Research Publications

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The Mind the Gap report, authored by Dr. Linda Leung from the University of Technology Sydney, explores the experiences of refugees as communications consumers in Australia, and describes a trial education program aimed at developing higher level communications literacies during the settlement process.

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This short report details the development of the Newell Network website www.newell.org.au, a growing community-based space that empowers individuals with complex communication needs and support organisations to share information about telecommunciations products that work for them. The reflections on the project from Novita Children's Services and partners are a valuable record of the collaborative potential in a web 2.0 approach to empowering people with disabilities.

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Only one household out of 30 in the Kwale Kwale, Mungalawuru, and Imangara communities in Central Australia is connected to the internet.  

The Home Internet for Remote Indigenous Communities provides a baseline study of communication use in these three remote communities. It includes an overview of existing policies, demonstrating the significance of the intersection between communications and social policy for indigenous consumers living in remote communities.

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The Another Barrier? report provides a snapshot of the challenges faced by not-for-profit organisations and the people they support in the Northern Rivers region of NSW. As Australia moves into the era of the digital economy and the National Broadband Network (NBN), not-for profits are increasingly finding themselves as brokers of phone and internet access for their clients who continue to struggle with the basics of availability, affordability, and accessibility of ICT.

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Telecommunications and Deafblind Australians provides the results of a survey of 71 respondents experiencing deafblindness and is the first research of its kind in Australia to focus specifically on telecommunications access and usage. The research, conducted by Able Australia and supported by a grant from ACCAN, calls for better support for deafblind Australians to access the customised telecommunications solutions that are vital to their day-to-day lives.

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Research by Council of the Ageing (WA) has found that very few senior women are going online due to a lack of skills, anxiety about technology, cybercrime fears and problems with service providers. A research-based qualitative study supported by a grant from ACCAN, Where do I Start? Female Seniors and the Internet documents the experiences of 50 women in Western Australian, some who had used the internet before and some who had not.

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The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) and Media Access Australia (MAA) commissioned the Australia Institute to research the level of the Australian community’s awareness and use of closed captions on TV.

Research report on caption awareness [Adobe PDF - 117 KB]

Research report on caption awareness [Word - 99 KB]

 

 

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The tragic events in Queensland have demonstrated many of the strengths and unfortunately some of the weaknesses of Australia’s emergency services and warnings systems. This report explores one important dimension of our emergency management framework, namely access to emergency services and emergency information by people who have a disability, particularly those who are Deaf or have a speech or hearing impairment.

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The Footscray Legal Community Centre (FCLC) together with ACCAN has released a report entitiled Taking Advantage of Disadvantage: Case studies of refugee and new migrant experiences in the communications market, finding that in many cases telcos are taking advantage of this already disadvantaged and highly vulnerable group.

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Fair Go: Complaint Resolution for Digital Australia offers insights into challenges faced at a time of rapid changes to the digital environment. The Occasional Paper, written by John T.D. Wood, was commissioned by ACCAN in order to broaden and stimulate debate regarding external complaints resolution schemes.

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From workshops with members of the Deaf community, consultation with experts, and literature research, the WA Deaf Society, supported by a grant from ACCAN, created accessible videos showing people how to avoid romance scams, lottery scams, credit card scams, and other scams on the Internet and produced a short report. 

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New research commissioned by ACCAN that has found only 7% of people who are dissatisfied with their way their provider has handled a problem or complaint take it to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO).

Hardship research publications