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
1. Introduction
THIRTY-FIVE short years, and presto! the newborn art of telephony is
fullgrown. Three million telephones are now scattered abroad in foreign
countries, and seven millions are massed here, in the land of its birth.So
entirely has the telephone outgrown the ridicule with which, as many
people can well remember, it was first received, that it is now in most
places taken for granted, as though it were a part of the natural phenomena
of this planet. It has so marvellously extended the facilities of conversation
-- that "art in which a man has all mankind for competitors"
-- that it is now an indispensable help to whoever would live the convenient
life. The disadvantage of being deaf and dumb to all absent persons,
which was universal in pre-telephonic days, has now happily been overcome;
and I hope that this story of how and by whom it was done will be a
welcome addition to American libraries.Herbert Casson, The history of the telephone, Preface to first edition,
p. V, (1910).
Almost one hundred years later, fueled by the digital revolution, telecommunications
products and services are everywhere. For many years telecommunication
was almost exclusively the telephone system, designed for voice communication
between fixed locations. The digital revolution of the past three decades
has transformed communications techniques, networks and services. It has
spawned the convergence of computing, telecommunications, broadcasting
and publishing. It has changed forever the ways we learn, work, play and
interact. And it is not just a first world revolution! Products and services
based on digital components are penetrating communication infrastructures
and consumer products in all countries of the world.
It does not follow that everyone with a reasonable or realistic expectation
to telecommunicate is able to do so, and in their preferred manner. The
most clearly identified group of persons for whom traditional telecommunications
are inaccessible are people who are deaf or who have severe hearing/speech
impairments.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS (1998)) has estimated that 19%
of the Australian population has some kind of disability. Allowing for
upward trends in both population growth and the incidence rate of disability,
we may assume that among the Australian population there are almost four
million persons with disabilities. Estimates of the incidence of disability
in Australia are comparable with other developed countries, but paradoxically
they are double the World Health Organisation estimate of 10% for the
prevalence of disability worldwide. People with a variety of physical,
sensory and intellectual disabilities experience difficulty in using traditional
telephone services, and in many cases their problems are perpetuated or
exacerbated with access to new products and services such as mobile telephones
and Internet connectivity.
The ABS figures do not give much insight into difficulties experienced
by people with disabilities in using telecommunications services and products.
Phoneability (1999) gives a nice breakdown of disability types in relation
to phone usage, whilst having regard to the classical diagnostic categories.
The figures are based on a population of 385 million persons in the European
Union, so it is convenient to divide by 20 to derive estimates for Australia's
population of 19 million people. The categories of disability used in
the table are similar to those commonly used in Australia. The term 'cognitive
impairment' corresponds with 'intellectual disability'. DCITA believes
that the figures in the table below might be misleading, since the figures
in ABS (1998) are lower. On the other hand, Deafness Forum believes that
the figures in the table for deafness are too low. The table does not
give figures for mild hearing impairment - just for moderate, severe and
profound. This table was used in the present context, since the original
authors have already made an attempt to relate the disability categories
to consequential handicap in using telecommunications equipment and services.
| Disability type | Estimates for European Union | Estimates for Australia |
| Hearing impairment (moderate) | 16 million | 800 thousand |
| Hearing impairment (severe) | 4 million | 200 thousand |
| Deaf | 2 million | 100 thousand |
| Vision impairment (moderate) | 3 million | 150 thousand |
| Vision impairment (severe) | 2 million | 100 thousand |
| Blind | 1 million | 50 thousand |
| Deafblind | 0.2 million | 10 thousand |
| Speech impairment (moderate) | 3 million | 150 thousand |
| Speech impairment (severe) | 2 million | 100 thousand |
| Limited dexterity | 7 million | 350 thousand |
| Limited use of hands/arms | 5 million | 250 thousand |
| Weak grip | 7 million | 350 thousand |
| Hand tremor | 7 million | 350 thousand |
| Cognitive impairment | 9 million | 450 thousand |
| Restricted mobility (lower limb) | 22 million | 1.1 million |
Table I
Phone-related handicap in Australia
The Australian telecommunications industry is modern and
competitive. Its products and services are woven into the fabric of Australian
society, and therefore equitable telecommunications access should be regarded
as a fundamental human right for all Australians. The Universal Service
Regime confirms this right. It requires the universal service provider
to supply appropriate equipment, such as text telephones for people who
are deaf or hearing/speech impaired, to enable people with disabilities
to have access to standard telephone services.
The Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (DDA) prohibits discrimination
in the provision of goods, services and facilities against people with
disabilities and their associates. This includes telecommunications. In
the lead up to the Act being passed, and for the ten years since that
time, telecommunications have figured prominently in systemic advocacy
by organisations of people with disabilities. With 'access for all' as
our goal in telecommunications, we may ask:
- What are the important issues;
- What has been achieved; and
- What remains to be done.
Both the Telecommunications Act 1997 and the Telecommunications Consumer
Protection and Service Standards Act 1999 recognise the inherent right
of persons with disabilities to equitable access to telecommunications
products and services, and they both refer back to the DDA. However, the
level of accessibility of telecommunications for people with disabilities
that results from the common interpretation of the universal service obligation
appears to fall short of the level of access to telecommunications services
envisaged under the DDA.
The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) has endorsed
the importance of telecommunications issues for people with disabilities,
and confirms the complexity of access issues for telecommunications products
and services in the midst of rapidly changing access technologies. HREOC
has commissioned this discussion paper to:
- Identify difficulties experienced by people with disabilities in accessing
current telecommunications services and equipment; - Identify possibilities for improving access to current services and
products; - Review access issues and possibilities arising from projected developments
in telecommunications services and equipment; - Assess the relevance of overseas standard setting and other relevant
developments and policies for the Australian context; - Discuss potential roles (Regulatory and program) for government and
industry in achieving more accessible telecommunications services and
equipment.
The discussion paper has four major sections which provide background
and analysis.
- Section 2 describes network development and technology. It separately
discusses traditional voice-based telephony, mobile telephony and the
Internet. - Section 3 describes Australia's legislative and regulatory framework.
It gives details of the Commonwealth legislation and the joint government-industry
framework for regulation, including consumer protection for customers
with disabilities. - Section 4 discusses a range of disability issues, advocacy projects
and specific services. - Section 5 briefly covers international developments in the United
States, United Kingdom and Europe. It then discusses the World Summit
on the Information Society, the first session of which will be held
in December 2003.
The paper gives a framework for the discussion of access issues of concern
to people with disabilities. As well as describing the technology, and
the legislative and regulatory environment, it describes organisations,
projects and policies which have been integral to improving the access
to telecommunications for people with disabilities in Australia over the
past decade. It then addresses the most important issues concerning people
with disabilities in detail. The paper does not attempt to identify and
catalogue all outstanding issues, preferring instead to focus on the major
areas of concern that warrant the immediate and urgent attention of various
stakeholders.
Four major issues emerged, in addition to a wide variety of other matters.
- Disability equipment programs: Consumer advocates are demanding an
expansion of these programs, including equipment for accessing mobile
communications. On the other hand, Telstra seems unwilling to expand
its program unless there is a demonstrated legal imperative to do so. - Any-to-any text connectivity: The utility of the TTY text telephone
used in Australia by Deaf people and people with hearing/speech disabilities
is diminishing, whilst there is a greater industry recognition that
any-to-any text connectivity should be achievable in a similar manner
to any-to-any voice connectivity. The TTY, using the Baudot-50 modem,
does not work with mobile phones, nor from behind a digital interface
to the analogue network. Experts differ on the best strategies for achieving
any-to-any text connectivity, although the technical problem of TTY
access to the cellular networks appears solvable. - Telecommunications disability standard: The present disability standard
for customer equipment is very limited. It lists just two features:
an induction loop to assist people using hearing aids, and a raised
dot on the number 5 on the telephone keypad to help blind people. Experts
differ on the preferred scope, list of features and legal/regulatory
basis of any future standard. - SMS and mobile phones for people with sensory disabilities: SMS has
been a great development for the Deaf community, but for heavy users
SMS becomes expensive. Blind people cannot use SMS, nor most of the
other features of mobile phones that others take for granted, but recently
released software gives synthetic speech access to high-end mobile phones.
The paper contains twenty-six recommendations. Of course the recommendations
have policy, regulatory or budgetary implications. Whilst due care has
been taken in formulating the recommendations, and some background discussion
is provided, they have not been supported by detailed policy and financial
analysis. That is not to say that such recommendations should be discarded;
rather, they stand as propositions which deserve further analysis. The
purpose of this paper is to facilitate discussion among relevant stakeholders,
and the formulation of recommendations is one means of focusing that discussion.
Accessible telecommunications for people with disabilities is a human
rights issue, since inaccessibility denies equitable community participation.
Currently there are many stakeholders with various interests in accessible
telecommunications; but there is no agency with lead responsibility, and
no active mechanism, to point the way ahead and facilitate co-ordinated
activities. One approach would be for HREOC to convene a high-level forum
of stakeholders representing the telecommunications industry, government
agencies, and consumers with disabilities. The Forum's first task might
be to consider and provide advice on the recommendations and other matters
arising from this discussion paper.
Recommendation 1: Accessible telecommunications forum
That HREOC should convene a high-level Accessible Telecommunications
Forum comprising representatives of policy and regulatory agencies, carriers
and carriage service providers, equipment suppliers and consumers with
disabilities. The purposes of the Forum might be:
A) Examine the recommendations made in this discussion paper and, if considered
appropriate to do so, develop strategies for their implementation.
B) Monitor overseas trends of telecommunications policy, regulation and
services, and identify examples of world's best practice that may be applicable
in Australia;
C) Maximise the accessibility of future telecommunications products, services
and equipment for people with disabilities in Australia, by ensuring that
accessibility is built into the design of new services and equipment,
and that barriers such as affordability are removed; and
D) Examine other issues, not covered in this paper, raised from time to
time by government, industry or consumer representatives.