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Australians with disability need greater access to television. ACCAN is calling for the implementation of Audio Description on free-to-air television and increased captioning across commercial television networks.
Australians with disability continue to struggle to have meaningful access to television.
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Last week, Optus announced that it had improved the experience for their small business consumers by offering more specialist team members and having a network of small business consumers.
ACCAN welcomes this announcement. These initiatives are a positive step in the right direction.
Read more: More specialist small business telco services needed
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Telecommunications outages happen from time to time. On November 8 2023, Optus experienced a critical nationwide outage on mobile and NBN broadband networks that lasted at least 8 hours and, for some customers, up to 12 hours. As of November 9 2023, Optus is offering affected consumers on eligible plans 200GB of extra data, and free, unlimited data for pre-paid customers on weekends for the rest of the year. For the latest information, see the Optus Outage Response page.
After an outage on its mobile and fixed networks in 2016, Telstra offered its mobile customers free data days as compensation. For the NBN/ADSL outage, Telstra offered a $25 credit to consumers and a $50 credit to businesses who were offline for an extended period of time. This was applied automatically to customer accounts.
Depending on your circumstances, the compensation offered by your telco may not be adequate. If you or your business was affected and suffered losses due to an outage, you may be entitled to seek additional compensation.
Read more: Compensation for telecommunications outages
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The Broadcasting Services Act should be amended to ensure people with disability can reliably access all free-to-air television.
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A system to provide independent monitoring of broadband services should be introduced.
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The Customer Service Guarantee should be updated to include internet and new reliability measures.
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All videos and presentations have been uploaded in the form provided to ACCAN. Where a video is not captioned unedited transcripts as captured on the day are provided. ACCAN endeavours to supply all materials in an accessible format and will update this page with more accessible versions as they become available.
Background
The digital world can be very complex and challenging for consumers to navigate. ACCAN’s goal is available, affordable and accessible communications services for all Australians. As part of the National Year of Digital Inclusion, the ACCANect Conference focused on how to empower consumers to get and stay connected to the phone and broadband services they need.
ACCANect provided opportunities for consumers, providers and government representatives to get up to speed on what’s available now and what’s over the horizon.
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ACCAN and Your Privacy Rights
ACCAN has a commitment to adhere to the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), which are contained in schedule 1 of the Privacy Act 1988 (Privacy Act).
What personal information does ACCAN collect?
ACCAN only collects personal information that it is necessary for us to carry out our work. If you lodge an enquiry, application, subscription, case study or subscribe to our mailing lists we may require the following information:
- Contact details, which may include a business contact number or email address;
- Details of the nature of your enquiry
- Details pertaining to specific experiences with phone or internet products and services
ACCAN may also collect personal details for the purposes of membership. This use is described below.
How is case study information used?
On occasion consumers contact ACCAN to describe their individual experiences with phone and Internet products services. ACCAN treats all cases as confidential. ACCAN is not a complaint handling body. We cannot investigate or handle complaints. ACCAN may use case study information from time to time in its representation work for all consumers.
If you wish to remain anonymous or do not wish to supply specific information to ACCAN, you may do so; however, please note that the ACCAN may not be able to use your data when analysing consumer issues.
Disclosure to other parties
From time to time ACCAN may provide case study information, including personal information, to agencies such as the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), the Communications Alliance and other relevant industry bodies. Where ACCAN makes a decision that your case should be referred to another agency, we will gain your consent prior to disclosing any of your personal details.
Other information collected by ACCAN
In order to carry out its functions, ACCAN maintains a database of industry contacts and government agencies. ACCAN also maintains a database of individuals and organisations who have asked to receive ACCAN publications, media releases, WebNews and other information.
Access to your information
You have the right to access the information about you that ACCAN may have collected and held. Access to your information can be arranged by contacting ACCAN.
Any complaints about ACCAN's privacy policy or procedures can be made to the Chief Executive Officer.
Information Logged When Using the ACCAN Website
What information does the ACCAN website collect?
To help ensure that our website is providing useful advice to as many people as possible, ACCAN uses Google Analytics to collect aggregated anonymous statistical information.
This information is collected for statistical purposes only. No attempt will be made by ACCAN to identify you or your browsing activities.
Our website uses Google Analytics, a service which transmits website traffic data to Google servers in the United States. Google Analytics does not identify individual users or associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. We use reports provided by Google Analytics to help us understand our website traffic and webpage usage.
By using this website, you consent to the processing of data about you by Google in the manner described in Google's Privacy Policy and for the purposes set out above. You can opt out of Google Analytics if you disable or refuse the cookie, disable JavaScript, or use the opt-out service provided by Google.
Electronic mail addresses
ACCAN will only record your email address if you send us a message or subscribe to our mailing lists. This will only be used for the purpose for which you have provided it, and will not be added to a mailing list unless you request that this be done. If you elect to unsubscribe from WebNews or other mailing lists this will be done as soon as practicable. We will not disclose your email address without your consent.
Member information
Members of ACCAN are able to check and update their details from this website. Authorised ACCAN staff are also able to access members' full details.
Members' contact details provided to ACCAN are used for general liaison, the distribution of relevant information about ACCAN activities and issuing invoices, ACCAN mailing list and requests for publications. Information provided for these purposes will be used for these purposes only. It will not be distributed further or disclosed without the user's consent.
Links to other sites
ACCAN does not guarantee, and accepts no legal liability whatsoever arising from, or connected to, the use of any material contained on this website or on any linked site.
ACCAN recommends that users exercise their own skill and care with respect to their use of this website and that users carefully evaluate the accuracy, currency, completeness and relevance of the material on this website for their purposes. This website is not a substitute for independent professional advice and users should obtain any appropriate professional advice relevant to their particular circumstances.
Internet security
If you are submitting information over the Internet that you wish to remain private, you should be aware that there is a small possibility that information you submit could be observed by a third party while in transit.
If you would like to use another method to contact us or provide us with information, please feel free via telephone or post.
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This tip sheet can help you complain about communciations privacy issues such as spam emails, telemarketing and privacy breaches. It can also help you to make complaints about privacy issues with social media websites like Facebook and services that track your location, such as Google Maps.
What is a privacy complaint?
Australian consumers have the right to make complaints about privacy issues. Privacy issues in the communications sector are becoming more common as we share more information online than ever before. These add to existing privacy issues relating to communications such as spam (unwanted emails from companies and organisations), telemarketing calls and the misuse of silent telephone numbers and personal information.
Read more: Privacy complaints: who can you turn to?
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In March 2016 the Department of Communications and the Arts released an options paper: ‘Communications Accessibility: 2016 and Beyond’. The paper proposed a number of options related to the ongoing sustainability of the National Relay Service. The use of the National Relay Service over the past couple of years has increased due to the significant improvements to the service through the introduction of a number of new relay services.
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The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) says that extra funding the free-to-air networks will keep from the 25 per cent cut to broadcast licence fees should be used to fund improved accessibility features such as better captioning and audio description. Funding these services would help to make free-to-air TV more accessible to consumers living with a disability. The 25 per cent reduction in licence fees announced overnight in the Federal Budget follows a 50 per cent decrease to the fees in 2013.
“The cuts to the broadcast licence fees are good news for the free-to-air networks,” said ACCAN Disability Policy Advisor, Wayne Hawkins. “This funding could be used to improve captioning on free-to-air TV for people who are Deaf or hard of hearing and to put in place technology that would allow the networks to introduce audio description for people who are blind or vision impaired.”
Currently free-to-air channels do not caption any additional programming on their multi channels other than repeated programs from their primary channel. Primary channels must caption all programming between 6am and midnight as well as all news and current affairs programs. There are no requirements for audio description to be included on free-to-air television and currently none of the free-to-air networks provide this service.
Read more: Free-to-air networks should use budget windfall for improved accessibility features