Image of young woman showing a face of concern while talking on phone Financial and Consumer Rights Council Inc. (FCRC)

Grant round: 2016

Amount: $60,000


illustration of woman looking at phone with several speech bubbles depicting emotions and struggles

University of Sydney, Charles Perkins Centre

Grant round: 2016

Amount: $59,842.30

Man standing in front of media wallQueensland University of Technology, Digital Media Research Centre

Grant round: 2016

Amount: $59,860

Women in class with instructor

The Association of Hazaras in Victoria

In partnership with the Victorian Afghan Associations Network

Grant round: 2016

Amount: $7,500

A range of small images representing the types of identity theft, who is targeted and what happens

Australian National University, Research School of Management

In partnership with IDCare, and the University of the Sunshine Coast, Centre for Human Factors & Sociotechnical Systems.

Grant round: 2016

Amount: $44,965.50

Person using smartphone and laptopTelecommunication services have and are rapidly evolving. ACCAN believes the enhancements to quality of life and economic opportunities from being connected should be available to all consumers.

In looking at the future of communication services in Australia it is time for a new focus on consumer needs. The focus to date has centred too much on developments in the telecommunications market and infrastructure rollout. A consumer focus reveals a number of policy gaps that must be addressed now. These are discussed in ACCAN’s new policy position, The Connected Consumer.

Write comment (0 Comments)

Sad woman using laptopIt’s a sad fact of life that one day we will die.

Many of us think of our legacy simply in terms of money in the bank, superannuation, cars, homes and other physical assets, but with more and more of our lives being lived online we have a large digital footprint we could leave behind as well.

Write comment (0 Comments)

Una Lawrence presenting at Broadband for the BushToday, ACCAN Director of Policy, Una Lawrence, delivered a presentation on ACCAN’s policy outcomes to improve communications services and products for Australian consumers at the Broadband for the Bush Forum.

The speech identified six areas of focus where current policy settings are not delivering for consumers:

Write comment (0 Comments)

After consulting with consumers and members ACCAN has developed its position to ensure all consumers can be connected consumers.

Connected consumers are able to do what they need through communication services. Without connected consumers there will be social isolation, reduced economic livelihood, insecurity and potential threat to safety. Focusing on connected consumers, allows us to ensure that communication services delivers for consumers, society and the economy.

ACCAN has written to the major political parties (the Liberal Party, the Australian Labor Party, the Nationals and Australian Greens) to raise awareness of the need for politicians and government agencies to ensure that all of their online video content is accurately captioned. See below for a copy of this letter.

YouTube has a function that auto-captions videos uploaded to the site, but these captions are often inaccurate. Videos that are uploaded to Facebook often have no captions.

One in 6 Australians suffer from hearing loss; that’s 1 in 6 consumers who are not able to access online videos due to unreadable captions or a lack of captions. Access to information is especially important during the lead up to the 2016 Election. If videos are not properly captioned then many consumers will miss out on important information.

Write comment (0 Comments)

TV remote pointing at TVAmending the Broadcasting Services Act to introduce audio description on free-to-air TV is one of ACCAN’s 2016 communications consumer priorities. Introducing audio description on Australian TV would provide greater access for consumers who are blind or vision impaired. Currently there is no audio description on Australian free-to-air TV.

Audio description is additional verbal narration that describes visual elements shown on screen during pauses in dialogue. It can describe elements such as scenes, costumes and actions.

Write comment (0 Comments)