"Access to Electronic Commerce and New Technology Services by Older Australians and People with a Disability"

This submission is made on behalf of the network of 16 TAFE Institutes in Queensland. It highlights some of the issues affecting equal access for people with a disability undertaking Vocational Education and Training (VET).

3.49% of the VET population are people with a disability. This figure may be higher, however there are issues surrounding non-disclosure which make obtaining exact figures difficult.

For many people who have a disability that requires the use of enabling technology, there are concerns surrounding access to information about access to VET, pathways to VET, and other educational opportunities.

• The Internet may be the only source of information regarding choices for education for many people who require enabling technology. Whilst a potential student from the general population may find out about course choices by picking up a course handbook at the local newsagent, or library, or may see an advertisement in the local paper. For a person with a sight-impairment, the publication of these items on the Internet may provide their only form of independent access. The Internet is fast becoming the primary source of information dissemination for this consumer group. There are currently programs available to provide enabling technology at school, in the VET system, at University and on-the-job. However, funding for some of these programs can vary greatly between states, and has limitations.

• There are issues surrounding affordable access to technology for people with a disability who do not fall into the above categories.

• Major funding issues concerning the provision and training in the use of assertive technology, are critical to the provision of equitable access to information:
• An essential prerequisite for an person with a disability to fully realise the benefits of vocational education delivered by emerging technology, is the ability to afford the assertive technology necessary to provide access, along with training to become skilled in its use. This issue is of even greater importance for older Australians with a disability whose schooling may have been completed before the advent of enabling technology and the Internet.

Today, in order for training providers to respond to the training needs of people in rural and remote, and offshore locations, vocational education and training is often being delivered in electronic formats such as:

• on-line learning
• computer-based learning

Providers are also increasingly using the Internet as a marketing tool in order to be competitive in reaching untapped areas of the market.

In addition to the above, the Internet is increasingly being promoted by educational institutions as a research tool.

This push towards electronic delivery of training and the growing use of the Internet as a source of information for research and provision of educational services, requires many students with a disability to have access to enabling technology. Enabling technology may be used by a student either for personal use or in the setting of the educational institute.

• A student with a disability may not be able to afford to buy a personal computer or the assertive technology necessary to access it.
• Cost of Internet access can be high, particularly in rural and remote areas
• The lack of a consistent national approach to providing these supports for students with a disability may be a barrier to equal access to vocational education and training for people with disabilities.

• Some states have designated funds for learning support services for

• In some States / Territories, funds for adaptive technology are included within the budget of the Institute Disability Services Officer.
• Other states require the provider to accommodate the technology needs of students with disabilities within their normal budget – a practice which may be a disincentive for providers to accommodate the needs of students with disabilities.
• Some states have a lending library of adaptive technology
• Students who have a disability which requires the use of adaptive technology in order to participate in VET (i.e. voice / optical character recognition software), and who cannot afford to purchase a personal computer and enabling software, may be disadvantaged if required to access the Internet as a learning resource off-campus.

• Access to information contained on web pages which are not accessible and therefore do not interface with adaptive equipment is an ongoing issue for people with certain disabilities.

In order to make on-line/electronic training delivery attractive to the learner, training providers use multi-media and other graphics to engage the learner. In some instances, students with certain disabilities (e.g. vision impairment) may find that this format is not accessible.

Whilst it is possible to design an on-line or electronic learning resource which is both aesthetically pleasing and accessible to modern-day enabling technology, this issue continues to arise primarily due to a lack of education of web page owners / designers regarding techniques to combine accessibility with aesthetic appeal. There are many resources available regarding standards for web page accessibility, however knowledge of their existence throughout the community appears to be lacking. Some resources include, but are not limited to: the Web Access Initiative (WAI) is part of the W3C Consortium http://www.w3c.org/wai, The Trace Research and Development Centre http://www.trace.wisc.edu, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission http://www.hreoc.gov.au.

In the past, enabling technology such as screen readers, was not as sophisticated as it is today, and it may therefore have been necessary for web page owners to provide a "text-only site" in order to ensure accessibility for those using enabling technology. This requirement to produce and maintain two web sites may have placed a greater financial burden on organisations, however this is often no longer necessary.

• The existing perception in many sectors that the implementation and maintenance of universal access design principles is expensive, is a barrier to inclusive access to information.
• Lack of education regarding the availability of resources to assist in inclusive design.
• Modification of current inaccessible web-sites and electronic learning resources (e.g. Self-paced learning resources on CD ROM) may be expensive, which is a deterrent to organisations who produce training materials and training providers whose funding does not allow for these costs.
• Current VET funding models do not allow for the customisation of electronic resources (where necessary).
• Many training providers provide adaptive technology to assist students with certain disabilities in participating equitably in VET, however ongoing funding to maintain and upgrade these resources is a barrier to a fully-inclusive learning environment in some states.
• A lack of education regarding inclusive planning practices in the initial stages of electronic resource development often results in inaccessibility to electronic resources – it is far easier to address the issues of inclusiveness in planning stages, rather than having to rectify mistakes at a later stage.

The issue surrounding provision of training packages & learning materials (e.g. textbooks, self-paced manuals etc) in accessible formats is a crucial one. Assuming that a learning resource has been reproduced in an accessible format, and in compliance with copyright laws, there are issues surrounding whether the design of the resource encompasses principles of accessibility.

For example, if a student studying a computer subject as part of an office administration course was provided with a self-paced manual in alternative format – they may be able to read the customised manual, however its' contents may not allow the learner to achieve the desired learning outcome. Many manuals for computer subjects, are produced in a very visual format, with pictures of toolbars, and windows, which when reproduced electronically lose their meaning for the learner. In order for a learning resource to be fully inclusive, the resource also needs to incorporate with equal prominence the use of "Hot Keys" (e.g. Using the 'shift' key plus an arrow key to highlight a text, then 'Ctrl B' to format the text as bold), as opposed to the sole presentation of bolding text using a mouse.

Consultation with Disability groups when developing National Training Packages & learning materials would facilitate equitable access to information. Whilst it may be argued that the learner with a disability is not likely to need to access the actual National Training Package itself, it is important to remember that people engaged in the delivery of training may have a disability which requires materials in an alternative format.

There is widespread confusion in the VET sector regarding copyright laws and reproduction of training packages, training resources and texts in order to ensure an accessible format for the user with a disability. (e.g. large print, braille, on disk etc). Whilst some training packages/training materials are produced in alternative formats (i.e. electronic), many are not.

• The resultant time delays involved in working through copyright issues, and arranging for reproduction of materials in an alternative format, place the student with a disability at a disadvantage, as valuable learning time can be lost in this process.
• For the system to be fully inclusive of the learner with a disability, Copyright legislation must ensure that both education providers and individuals with disabilities are permitted to produce information in alternative formats, for the purpose of access without hindrance.
• The costs of these customisations can be expensive, which when combined with the confusion surrounding copyright laws acts as a barrier for the training provider to overcome when endeavouring to provide an inclusive learning environment. As previously mentioned current funding models act as a disincentive for training providers to cover these costs.

Whilst publishing companies may willingly provide textbooks to individual students in electronic format, there have been reported cases of reluctance to provide texts in electronic format to educational institutions. This may stem from a fear of a possible loss of copyright royalty income by the provision of easily-replicable electronic resources to a large organisation.

Whilst it is encouraging to hear of the Copyright Amendment (Digital Agenda) Bill, which may make the process more flexible, reproductions of material may still cause delays which disadvantage the student. A fully inclusive system would see production of ALL learning materials in alternative format as a matter of course.

Recommendations:

If Australia is committed to providing inclusiveness and equal access to electronic information for people with disabilities, then a whole of government and industry approach to planning for inclusiveness in the educational setting needs to be adopted. Failure to address the need for a united, cross-government, approach to these issues hinders equal access for individuals who want to participate in VET and enjoy the lifelong learning and resultant pathways to employment and further education.

Furthermore, it denies this country the economic benefits to be gained by assisting people to decrease reliance on Government Benefits such as the Disability Support Pension, and participate in the workforce.

It is therefore recommended that the Commission:

1. Address the need for a consistent National approach to the adequate funding of enabling technology in the educational, work and community settings both for the individual and organisations such as training providers.
2. Conduct a detailed investigation into the negative impact of current copyright legislation, and issues surrounding the production of alternative format in vocational education.
3. Address the need for systems to be put in place which allow consultation with disability groups, and the needs of learners with a disability to be taken into account as a matter of course, when developing learning resources.
4. Give attention to the necessity for provision of programmes which allow people with a disability to access computers with enabling software readily within their local community (i.e. local library)
5. Investigate the need for a consistent, wide-reaching education program which addresses the need for planning processes to incorporate issues of provision of accessible web-sites and information as part of "natural" systems.