Communications for all: the role of the national disability strategy

• Australian Communications Consumer Action Network

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19 July 2010The National Disability Strategy (NDS) is intended to be a whole of government initiative designed to provide economic participation and social inclusion for all Australians with disability.

The aim of the NDS is to set a cohesive ten-year agenda for federal, state and territory governments to provide better care, support and services for people with disabilities.

ACCAN has published a research report titled Communications for all: The Role of the National Disability Strategy. The report recommends that that NDS includes the following six key areas of action to ensure the communications needs of people with a disability are a key part of the Strategy, now and in the future.

The six key action points ACCAN wants included in the National Disability Strategy are:

1. Provide equipment that will enable all telecommunications to be available, accessible and affordable;
2. Improve available, affordable and accessible communications services, including an emergency service, for people who are Deaf, or have a speech or hearing impairment;
3. Ensure all government and publicly funded information and communications are provided in fully accessible formats across all delivery modes.
4. Ensure all government purchases and contracts meet fully accessible product and service standards; encourage the universal design of mainstream products and services;
5. Ensure that the services offered through the NBN are affordable for all Australians living with disability;
6. Immediately implement a progressive captioning and audio description timeline calling for total accessibility for all television and online broadcasts, cinema and DVDs.

ACCAN encourages the National Disability Strategy to adopt the following performance indicators to support these actions:

• Increase in the proportion of people with a disability regularly using the internet;
• Increase in the proportion of people with a disability having their preferred accessible telephone service in their home and at their place of work; and
• Increase in the proportion of television broadcasts, online broadcasts, Cinema and DVDs with captioned and audio description services.