Access to e-commerce by older people and people with disabilities working group
Summary notes of meeting Tuesday 25 July 2000 at HREOC Sydney
Attendance:
Susan Halliday, Acting Disability Discrimination Commissioner (Chair);
Graeme Innes, Deputy Disability Discrimination Commissioner
Jeff Oughton, Acting CEO, Australian Bankers' Association
Nick Hossak, Australian Bankers' Association
Tim Noonan, Blind Citizens Australia
Kevin Byrne, NSW Disability Council representing Physical Disability Council
of Australia
Helen Scott, Information Manager, Council on the Ageing
Amanda Davies, Senior Government Counsel, Attorney-General's Department
Mark Bagshaw, International Marketing Manager, IBM Australasia
Karen Smith, Public Affairs Adviser, Credit Union Services Corporation
Sandra Vecchi, Disability Section, Federal Department of Family and Community
Services
Jim Larkey, Executive Director, Australian Association of Permanent Building
Societies
Bernadette Levett, Manager Disability Services, Telstra
Michael Zorbas, National Advocacy Manager, Property Council of Australia
Toby Ralph, Researcher and Focus Group Consultant
Janine MacDonald, HREOC
Margie Cook, HREOC
Michael Small, HREOC
Apologies: Catherine Murphy, Prime Ministers Office; Peter Coroneos, Internet Industry Association; Bill Healey, Australian Retailers' Association
Welcome
Commissioner Halliday welcomed participants on behalf of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) and the Australian Bankers' Association (ABA) the co-sponsors of this initiative. Participants were invited to introduce themselves and their organisations.
Commissioner Halliday stated that HREOC hoped the Working Group would commit to identifying ways in which the e-commerce report recommendations could be addressed. Mr Oughton supported her view and added that the ABA had already established its own Working Group to work through many of the specific recommendations that affected the banking industry and financial services sector.
Community attitudes survey
Mr Ralph presented an overview of his research on attitudes and experiences of older people and people with disabilities in relation to e-commerce. Mr Ralph's research identified a number of attitudinal, design, cost and service delivery barriers that resulted in limited use of, or exclusion from the benefits of information technology or e-commerce facilities. Commissioner Halliday suggested the research identified two broad groups: those who choose not to use e-commerce opportunities because of presumed difficulties and those who have no choice about using e-commerce because of access barriers.
Summary of report
Mr Innes provided an overview of the e-commerce report available at http://www.hreoc.gov.au/disability_rights/inquiries/ecom/ecomrep.htm
Mr Innes expressed a view that the primary focus of the Working Group should be on matters relevant to the finance industry and welcomed the initiatives of the ABA thus far. He suggested three specific areas in which positive change could be readily achieved. These were, Internet access in compliance with W3C guidelines, standardised telephone banking systems and accessible ATM's.
International developments
Mr Small provided a brief overview of developments taking place in North America. He noted the similarities between Australia and North America where there is both a Government commitment to ensuring the benefits of technology are available to all citizens and a human rights framework which required non-discriminatory service provision. Mr Small outlined the commitments being made by the Government in Canada to accessible information systems and by the banking industry to accessible ATM standards.
Stakeholder perspectives
Mr Bagshaw welcomed the report and expressed support for the Working Group as a forum for promoting and achieving change. He noted that change was dependent on organisational commitment, an effective plan and grassroots action. Mr Bagshaw observed that as more and more businesses conduct their business online the issues raised in the report extend well beyond the banks. In particular he stressed the importance of retailers as significant partners in creating change. Mr Bagshaw suggested there were a number of broad groupings with an interest in the recommendations of the report: older people and people with disabilities; financial institutions; retailers, service providers and solutions providers and Government and regulatory bodies. He suggested a project to explore the differing perspectives of stakeholders, the issues they face, the reasons why action has not been taken and the actions they are proposing to take or could take in the future.
Mr Oughton outlined the role of the ABA and restated the Associations commitment to a co-operative approach to finding solutions to issues raised in the report. He noted that the recommendations included some which might be easily addressed by the industry and others that will be more difficult to address. He extended an invitation to the HREOC to attend the next ABA Working Group. Mr Oughton restated the importance of involving retailers and solutions providers in the process of achieving change. He also noted that many issues raised in the report extended beyond the responsibilities of the banking industry and financial services sector to the community in general and that Government had a critical role to play in achieving change.
Mr Byrne welcomed the establishment of the Working Group and stressed the need for speedy action to ensure people with disabilities are not left behind in the digital age. He pointed out that universal access to information and e-commerce should be seen as a commercial necessity as more and more business is conducted online and not just an 'add on' to meet the needs of people with disabilities.
Ms Scott noted a number of initiatives that are already taking place in relation to older people and access to e-commerce and emphasised the need to ensure good practice examples were replicated and extended.
Ms Davies commented that the report identified a variety of barriers and that a range of solutions would have to be found with the involvement of all interested parties. She did not believe it appropriate to call on Government to resolve all issues. Ms Davies thought that the Department would want to take part in discussions on many of the initiatives arising from the Working Group and noted that, whilst the Department was not a funding body, there was nothing to stop people making approaches for support for specific projects relevant to the Departments work.
Ms Levett drew attention to the Action Plan Telstra had developed to address access issues and stressed the value of ensuring organizations are internally sensitive to the need to provide access. Ms Levett noted that there are now more than 40 carriers in the market.
Ms Vecchi commented that whilst most of the recommendations in the report addressed issues outside her Department's mandate she was sure that Department would want to participate in ongoing discussions. She also noted the work the Department was doing within its program in co-operation with the community sector and financial institutions to assist older people in the area of banking.
Mr Larkey and Ms Smith both welcomed the report and expressed support for the Working Group. They noted that their organisations represented very large constituencies within the financial community. It was noted that the Banking, Credit Union and Building Society sectors had previous experience in working together on financial services wide issues and that a co-operative approach to finding solutions could be developed.
Mr Noonan and Mr Byrne acknowledged the difficulties in prescriptive regulatory approaches to solving issues in an area of such rapid change, but noted that real change must occur if service providers are to avoid continuing complaints. It was noted that the Internet Industry Association had welcomed the report and had established a Disability Access Taskforce to be chaired by Mr John McKenna to pursue web accessibility issues.
Proposed action
Commissioner Halliday proposed that a second meeting take place in 2 months time to be chaired by HREOC. At the next meeting discussion would take place concerning who should chair and facilitate future meetings. Participants agreed that the Working Group had an important role to play in relation to many of the recommendations in the report and agreed to obtain a commitment from their respective organisations on how best to continue to participate in the Working Group. Participants agreed to working informally with HREOC in preparation for the next meeting to identify actions that could be taken, to determine government opportunities for support and to clarify the different perspectives on what needed to happen next. Participants agreed that the next meeting should aim to identify the primary focus for the Working Group, and develop an overall plan of action once each participant had identified what they were prepared to undertake individually.