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.