Policy
Here you will find Policy related news items listed with introductions and links to full articles. Click on the 'next' link at the bottom of the page to view older news items in this category.
Access a Civil Right?
Friday, 25 July 2008 13:32
On 21st July 2008 the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) in
Ofcom makes new appointments to disability advisory committee
Friday, 25 July 2008 09:08
UK regulator, Ofcom, has a formal independent committee that advises them on issues directly affecting disabled and older people. The committee meets quarterly, reports directly to the Ofcom board and also publishes its own annual report. New members have been appointed effective 1 July 2008.
Read more: Ofcom makes new appointments to disability advisory committee
Ofcom releases Citizens Communications and Convergence discussion paper
Monday, 14 July 2008 14:45
UK regulator Ofcom (Office of Communications) has released a discussion paper looking into its role in furthering the interests of citizens in terms of communications services, including television, the Internet and telecommunications. It is looking at “citizens” rather than just “consumers”, as there are some issues which go beyond people accessing a service as a customer. This could include issues such as the allocation of broadcast spectrum and access issues.
Relevance to Australia – most approaches in Australia (including the ACMA Consumer Consultative Forum) to the rights of people in regards to broadcast and telecommunications services tends to focus on the consumer (that is somebody who has some kind of financial relationship with the service provider). Ofcom has specific direction to include citizens (that is all of the public) in terms of impact of policies and decisions.
The full discussion paper can be found here.
MAA appointed to Consumer Consultative Forum
Friday, 04 July 2008 17:00
Media Access Australia’s CEO Alex Varley has been appointed to the Australian Communication and Media Authority’s Consumer Consultative Forum for a 2-year term commencing July 2008.
UK campaign increases awareness of audio description
Friday, 04 July 2008 12:51
In 2006, Ofcom, the UK communications regulator, found that only 43% of blind and vision impaired people were aware of the audio description service which had been available on television for some time. Working with 16 broadcasters and the Royal National Institute for the Blind, Ofcom launched a public awareness campaign that ran for 6 weeks in February-March this year. This involved audio description promotions being screened across 70 channels.
Read more: UK campaign increases awareness of audio description
Treaty Committee has recommended signing Disability Convention
Monday, 23 June 2008 10:57
The Commonwealth Treaty Committee has recommended that Australia ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The Treaty does not establish new rights but it will require Australia to report to the United Nations regularly on compliance with these obligations and to actively strive to promote the position of people with disabilities. Article 9 of the treaty affirms the right to access including to electronic media, while Article 21 establishes a right to freedom of expression and access to information which includes making the internet accessible to people with disabilities.
More information on the committee’s recommendations can be found here.
Submissions to the Media Access Review now being posted
Thursday, 19 June 2008 09:51
The public submissions to the Media Access Review are now being posted on the Department’s website. If you think yours is missing, it is because they have received a lot of submissions and are posting them as quickly as possible. Media Access Australia will put together a brief summary of the submissions over the next few days.
You can find the submissions here.
Submissions to Media Access Review to be posted very soon
Wednesday, 18 June 2008 15:27
The submissions to the Federal Government's Media Access Review closed last
Friday (although we understand that some blind organisations have been given
a small extension due to the late provision of a Braille copy of the
investigation discussion paper). Normally these would be posted on the
website very quickly as part of the public process. However, we understand
that they received over 100 submissions and it is taking a bit of time to
get these sorted out and up on the website. We expect them to be posted
within the next 24 hours and they should be available here.
Once they are published, MAA will also provide an overview of the
submissions and the range of options posted.
Captioning and Audio Description Access Review
Monday, 26 May 2008 11:49
The review is being conducted on behalf of the Federal Government and is looking broadly at access to television (both free-to-air and subscription), cinema, DVD and downloadable media. It is primarily concerned with captioning and audio description.
The deadline for the media access review is fast approaching. Submissions are due by Friday 13 June.
Make your voice count, making a quick response to the media access review
Monday, 26 May 2008 10:03
The deadline for the media access review is fast approaching. Submissions are due by Friday 13 June.
The government is very keen to hear from a range of views, especially those of consumers. You don’t have to make a long, detailed submission answering all of the questions in the issues paper. Instead it is perfectly acceptable to talk about your own experiences as somebody who uses captioning or audio description.
Read more: Make your voice count, making a quick response to the media access review
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