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Registrations are now open for the third annual ACCAN National Conference being held in Sydney on 5th and 6th September 2012. This year’s theme is Delivering for Consumers. Over two days, delegates will hear about the new competitive environment, following the structural separation of Telstra and the National Broadband Network rollout; regulatory changes to consumer protection; and explore big-picture issues like privacy and financial hardship measures. We’ll also take a look at new and emerging technologies and investigate whether mainstream technologies can deliver for consumers with disability.

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This submission focuses on the consumer interests related to the technical evolution of digital terrestrial television broadcasting. This includes ensuring that all Australia’s free-to-air (FTA) television broadcasters are able to provide the accessibility features Australians need in order to benefit from digital television.

Disability advocates say a “talking” digital set-top box specially commissioned by the Digital Switchover Taskforce under the Household Assistance Scheme (HAS) will ensure blind and vision-impaired Australians still have access to television when the analog signal is switched off.

ACCAN, Blind Citizens Australia (BCA), Media Access Australia (MAA) and Vision Australia (VA) today welcomed the announcement made by Senator Stephen Conroy that from next month the talking set-top box will be provided to eligible consumers at no cost.

The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) has welcomed the Mid-term Review into its first two years of operations, which has highlighted its effectiveness as a peak body representing Australian telecommunications consumers.

This submission concerns the Exposure Draft amendment to the Broadcasting Services Act (1992), which will provide greater access to our foremost medium for news, information and entertainment.

Privacy Awareness Week (29 April – 5 May) is an annual event during which the Asia Pacific Privacy Authorities join forces to remind everyone to take steps to protect their own privacy and safeguard personal information about others that they might hold.

“Privacy is recognised in many countries, including Australia, as a human right,” says Privacy Commissioner Timothy Pilgrim. “Serious consequences can arise when someone’s privacy is breached and we all have responsibilities to look after the personal information we handle.”

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In ACCAN's submission to the latest NBN Joint Parliamentary Committee hearings, we outline ACCAN's engagement with NBN Co to date and challenges that may arise around the NBN rollout.

ACCAN comments on the NBN Co Special Access Undertaking (SAU) that creates part of the regulatory framework for service providers' access to the National Broadband Network.

The primary focus of this submission is based on the interests of subscription television viewers with disability.

ACCAN says today marks a major step forward in important reforms to make calls from mobile phones to 1800/13 numbers free or the cost of a local call, as they currently are from landlines.

The Australian Communications & Media Authority (ACMA) has today committed to amend the relevant regulation following further consultation and have industry implement the changes by January 2015.

ACCAN was honoured to receive the 2011 Organisation of the Year Award at the Australian Sign Language Interpreters’ Association (ASLIA) NSW & Deaf Australia (NSW) awards ceremony held in Sydney on Saturday April 21.

As an organisation ACCAN is committed to accessibility issues and we are fortunate to have two specialist disability policy advisers on our team. ACCAN is dedicated to ensuring interpreters and captioning are available at all our public events, that our website is WCAG 2.0AA compliant. We also make information available in Auslan, audio formats and Easy English wherever possible.

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A record 76 groups and individuals applied for a total of $250,000 in funding in the 2012 round of the ACCAN Grants Scheme, which closed on April 2.

ACCAN Research and Grants Officer Robin McNaughton said this year’s applications were of a very high standard and a great mix of projects targeting a diverse range of consumer issues.

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