In early October, ACCAN attended the 15th annual Remote Indigenous Media Festival held in Ntaria, NT. The festival brought together some of the country's most remote media organisations with funding bodies and policy makers for 7 days of technology workshops and policy discussion.

Read more: Connecting remote Australia

Watch our YouTube videos featuring some of Australia’s best-known disability advocates talking about the technologies and apps that have changed their lives as well as their daily frustrations of dealing with websites and apps that haven’t been made accessible to people with disability.

Read more: Why access matters

Did you know that the quality standards and safeguards governing your traditional landline service do not apply to voice over IP (VoIP) products?

Read more: ACCAN VoIP survey

In very good news for people who are Deaf, hearing-impaired or speech-impaired, the National Relay Service (NRS) has announced that callers to Triple Zero (000) using internet relay will receive queue priority. But while this update is a step in the right direction, many people with disability still can’t make emergency calls.

Read more: People with disability have emergencies too!

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.”

Read more: Privacy: it's all about you

ACCAN CEO Teresa Corbin told the CommsDay Conference in Melbourne that telcos should set their own targets for complaint reductions and be transparent with internal complaint data in order to build greater trust with consumers. Please download the full speech below.

Read more: ACCAN CEO speaks at CommsDay Melbourne Congress 2013

The ACCAN 2012 National Conference program includes an exciting innovation: a consumer-oriented Technology Expo.  ACCAN’s TEXPO is not the usual trade show, but a targeted, in-depth showcase of carefully selected technologies of interest to a broad range of consumers.

Read more: 'Texpo' to feature at ACCAN 2012 National Conference

Australian consumers must currently pay a monthly fee of $2.93 or more to make sure that their phone number won't be released by directory assistance or be made available in the White Pages. The fee effectively charges people for their privacy and is a particular problem for low-income consumers and victims of crime, harassment or violence. ACCAN's position is that the fee should be removed for all consumers.

Read more: Call for Silent Line submissions

Australia's peak blindness organisations have been working with the Australian Electoral Commission over the past several years to secure a fundamental human right for Australians who are blind or vision impaired – access to an independent, secret and verifiable ballot in the federal election.

Read more: Good news for Australian voters who are blind or vision impaired

We experienced problems with our website this morning (26/02/13). Our site should be back to normal, if you experience any problems please email info (at) accan.org.au

Cloud computing has the potential to transform the way individual consumers and small businesses store and use data, potentially saving time, money and effort. However, cloud computing involves risks for consumers that must be carefully managed.

Read more: What is cloud computing?

ACCAN and Telstra are delighted to announce the two-day
M-Enabling Australasia 2013 conference being held on 14th-15th August at Australian Technology Park, Sydney.

Read more: Save the date! M-Enabling Australasia 2013