28/05/2026

Amazon MGM Studios, AWS Launch the GenAI Creators' Fund

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

28/05/2026

AudioShake Launches New Copyright Compliance System

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

28/05/2026

ITV Studios Deploys Cuez Live Production Platform

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

28/05/2026

ACT Entertainment Introduces Green Hippo Estuary Series a...

Green Hippo, an ACT Entertainment brand, will pull back the curtain on the Estuary Series, a next-generation media control platform engineered for the scale, sp...

28/05/2026

ZEISS Introduces Panoptes 65 Cinema Lenses at Cine Gear E...

First Hands-On Opportunity at Universal Studios Lot, June 5-6 Oberkochen, Germany, May 27, 2026 ZEISS is launching their new Panoptes 65 primes at Cine Gear ...

28/05/2026

Wooden Camera Releases New Accessories for Blackmagic URS...

Irvine, CA May 20, 2026 Wooden Camera today announced the release of new accessories for the Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive. The new lineup includes a redes...

28/05/2026

Six films, one unmissable collection. First Facts documentaries debut on 10 Streaming

Six films, one unmissable collection. First Facts documentaries debut on 10 Stre...

28/05/2026

Emma Watkins brings all-new Emma's Dance Club to ABC Kids

Emma Watkins brings all-new Emma's Dance Club to ABC Kids 28 May 2026 Emmas Dance Club. Image credit: Sarah Wilson. The ABC, Screen Australia and Screen N...

28/05/2026

Cool Concentric Text for Cavalry

Cool Concentric Text for Cavalry Simon Ubsdell May 27, 2026 0 Comments In this tutorial I'll show you how to make this popular text effect that is...

28/05/2026

May 21, 2026

Scripps Research's Skaggs Graduate School awards doctoral degrees to 34th graduating class May 21, 2026 Scripps Research's Skaggs Graduate School of ...

28/05/2026

May 27, 2026

Scripps Research chemist Jin-Quan Yu is named a Fellow of the Royal Society Yu is honored by the U.K.'s national academy of sciences for his work in synthet...

27/05/2026

Telestream Appoints Benjamin Desbois as CEO, Effective July 1

Telestream has announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Benjamin Desbois as Chief Executive Officer, effective July 1, 2026. Desbois, currently Teles...

27/05/2026

FOX MLB Leads Live-Event Categories; ESPN Is Tops Overall at 47th Annual Sports Emmy Awards

ESPN garnered 10 awards; NBC's Sunday Night Football received the Outstandin...

27/05/2026

Matrox Video Marks 50th Anniversary, Announces New Product Launch for June

Matrox Video is celebrating its 50th anniversary, marking five decades of operations from its headquarters in Montreal, Canada. Founded in 1976, the company has...

27/05/2026

MLB Announces Fan Engagement Initiatives for Americas 250th Anniversary

Major League Baseball has announced a series of initiatives tied to America's Semiquincentennial, including a national marketing campaign, Fourth of July br...

27/05/2026

Advanced Systems Group Hires Brian Gross as Account Manager for Audio Team

Advanced Systems Group (ASG) has announced that Brian Gross has joined the company as an Account Manager on its Audio team, based in the Burbank office. He will...

27/05/2026

Nielsen Research: Hispanic Fans, Asian Markets Drive Global Soccer Audience Ahead of World Cup 2026

Nielsen has released new research on soccer fandom ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2...

27/05/2026

ESL FACEIT Group Debuts First Ever Esports Vertical Stream Co-Developed With TikTok

ESL FACEIT Group (EFG) has unveiled a new partnership with TikTok to bring broad...

27/05/2026

Two Weeks Away: FIFA Outlines Production Plans for Highly Anticipated North American-Based World Cup

FIFA's Oscar Sanchez gives a deeper look to how this tournament will be cove...

27/05/2026

SVG Students To Watch: Maggie Lynn, Virginia Tech

The soon-to-be senior from Charlottesville is building her skills in replay, TD, and even creative content for HokieVision and its ACC Network productions In t...

27/05/2026

A Global Festival of Football: FOX Sports Illustrates Strategy to Bring Every FIFA Mens World Cup Match to the U.S. Audience

FOX Sports' Mike Davies breaks down the vision for this summer's showcas...

27/05/2026

Top-Tier Storytelling: Host Broadcast Services Works at Capturing the Atmosphere of the FIFA Mens World Cup

HBS's Paul King, FIFA's Oscar Sanchez preview how the masses at home wil...

27/05/2026

Matt Gangl & Pete Macheska on FOX MLBs Huge Night and an Unforgettable Postseason Run

FOX's MLB coverage dominated the night at the 47th Annual Sports Emmy Awards...

27/05/2026

FOXs Mike Davies and Team on Outstanding Technical Team Win for 2025 World Series

One of the most memorable Postseasons in baseball history would have had no memo...

27/05/2026

NBC Sports Rob Hyland Reflects on an Unforgettable Sunday Night Football Season

NBC's Sunday Night Football is among the most decorated and most watched programs in the history of television. It added to its jam-packed trophy case on Tu...

27/05/2026

Prime Videos John Ward and Mike Francis on Groundbreaking NBA on Prime Video Studio

The 2026 Sports Emmys marked a watershed moment for Prime Video Sports. After bu...

27/05/2026

Countdown to FIFA World Cup 2026: SVG Launches SportsTechLive Blog in Lead-up to Winter Games

With the Opening Match just over two weeks away, the entire sports-production-te...

27/05/2026

Spotify Brings Long-Form Magazine Articles to Audio

Spotify already brings together listeners' favorite music, podcasts, and audiobooks in one place. Now, we're trialing a new format that expands the cont...

27/05/2026

Podcast Clips Make Your Favorite Moments Easier to Save and Share

The best podcast moments deserve more than just a mental note. That's why today, we're making those moments easier to save and share with clips. Whethe...

27/05/2026

Spotify and Netflix Partner With Jay Shetty to Bring On Purpose' to Video Across Both Platforms

On Purpose is one of the most popular podcasts in the world, known for conversat...

27/05/2026

Olivia Rodrigo Brings Billions Club Live to Barcelona: Watch the Concert Film Now

On May 8, 1,500 of Olivia Rodrigo's top fans gathered in Barcelona's Tea...

27/05/2026

JZ Microphones announce the MU-1

Hybrid design combines large-diaphragm capsule & ribbon JZ Microphones have teamed up with Grammy-winning producer and engineer Marc Urselli to develop a ne...

27/05/2026

Tape Effects Collection from AIR Music Tech

Three new plug-ins inspired by classic tape effects AIR Music Tech's latest release delivers a set of plug-ins that aim to capture the character, moveme...

27/05/2026

The Crow Hill Company's Absurdly Quiet Piano goes Pro

Piano played on the edge of silence The Crow Hill Company's Vaults collection offers a continual rotation of instruments that are given away for free fo...

27/05/2026

Arturia release Memory V

Recreates Moog's iconic Memorymoog polysynth Arturia's vast software instrument range offers a combination of new and old, with innovative modern so...

27/05/2026

Accentize introduce free dxLevel plug-in

Offers loudness levelling for speech and dialogue Accentize have built up a solid reputation with their audio-restoration tools, and their latest plug-in is...

27/05/2026

10,000 units strong - The Rohde & Schwarz R&S M3SR Radio 4400

10,000 units strong - The Rohde & Schwarz R&S M3SR Radio 4400 Rohde & Schwarz celebrates a major manufacturing milestone, producing its 10,000th R&S M3SR Radi...

27/05/2026

L3Harris Introduces the XL Converge 300P Portable Public Safety Radio

The XL Converge 300P radio system emerges with a groundbreaking feature set enhancing the mission-critical communications of public safety, federal and critica...

27/05/2026

Modernizing Public Safety Communications

Pairing Two47 MCX software with existing LTE networks means tailored system upgrades that can save time, money and lives....

27/05/2026

L3Harris Strengthens Global Solid Rocket Motor Supply Chain With New PAC-3 Propulsion Supplier

PAC-3 MSE offers improved range, speed, and maneuverability, making it an effect...

27/05/2026

Brightcove Adds New Features to Its AI Suite for Video Advertising

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

27/05/2026

Star Trek VFX: Recreating John Knoll's Iconic Warp Stars without a Slitscan Camera

Star Trek VFX: Recreating John Knoll's Iconic Warp Stars without a Slitscan ...

27/05/2026

Adventure World Uses Blackmagic Replay for Marine Live

Adventure World Uses Blackmagic Replay for Marine Live Brie Clayton May 27, 2026 0 Comments Large screen displays and slow motion replays dynamically ...

27/05/2026

Berklee Alumna and Assistant Professor Olivia Prez-Collellmir to Premiere Original Work at Gaud Centennial in Barcelona

Berklee Alumna and Assistant Professor Olivia P rez-Collellmir to Premiere Origi...