When the Tide Comes In: Towards Accessible Telecommunications for People with Disabilities in Australia
When the Tide Comes In: Towards Accessible Telecommunications for People
with Disabilities in Australia
A discussion paper commissioned by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity
Commission
William Jolley, Chief Consultant
Jolley William & Associates
wjolley@bigpond.com
June 2003
Glossary of Acronyms and Words
1G: First Generation. Describes the previous generation of mobile telephony.
An example was the analogue-based AMPS system which predominated in Australia
during the 1990s.
2G: Second Generation. Describes the current generation of mobile telephony.
Examples are the GSM and CDMA technologies currently used in Australia
and most other countries.
2.5G: Describes mobile telephony which is intermediate between 2G and
3G. An example is GPRS.
3G: Third Generation. Describes the next generation mobile communications.
Terminals will have multimedia capability; the network will use packet
switching; and customers will enjoy always-on, mobile connectivity to
the Internet.
3GPP: 3rd Generation Project Partnership. 3GPP is an industry coalition
across East Asia and North America developing specifications for multimedia
communication across fixed and mobile, circuit and packet switched networks.
A-party: The person making a call.
AAD: Australian Association of the Deaf. AAD is the national peak consumer
organisation representing people who are deaf.
ABA: Australian Bankers Association. ABA is an industry association representing
banks and some other financial institutions.
ABS: Australian Bureau of Statistics. The Commonwealth Government agency
with responsibility for the collection, analysis and dissemination of
statistics in Australia.
ACA: Australian Communications Authority. The Commonwealth Government
agency with responsibility for administration of telecommunications and
radiocommunications in Australia.
Access Board: Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board.
The Access Board is a Federal agency in the United States with responsibility
for the development of guidelines and rules for accessibility under the
ADA and the Telecommunications Act 1996.
ACCC: Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. A commonwealth government
agency which seeks to protect consumers by the regulation of competition
in the provision of goods and services.
ACE: Australian communication Exchange. ACE is a non-profit, consumer-driven
organisation which holds the contract to deliver the National Relay Service.
ACIF: Australian Communications Industry Forum. ACIF is owned and managed
by the telecommunications industry, established to manage and implement
communications industry self-regulation.
ACIF G586: Guidelines for ACIF Reference Panels and Working Groups on
how to meet the needs of customers with disabilities when drafting codes
and standards.
ADA: Americans with Disabilities Act 1990. The Federal law in the United
States which prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities.
ADR: Alternative Dispute Resolution. As an ADR scheme the Telecommunications
Industry Ombudsman emphasises good industry practice and what is fair
and reasonable, rather than seeking a resolution based on strictly legal
grounds.
ADSL: Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line. A technology which allows
high speed digital transmission over copper wires. The customer can transmit
data at a much slower speed than the speed at which data is received,
and the line can be used simultaneously for voice telephony.
Advisory note: Written advice provided by HREOC on rights and responsibilities
under the DDA in a particular area such as telecommunications equipment.
AM: Amplitude Modulation. A mass market form of radio commonly used in
Australia. AM broadcasting has a longer range than FM, but reproduction
fidelity for music is not as good as FM broadcasting.
AMPS: Advanced Mobile Phone Service. A 1G mobile phone system, developed
in the United States, which was also used in Australia.
AMTA: Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association. AMTA acts as a
forum for, and as a representative of, manufacturers, terminal suppliers
and service providers in the mobile telecommunications industry.
Analogue: Refers to a continuous representation of an audio signal that
varies in amplitude with the strength of the signal and in frequency with
the pitch of the signal.
ANSI: American National Standards Institute. The principal standards setting
body in the United States.
Any-to-any connectivity: The ability for anyone connected to a telecommunications
network to call anyone else from anywhere at any time.
ARPA: Advanced Research Projects Agency. An agency of the United States
Government, Department of Defence, established in 1957. ARPA's mission
was to apply state-of-the-art technology to US defence and ensure that
the US regained and retained its status as the world's technology leader.
ARPANSA: Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Authority.
ARPANSA is the Commonwealth government agency with responsibility for
radiation protection and nuclear safety.
AS1428: The set of building standards for access and mobility for people
with disabilities.
AS/NZS 4277:1995. Australian standard for text telephones.
ASCII: American Standard Code for Information Interchange: ASCII is the
commonly used code for text representation by computers. ASCII is now
being replaced by Unicode, an ISO specification, which has the ability
to represent the double-byte characters used in some Asian languages.
ATIA: Australian Telecommunications Industry Association. ATIA is an industry
body representing manufacturers of telecommunications equipment.
ATM: Asynchronous Transfer Mode. A packet-switching technology deployed
in high-speed telecommunication networks, where data is transmitted in
fixed length packets of 53 bytes.
ATM: Automatic Teller Machine. A wall-mounted terminal used for financial
transactions, including cash withdrawal, which generates low-volume data
traffic across the telecommunications network for each transaction.
ATUG: Australian Telecommunications Users Group. ATUG represents medium
and large business telecommunications customers.
Auslan: Australian Sign Language. Auslan is the visual communication language
used by the Deaf community in Australia as its preferred (first) language.
AUSTAG: Australian User Standards Telecommunications Advisory Group. AUSTAG
is an advisory committee to the Australian Communications Authority.
B-party: The person being called.
Base stations: The interface between the wireless cellular network and
the wired inter-exchange network.
Baudot: The 5-bit character code used by TTY text telephones in Australia,
the United States and some other countries.
Baudot-45: The Baudot code at 45.45 bit/s, used in the United States.
Baudot-50: The Baudot code at 50 bit/s, used in Australia.
BCA: Blind Citizens Australia. BCA is the national peak organisation representing
people who are blind.
Bell-103: An ANSI standard for text telephones in the United States, not
as commonly used as Baudot-45.
Bit: The building block of digital data; a bit represents a zero or a
one.
Bit/s: Bits Per Second. Used as a measure of link capacity or data transfer
speed.
Bluetooth: A wireless technology for connection of computers and peripheral
devices, up to a range of ten metres.
Braille: The system of tactile literacy for blind people using characters
composed of raised dots.
Broadband: (1) Describes a link line speed above 256kbit/s.
(2) Refers to Internet access using HFC cable or ADSL.
Byte: eight consecutive bits. A byte corresponds to the representation
of a character in text files. The length of files is measured in bytes.
CAN: Customer Access Network. Refers to the traditional copper-based network
of wires joining telephone terminals to telephone exchanges.
Carriers: the owners of telecommunications transmission infrastructure,
used for the delivery of carriage services.
CAUS: Communication Aid Users Society. CAUS is a consumer organisation
representing people with severe communication difficulties.
CCF: Consumer Consultative Forum. CCF is an advisory committee to the
Australian Communications Authority.
CDMA: Code Division Multiple Access. Refers to the mathematical technique
for combining/separating data streams on a common carrier. CDMA is a technology
which supports 2G mobile phone services. CDMA is widely used in the United
States. CDMA will be the technology that supports 3G mobile communications.
CDS: Commonwealth Disability Strategy. The Government's strategic framework
for inclusion and participation by people with disabilities in Government
policies, programs and services.
CE: Customer Equipment. The equipment (telephones, computers, etc.), including
accessories and modifications, used by customers to access telecommunication
networks and services. CE is often used interchangeably with CPE.
Cellular network: Refers to networks used for mobile telecommunications.
The term 'cellular' is derived from the typical coverage areas of base
stations being hexagonal cells.
Circuit switching: Mainly used in voice telephony: During the call the
chain of links joining the two parties is reserved to carry the conversation
exclusively.
CLC: Communications Law Centre. Carries out research and provides consultancy
on communications law and regulation in Australia.
CND: Calling Number Display. Displays the number of the A-party on the
terminal of the B-party.
Cordless phone: A voice telephony terminal consisting of a base station
and a handset. The base station and handset communicate by low powered
radio, with a maximum range of several hundred metres. The base station
connects to the standards telephone wall socket.
COST: COST is a framework for European Co-operation in the field Of Scientific
and Technical research.
COST219bis: A collaborative endeavour among experts in telecommunications
and disabled/elderly persons, under the framework for scientific and technical
co-operation of the European Union.
CPE: Customer Premises Equipment. The equipment (telephones, computers,
etc.), including accessories and modifications, used by customers to access
telecommunication networks and services. CPE is often used interchangeably
with CE.
CSG: Customer Serviced Guarantee. A minimum standard of service that customers
can expect from their carriage service provider.
CSP: Carriage Service Provider. CSPs are companies which provide telecommunications
services (including Internet services), using networks operated by licensed
carriers.
CTM: Cellular Text Modem. A modem which works with the GSM digital cellular
network.
CTN: Consumers' Telecommunication Network. CTN represents the interests
of residential consumers of telecommunications products, services and
equipment.
CTRAC: Communications Technical Regulatory Advisory Committee. CTRAC is
an advisory committee to the Australian Communications Authority.
DAB:Disability Advisory Body. The DAB provides professional advice to
the Australian communications Industry Forum regarding the implications
for telecommunications consumers with disabilities of ACIF's proposed
Codes and Standards.
DAP: Disability Action Plan. Made under Part 3 of the DDA, an action plan
sets out strategies to reduce discrimination. (See Section 3.2.7.)
DCITA: Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts.
The Commonwealth Government department which develops policy and administers
grant programs.
DDA: Disability Discrimination Act 1992. The law in Australia prohibiting
discrimination against people with disabilities.
DDO: Digital Data Obligation. Defined in Section 10 of the TCPSS, the
DDO is the obligation to ensure that a 64kbit/s connection is reasonably
accessible to all people in Australia, wherever they reside or carry on
business.
DDTP: Deaf and Disabled Telecommunications Program. The program in California
that operates the telecommunications relay service and which provides
equipment on loan for eligible persons with disabilities.
Delay Average: propagation time for a message from source to destination.
DEP: Disability Equipment Program. Telstra and Optus operate disability
equipment programs which provide specialist terminal equipment for people
with disabilities at rental rates equivalent to those paid by people without
disabilities for the same equipment functionality.
Deafness Forum: Deafness Forum Limited. Deafness Forum is the national
peak body for deafness in Australia. It represents all interests and viewpoints
of the Deaf and hearing impaired communities of Australia (including those
people who have a chronic disorder of the ear and those who are DeafBlind).
Dialup access: Refers to access to the Internet over the analogue CAN,
using modems. The line speed is generally below 56kbit/s.
Digital: Refers to a discreet, two-state representation of a signal based
on the binary representation of successive samples.
Direct discrimination: Defined in Section 5 of the DDA. (See Section 3.2.)
Disability: Defined in Section 4 of the DDA. (See Section 3.2.)
Disability standards (1) Technical standards made under Section 380 of
the Telecommunications Act 1997. (See Section 4.6.)
(2) Standards made under Section 31 of the DDA. (See Section 3.2.5.)
(3) Standards for quality assurance of services provided with funds under
the commonwealth and State/Territory Disability Services Acts.
Discussion lists: Communities of interest who exchange messages for information
or the conduct of business over the Internet.
DOJ: Department of Justice. The Federal agency in the United States which
administers the Americans with Disabilities Act.
DSP: Disability Support Pension. The pension paid by the Commonwealth
government to eligible persons with disabilities.
DTAN: Deaf Telecommunications Access and Networking. The DTAN project
is auspiced by the Australian Association of the Deaf, with funding under
Section 593 of the Telecommunications Act 1997, and represents the interests
of telecommunications consumers who are Deaf.
ECS: Emergency Call Service. Access to police, fire or ambulance services
by calling 000 or 112 from anywhere in Australia.
EDGE: Enhanced Data for Global Evolution. A 2.5G packet switched technology
on the GSM upgrade path towards 3G WCDMA.
EDT: European Deaf Telephone. One of the modem standards for text telephones
used in Europe.
EEO: Equal Employment Opportunity. EEO policies have been widely adopted
to improve the situation of people from disadvantaged groups, including
people with disabilities.
EFTPOS: Electronic Funds Transfer at Point Of Sale. A hand-held terminal
used for electronic funds transfer, including cash withdrawal, which generates
low-volume data traffic across the telecommunications network for each
transaction.
EIT: Electronic and Information Technology. EIT refers to the diverse
range of hardware and software used for the creation, communication, storage
and retrieval of information electronically.
Email: The electronic exchange of messages over the Internet.
ESAC: Emergency Services Advisory committee ESAC is an advisory committee
to the Australian Communications Authority.
ETSI: European Telecommunications Standards Institute. A pan-European
body which develops specifications for telecommunications technologies
and services in Europe.
FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions. FAQ files are a popular way to give information
by using a series of questions and answers.
FCC: Federal communications Commission. The Federal agency in the United
States which regulates telecommunications.
FDMA: Frequency Division Multiple Access. Refers to the carriage of multiple
streams on a common radio channel by separating their carrier frequencies.
FM: Frequency Modulation. A mass market form of radio transmission commonly
used in Australia. FM broadcasting has a shorter range than AM, but reproduction
fidelity for music is better than AM broadcasting.
Frequency shift: Refers to a differential between the carrier frequencies
of received and transmitted signals, used with both cellular and satellite
technologies.
FTP: File Transfer Protocol. The member of the suite of Internet protocols
for transferring files between hosts.
G Giga: A billion. Commonly used with Gbit/s for very fast data transfer
rates, or Gigabytes or reference to long files or storage capacity.
GEOS: Geostationary Earth Orbiting Satellites. Satellites, mostly used
for radio/television broadcasting and telecommunications, which are 36,000
km above Earth, so that their angular velocity around Earth corresponds
with Earth's speed of rotation.
GHz: Giga Hertz. A term used to describe a part of the radio spectrum.
GHz means billion cycles per second.
GSM: Global System for Mobiles. GSM originally denoted Groupe Spécial
Mobile, named after the European consortium which developed the specification
for digital mobile phones in Europe. GSM is now taken to mean Global System
for Mobiles.
GPRS: General Packet Radio Service. A 2.5G packet-switched technology
using the GSM platform which allows multimedia mobile communication.
GTT: Global Text Telephony. Refers to specifications being developed by
the 3GPP for text communication across 3G mobile networks.
HCO: Hearing Carry Over. HCO enables people with a speech impairment to
listen to the telephone conversation of another person and type their
responses on a TTY.
HFC: Hybrid Fibre Coaxial: HFC cable is the infrastructure used in Australia
to deliver pay TV, and is also one of the infrastructures for broadband
connection to the Internet.
HREOC: Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. The Commonwealth
Government agency which administers Australia's human rights and anti-discrimination
laws.
HTML: Hypertext Markup Language. The original markup language of the Web.
HTML was extended by commercial developers, and is now deprecated in favour
of XHTML.
HTTP: Hypertext Transfer Protocol. The member of the suite of Internet
protocols which provides World Wide Web services.
Host nodes: The exchanges in a telecommunications network, and the servers
or switches in a computer network.
ICMP: Internet Control Message Protocol. The member of the suite of Internet
protocols for reporting errors and obtaining information about the transmission
of IP datagrams.
ICT: Information and Communications Technology. ICT refers to the diverse
range of hardware and software used for the creation, communication, storage
and retrieval of information electronically.
IDP: Industry Development Plan. A licensed carrier must have an IDP for
the development in Australia of: industries involved in the manufacture,
development or supply of facilities; and research and development activities
relating to such industries.
IEN: Inter-exchange Network. The set of telephone exchanges and links
joining them, internal to a telephone network. The IEN is the core of
the telecommunications network, now fully digital with multimedia carrying
capacity.
IGMP: Internet Group Management Protocol. The member of the suite of Internet
protocols which is mostly used in multicasting.
IMT2000: International Mobile Telecommunications 2000. An ITU specification
for 3G multimedia communication, defining an anywhere, any time standard
for universal personal communications.
Inclusive design: "to simplify life for everyone by making products,
communications, and the built environment more usable by more people at
little or no extra cost." (Center for Universal Design).
Indirect discrimination: Defined in Section 6 of the DDA. (See Section
3.2).
Industry codes: Codes of practice developed by sections of industry under
Part 6 of the Telecommunications Act 1997. Compliance with industry codes
is voluntary.
Industry standards: Made by the ACA under Part 6 of the Act where industry
codes do not exist or are deficient. Compliance with industry standards
is mandatory.
Internet: The global network of independent computer networks. Content
on the Internet is strictly unregulated globally, and simple protocols
have been developed to facilitate internetwork communication.
Internet telephony: Voice conversations over the Internet an between the
Internet and the PSTN.
IP: Internet Protocol. The key member of the suite of Internet protocols
at the network layer, specifying packet addressing and routing.
IRC: Internet Relay Chat. An application supporting near real time text-based
communication over the Internet.
ISDN: Integrated Services Digital Network. The national public switched
digital network in Australia based on 64 kbit/s circuit-switched channels.
ISO: International Standards Organisation. ISO is the United Nations body
which develops standards across a wide range of fields. Sometimes the
ISO defers to specialist organisations, such as the ITU for telecommunications
standardisation.
ISP: Internet Service Provider. Companies providing Internet access for
business and residential customers, and services such as email relay and
web page hosting.
ITU: International Telecommunications Union. ITU is the United Nations
body which develops recommendations to enable international telecommunication.
ITU recommendations become technical standards for networks, services
and equipment which underpin internetworking and equipment interoperability.
ITU-R: International Telecommunications Union - Radio Standardisation
Sector. The Branch of ITU concerned with radiocommunications standardisation.
ITU-T: International Telecommunications Union -Telecommunications Standardisation
Sector. The Branch of ITU concerned with telecommunications standardisation.
IVR: Interactive Voice Response. IVR systems are used over the telephone.
The caller presses keys on the keyboard, or says words, and the computer
responds by voice, according to the input it received.
Jitter: The variance of the propagation time for a message from source
to destination.
K kilo: A thousand. Commonly used with kbit/s to describe data transfer
rates, or kilobytes to describe the length of files.
LAN: Local Area Network. A cable-based or wireless network protocol giving
high-speed connectivity between computers throughout a building and possibly
neighbouring buildings.
LEOS: Low Earth Orbiting Satellites. Belts of satellites around the equator
at altitudes below 2,000km, mainly used for telecommunications.
Link: (1) The communication channel joining two adjacent network nodes.
Links of the IEN are typically optical fibre, carrying digital signals;
whereas the links of the CAN are variously copper, HCF cable or Radio,
and may carry analogue or digital signals.
(2) The logical connection to a file on the Web, identified by its URI.
Local loop: Another name for the Customer Access Network.
M Mega: A million. Commonly used with Mbit/s to describe broadband data
transfer rates, or Megabytes to describe the length of files or the amount
of a computer's central memory.
MAN: Metropolitan Area Network. A network protocol giving high-speed connectivity
between computers throughout a metropolis and possibly its neighbours.
Media player: A software application which displays an audio, video or
multimedia file.
MEOS: Medium Earth Orbiting Satellites. Belts of satellites around the
equator at altitudes between 2,000km and 36,000km, mostly used for military
and meteorological purposes.
MHz: Mega Hertz. A term used to describe a part of the radio spectrum.
MHz means million cycles per second.
MMS: Multimedia Messaging Service. Describes a service offered on 2.5g
and 3g mobile networks which enables customers to exchange multimedia
files including sound, text, video and images.
Mobile Accessibility: Proprietary software from Spain which makes some
new generation mobile phones accessible to blind people through synthetic
speech.
Mobile Telephone: A terminal that includes a radio transceiver for use
over the cellular network.
Modem: Modulator Demodulator. A modem translates the representation of
data between a digital form used by computers and an analogue form required
for carriage over a voice-grade telecommunications network, and vice versa.
Multimedia: Refers to the integration of voice, text, image and video
in a single presentation or 'total conversation'.
Narrowband: Refers to connections with a data transfer speed of 56kbit/s
or lower.
Network: A set of nodes and links. Nodes are points in space and links
are the lines joining them.
News groups: Communities of interest who communicate by the open exchange
of messages over the Internet.
NGN: Next Generation Networks. There appears to be no precise definition
of Next Generation Networks. They are still evolving: as technology changes;
packet switching predominates; terminals have multimedia capability; and
services supporting voice, video and data communication are integrated
on a common delivery platform.
NGO: Non-Government Organisation. The term is commonly used to describe
advocacy organisations in the context of United Nations gatherings where
Governments, UN Agencies and NGOs are involved, with different participation
rights.
NNTP: Network News Transfer Protocol. The member of the suite of Internet
protocols for transferring news feeds between hosts.
NRS: National Relay Service. The NRS provides persons who are deaf or
who have a hearing/speech impairment with access to a standard telephone
service on terms, and in circumstances, that are comparable to the access
available to other Australians.
NRS-TEA: National Relay Service - Telecommunications Equipment Access.
NRS-TEA was the government-funded program providing TTYs to people on
low incomes, established in 1995 when the NRS commenced.
NTP: Network Termination Point. The boundary of a telecommunications network,
typically the wall socket into which customer equipment is plugged.
OCLF: Optus Consumer Liaison Forum. The interface between Optus and representatives
of consumer organisations including disability advocates.
OECD: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The OECD
collects statistics on a wide range of commercial activities, which provide
useful benchmarks and give a reference for inter-country comparisons and
rankings.
ONCE: Organización Nacional de Ciegos Españoles. The Spanish
National Organisation of the Blind is the leading agency in Spain that
provides services to people who are blind or vision impaired.
Packet switching: Used in digital communications: A message, such as a
file transfer or video clip, is decomposed into pieces, and augmented
with addressing information. These data packets may take different routes
from origin to destination through the network, being carried on links
as shared data streams, and the message is reassembled for display to
the recipient.
Payphone: A telephone requiring insertion of coins, a phone card, or a
credit card to initiate and maintain a call.
POP3: Post Office Protocol v3. The member of the suite of Internet protocols
for retrieving electronic mail messages from a message store.
PSTN: Public Switched Telephone Network. Refers to the traditional telephone
network, optimised for carrying voice calls.
QoS: Quality of Service. A set of parameters and benchmarks for measuring:
the performance of networks as seen by design engineers, or the quality
of the telecommunications service as perceived by customers.
RNIB: Royal National Institute of the Blind. RNIB is the leading charity
in the United Kingdom providing disability services to, and systemic advocacy
on behalf of, people who are blind or vision impaired.
RNID: Royal National Institute for Deaf People. RNID is the leading charity
in the United Kingdom providing disability services to, and systemic advocacy
on behalf of, people who are deaf or hearing impaired.
Readily achievable: A concept drawn from the ADA and used in Section 255
of the Telecommunications Act in the United States, meaning: "easily
accomplishable and able to be carried out without much difficulty or expense."
RPH: Radio for the Print Handicapped. Describes a class of information
services for people with print disabilities, provided in Australia by
specially licensed radio stations which broadcast on the regular AM and
FM bands.
Satellite communications: Refers to the use of satellites to receive communication
signals, perform a frequency shift, and transmit the signals back to Earth.
Search engine: A software application used on the Web that supports users
to search for information on web pages.
SFOA: Standard Form of Agreement. An SFOA outlines the standard terms
and conditions associated with the purchase of telecommunications products
and/or services.
Section 255: Section 255 of the Telecommunications Act in the United States
requires that equipment and services are accessible to and usable by persons
with disabilities, where this is readily achievable; and otherwise they
must be compatible with commonly used assistive technology where this
is readily achievable. (See Section 5.2.2).
Section 508: Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act in the United States
requires Federal agencies to purchase and use electronic and information
technology which is accessible to people with disabilities who are Federal
employees and who use the services of Federal agencies.
SETEL: Small Enterprise Telecommunications Centre. Represents small business
telecommunications customers.
SMS: Short Messaging Service. A store and forward messaging service used
with mobile phones for messages of 160 characters maximum length.
SMTP: Simple electronic Mail Transfer Protocol. The member of the suite
of Internet protocols for mail transfer.
SSR Speech to Speech Relay SSR enables people with speech impairment to
have a two way conversation over the telephone.
Streaming: A form of one to many communication which gives clients a media
on demand service. Streaming applies for long audio and/or video files;
and through buffering the user is presented with constant rate data output
from variable rate data input.
STS: Standard Telephone Service. Describes the basic entitlement of all
Australians to telecommunication. (Refer to Section 6 of the TCPSS).
T.50: An ITU-T recommendation for the digital representation of text characters,
which is consistent with ASCII.
T.134 : An ITU-T recommendation which describes how the facilities of
recommendations T.140 (multiple alphabets) and V.18 (multiple communication
protocols) are defined in the multimedia communications systems defined
by the ITU-T.
T.140: An ITU-T recommendation which supports text communication using
many alphabets such as Arabic, Cyrillic, kanji, etc., as well as Latin-based
characters.
TALX: Proprietary software from Germany that makes some mobile phones
accessible to blind people through synthetic speech.
TC: Total Conversation. Defined by ITU Study Group 16 as the simultaneous
dual carriage of voice, text and video.
TCCC: Telstra Consumer Consultative Council. The interface between Telstra
and representatives of consumer organisations including disability advocates.
TCP: Transmission control Protocol. A member of the suite of Internet
protocols - the key protocol at the transport layer which provides a reliable
message transmission service.
TCP/IP: Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol. Refers to the
two most important protocols in the four-layer suite of protocols which
together enable communication throughout the Internet. The four layers
are the transport, application, network and link layers.
TCPSS: Telecommunications Consumer Protection and Service Standards Act
1999. The law protecting and promoting the interests of consumers of telecommunications
services, products and equipment.
TDF: Telstra Disability Forum. The main interface between Telstra and
disability advocates.
TDMA: Time Division Multiple Access. Refers to the carriage of multiple
streams on a common channel by the allocation of individual time slots.
Technical standards Made by the ACA under Part 21 of the Telecommunication
Act 1997, relating to customer equipment and customer cabling, disability
features, and the interconnection of facilities.
TECS: Text Emergency Call Service. Enables 106 access to police, fire
and ambulance via TTY or a computer with modem.
TEDICORE: Telecommunications and Disability Consumer Representation. The
TEDICORE project is auspiced by Blind Citizens Australia, with funding
under Section 593 of the Telecommunications Act 1997, and represents the
interests of telecommunications consumers with disabilities.
Telecommunications Act 1996: The law in the United States regulating telecommunications.
Telecommunications Act 1997: The law in Australia regulating telecommunications.
Temporary exemption: Made under Section 55 of the DDA, giving an organisation
immune from complaint on the proviso that a plan of action is laid out
and complied with. (See Section 3.2.6.)
Terrestrial communications: Refers to wireless communications using direct
line reception rather than satellite redirection.
Terminal nodes: The peripheral devices attached to a communications network:
telephones, workstations, printers, etc.
Text telephone: A terminal that includes a keyboard, screen or printer,
and a modem, enabling text communication over the PSTN with someone using
a compatible terminal. The TTYs used in Australia are examples of text
telephones.
TIO: Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman. The TIO scheme is an industry-funded,
free, alternative dispute resolution scheme for residential and small
business telecommunications customers, including Internet users.
TLN: Telecommunications Labelling Notice. Part of the customer equipment
compliance certification regime adopted by the ACA under Section 407 of
the Telecommunications Act.
Transceiver: A communications terminal which can both transmit and receive
signals. A simple example is the telephone, but the term originates from
the domain of wireless communication.
TRS: Telephone Relay Service. The term used in the United States to describe
relay services that enable people using text telephones to communicate
with people using speech.
TSR: Text to Speech Relay. TSR enables a person who is Deaf or who has
a speech/hearing impairment, and who uses a TTY or modem, to communicate
directly by text to the relay service for communication with someone who
speaks and hears normally.
TTY: Teletypewriter. The particular kind of text telephone commonly used
by Deaf people in Australia, which uses the Baudot code and transfers
data at 50 bit/s.
TTY Payphone: A payphone equipped with a TTY text telephone facility.
UDP: User Datagram Protocol. A member of the suite of Internet protocols
which, at the transport layer, provides a stateless unreliable/best effort
service.
UMTS: Universal Mobile Telecommunications System. The 3G mobile telecommunications
platform being deployed in Europe.
UN: United Nations. The United Nations Organisation is the supreme worldwide
organisation of member States, with many subordinate agencies such as
ITU, UPU and ISO.
Undue burden: A concept drawn from the ADA and used in Section 508 of
the Rehabilitation Act in the United States, meaning: "significant
difficulty or expense."
Unicode: The Unicode Worldwide Character Standard is a system for the
interchange, processing, and display of the written texts of the diverse
languages of the modern world.
Unjustifiable hardship: Defined in Section 11 of the DDA. (See Section
3.2.)
UPT: Universal Personal Telecommunications. Refers to the concept of anywhere,
any time communications, where individuals are contactable through their
single personal telecommunication number.
UPU: Universal Postal Union. UPU is the United Nations body which determines
the protocols governing the international exchange of mail.
URI: Uniform Resource Identifier. A unique address - specifying Access
protocol, computer, directory and filename - that allows precise identification
of files on the Internet for reading or download.
URI: Universal Resource Identifier. Original meaning of the URI acronym
used by Tim Berners Lee.
URL: Uniform Resource Locator. A subset of URI: For a given access protocol
a URL is a unique address - specifying computer, directory and filename
- that allows precise identification of files on the Internet for reading
or download.
USO: Universal Service Obligation. Defined in Section 9 of the TCPSS,
the USO is the obligation to ensure that standard telephone services,
payphones and prescribed carriage services are reasonably accessible to
all people in Australia, wherever they reside or carry on business.
USP: Universal Service Provider. The USP, currently Telstra, is the company
contracted by the commonwealth Government to carry out the Universal Service
Obligation.
USR: Universal Service Regime. Described in Part 2 of the TCPSS, the USR
gives affect to the policy principle that all people in Australia, wherever
they reside or carry on business, should have equitable access to: standard
telephone services, payphones, prescribed carriage services and digital
data services.
V.18: An ITU-T recommendation which supports interworking between text
telephones based on at least eight incompatible modem standards.
V.21: An ITU-T modem standard used for some text telephones in Europe.
V.21: An ITU-T modem standard used for some text telephones in Europe.
VCO: Voice Carry Over. VCO enables people with hearing impairment to use
their natural speech to communicate with a hearing person over the telephone
and read the responses on a TTY.
VRS: Video Relay Service. A Deaf person using a video-enabled terminal
communicates visually with a remotely located relay operator, who communicates
by voice or text with another person.
Virtual circuit: A reserved chain of links through the network connecting
two parties, but the links carry traffic from multiple traffic streams
simultaneously.
VoIP: Voice over Internet Protocol. A protocol that enables telephone
conversations to be held over the Internet communication infrastructure,
as distinct from the PSTN.
W3C: World Wide Web Consortium. The organisation which aims to bring the
Web to its full potential by the development of specifications for the
language of the Web and for the interworking between client-side and server-side
software.
WAI: Web Accessibility Initiative. The working group within the W3C which
is concerned with web accessibility.
WAN: Wide Area Network. A network protocol giving high-speed connectivity
between computers in different cities.
WAP:Wireless Application Protocols. Specifies a set of communication protocols
to standardise the way that wireless devices such as mobile telephones
can be used for Internet access.
WCDMA: Wideband Code Division Multiple Access. Refers to the implementation
of CDMA on channels of 5 MHz bandwidth.
Web browser: A software application enabling the user to access files
on the Web.
Web Page: A database of files maintained by individuals or organisations,
hosted by ISP's and accessed using web browsers. A set of web pages comprises
a website.
Website: A database of files maintained by individuals or organisations,
hosted by ISP's and accessed using web browsers. A website is often composed
of separate topical entities known as web pages.
WiFi: Wireless Fidelity. The popular term for a high-frequency wireless
LAN. WiFi uses the Ethernet protocol and gives access speeds up to 11Mbit/s.
Wireless access Refers to different technologies for radio-based customer
access to the telecommunications network: cellular network, satellite,
WLL, etc.
WISDOM: Wireless Information Services for Deaf People on the Move. The
WISDOM project is funded by the European Commission. It aims to build
and test a multimedia mobile phone, and to trial video communication between
Deaf people using sign language.
WLL: Wireless Local Loop. Describes a technology used to connect customers
with the telephone network using radio communication rather than wire-based
telecommunication.
WSIS: World summit on the Information Society. A World Summit auspiced
by the United Nations and convened on its behalf by the ITU.
WWDA: Women with Disabilities Australia. WWDA is the national peak consumer
organisation representing women with disabilities.
WWW: World Wide Web. A set of services provided over the Internet: the
location and identification of databases referred to as websites or web
pages, and protocols to enable users to move from one location to another
and to read or download specific files.
XHTML: Extensible Hypertext Markup Language. The currently supported markup
language of the Web. XHTML is an application of XML, and may be regarded
as a cleaned-up version of HTML.
XML: Extensible Markup Language. A framework for the creation of specialist
markup languages. The most well known XML implementation is XHTML.