Launch of Telstra catalogue

Launch of Telstra catalogue for older people and people with a disability and second Disability Action Plan, 1999-2001

Susan Halliday Acting Disability Discrimination Commissioner 16 August 2000

Well, here I am again.

Just last December I was part of another launch for Telstra - the Big Print Bill. I talked on that occasion about how important and useful it is for all customers, including customers with disabilities, to be able to receive information in a form they can use.

But of course you can only get so excited about receiving a bill.

Here today we can celebrate less emotionally ambiguous achievements: the launch of Telstra catalogue for older people and people with a disability, and as a bonus, Telstra's second Disability Action Plan, this time for 1999-2001.

I want to congratulate everyone involved in putting these documents together and getting them to the point where they can be released today. I don't of course know the names of everyone involved, so it would be unfair of me to single out people like Margaret Portelli and her team. Oh, sorry, I just did .

Why, you might ask, is a commissioner from a small organization like the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission so frequently seen at Telstra disability events? Doesn't she have anything else to do? Is she a secret technology freak?

You might have noticed from the papers in recent weeks that I do actually have a few other issues to worry about currently, particularly under my other, Sex Discrimination Commissioner hat.

One reason to be here is that it is nice sometimes to be part of a good news story. Another is to do with the perception that people sometimes have of human rights organizations as only - "only" - being concerned with "minority issues". Not everyone is an indigenous kid locked up for stealing $3 worth of textas, or can identify with someone who is. Not everyone is single, in their late 30s, desperate to have a child and wants to utilise IVF services or safe reproductive services where sperm has been screened, or can identify with someone who is and does. Sometimes, even being a woman seems like a minority issue.

But access to telecommunications services and equipment is obviously and increasingly something that affects us all - an essential part of social interaction, of work, and of access to or participation in an ever greater range of activities and services.

That access has to include people with disabilities and older people.

We are all aware that an ever greater proportion of the Australian population is made up of older people, and the Australian Bureau of Statistics figures tell us that with people with disabilities we are talking about more than 3 million people, or 19 per cent of the Australian population. All too often, though, disability and aged issues can be overlooked, or relegated to a low priority, as just minority issues.

Of course we can say that it would be unjust and a denial of human rights to exclude a minority, large or small, from services available to other Australians and the opportunities those services bring. But, believe it or not, appeals to justice and human rights alone do not always work and do not always win friends.

Fortunately on disability access issues we can also call on what might be called enlightened self interest.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics figures indicate that the 19% of the Australian community overall who have a disability rises to

• approximately 35% for people aged 55 to 59;
• 44% for people aged 65 to 69;
• 60% for people aged 75 to 79; and
• 84% for people aged 85 and over.

I'm not saying, of course, that all older people have a disability or that it is only older people whose disabilities matter - only that issues which affect people with a disability will affect more and more of us personally as we age, and will affect a greater proportion of the Australian people as the population "ages". 

So that is one level on which access issues for older people and people with disabilities are universal access issues, not "just" minority issues.

Another level is that if I can't communicate with you, because of age or disability of one of us, you can't communicate with me either. For every person with a disability or older person, we should add or perhaps multiply by the number of family members, friends, or for that matter business or other organizations who will want or need to be able to communicate with that person.

In terms of economics, that is what Metcalfe's law means, does it not?  - that the value of a network increases as the square of the number of participants. The usefulness of my access to telecommunications is increased because you have access, and diminished if you do not. To say nothing of the value of the network to its owners ... .  Perhaps we could call this the economic rationalist case for recognising our common humanity.

The third level on which access for older people and people with disabilities are universal access issues, is one where very many people here have a good deal of expertise and knowledge of your own. I mean, universal design, designing for the broadest possible range of human abilities and needs, as a principle of engineering and service design.

I don't mean to suggest that this always means or requires a one size fits all approach to products and services - that the ever smaller size of mobile phones available, for example, which is one of the things making them attractive to jeans wearing teenagers and handbag carrying executives like me, is always a bonus for people who have trouble seeing or manipulating small controls.

Sometimes the answer is to provide the customer with a wide range of products and services to choose from. The new catalogue launched today should be very valuable in giving consumers information to assist them in making those choices. It is also impressive in the range of products and services it sets out: not only in detailing specialised or adapted equipment, where Telstra has had a strong track record for years, but also in providing information on "mainstream" products and services.

I don't for one minute want to diminish the importance of a commitment to providing specialised or adapted equipment where required, or the related issue of ensuring that "mainstream" equipment can work effectively with adaptive technologies. Interaction of mobile phones with hearing aids is a case in point, although perhaps I should not risk compromising some very positive negotiations which we are involved in that area by saying more on that issue today.

One of the truly wonderful things about the progress of digital technologies, though, is how far it is becoming possible, within the one facility or piece of equipment, to cater for the different methods or formats people use for communicating, whether because we cannot see or hear or manipulate buttons or keyboards easily of age or disability, or because we have our hands or eyes full driving, or writing speeches, or other dangerous activities like that.

I would be very confident that the knowledge that comes from a focus on meeting disability access needs will serve any organization well - a communications company perhaps most of all - in meeting customer requirements in general, and in coming up with innovative products and services for the whole market. (Disability access experts here from Telstra should feel free to regard these remarks as endorsement for pay rises and more power .)

Sometimes the payoff is as vast as a teacher of the deaf, one Alexander Graham Bell, inventing the telephone in a search for a device to assist hard of hearing people. Or voice control technology - now increasingly common in mobile phones for the mass market, but originating largely in the context of devices for people with physical disabilities.

Sometimes it is a matter of more effective use of existing technologies, using the knowledge that a diverse user population can bring, and in particular the knowledge and experience of people with disabilities.

Just yesterday, while I was getting together my notes for today, an email came in, via the Vision Impaired People's List, from Telstra's Human Factors research area, asking for feedback on some research issues on web page accessibility.  With their permission, I quote:

To date, we have been focussing on accessibility issues as they specifically relate to the blind and vision impaired. We want to start looking at other disabled groups like the deaf, intellectually disabled, dyslexic and also people with manual disabilities.  We are also interested in how accessibility relates to the aged.

In addition, we are also interested in exploring accessibility as it relates to accessing web material via the use of devices other than a standard PC. That is, PCs with small screens (like laptops and notebooks), palm pilots, mobiles, Internet screen phones and also Internet TV.

As you see, I am not the only one who sees possible connections between disability access issues and common senses and commercial ventures.

I encourage disability community experts here to contribute their expertise to this kind of research effort. I encourage Telstra senior management to give this and similar research efforts every support and ensure that their results are spread throughout the organization.

I think Telstra deserves particular credit for the level of openness and accountability it has subjected itself to in its efforts to achieve equal access to its services, by making publicly available an action plan, reporting publicly on the implementation of that plan, and now lodging a second plan looking to actions up to 2001.

This action plan does not assert, or call on the Commission or community to accept, that every aspect of the accessibility existing services is perfect. Any worthwhile action plan involves commitment to moving forward from the existing realities.

I feel happy to say that the documents launched today are significant further steps in achieving Telstra's commitment to accessibility, and I look forward to continuing co-operation between us in future. Thank you