Overview of disability issues

The Department provides policy advice to the Minister on telecommunications services for all Australians including people with disabilities. A key issue is ensuring that people with a disability have access to the Standard Telephone Service as required under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and the Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) Act 1999. This includes ways of continually improving the services available.

As well as ensuring people with a disability have access to the Standard Telephone Service, other telecommunications issues affecting people with a disability are also addressed. These include:

issues relating to hearing aids and the use of mobile telephones; and

web accessibility.

Legislation:

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has power under section 390 of the Telecommunications Act 1997, to make disability standards in relation to equipment. Standard AS/ACIFS040:2001 defines the technical requirements relating to the features of the equipment that is designed to cater for some of the special needs of persons with disabilities. This Standard applies to certain customer equipment that uses a telephone handset or a keypad, that is manufactured in, or imported into Australia for use with the Standard Telephone Service.

Access to the Standard Telephone Service

The Telecommunications (Equipment for the Disabled) Regulations 1998, specify the types of equipment that a Universal Service Provider (currently Telstra) is obliged to supply to customers with disabilities. The types of equipment include teletypewriter (TTY) machines, modems, handsets with hearing aid couplers, hands-free telephones, adaptors for people with cochlear implants and telephones with adjustable ring tones and voice amplifiers. The equipment specified in the regulations is intended to enable people with disabilities to have access to the Standard Telephone Service.

In broad terms the Standard Telephone Service is defined as a carriage service for the purpose of voice telephony communications (or an equivalent form of communication for an end user with a disability) between end-users supplied with the same service, whether or not the end users are connected to the same telecommunications network.

The Disability Discrimination Act 1992 obliges all telecommunications carriers that provide goods and services to customers to provide them to people with disabilities on a non-discriminatory basis (including price), except where this would result in unjustifiable hardship on the provider. Telstra, as the Universal Service Provider, and some other carriers including Optus and AAPT, supply customers with special equipment to enable access to the Standard Telephone Service.

National Relay Service

The NRS enables people who are deaf or have a hearing or speech impairment to use the telephone. The service allows m essages to be sent by voice, modem, speech to speech or teletypewriter (TTY). The NRS also allows people to communicate with people who are deaf, hearing or speech impaired , by using the telephone.

Essentially, the NRS operates as a communication bridge for deaf, hearing impaired and speech impaired people when using the standard telephone service. It also provides an emergency service for users of TTYs and computers with modems. This service is provided at no additional cost to users and is funded through a quarterly levy placed on eligible telecommunications carriers. The current NRS provider is Australian Communication Exchange Limited (ACE).

The National Relay Service (NRS) is a telephone access service available to all Australians to assist communications with people who are deaf, or have a hearing or speech impairment and/or use a teletypewriter (TTY) or a computer with a modem. This service is provided at no additional cost to users and is funded through a quarterly levy placed on eligible telecommunications carriers. For further information visit the National Relay Service (NRS) website.

Teletypewriters (TTYs)

A TTY is a telephone for deaf or hearing impaired persons. It consists of a keyboard and display screen, an is sometimes called a teletypewriter or textphone. TTY allows users to type letters into their TTY machine , which are then turned into electrical signals that can travel over ordinary telephone lines. When the signals reach their destination (in this case, another TTY) they are converted back into letters which, depending on the TTY model, then appear on a display screen, are printed out on paper, or both.

The NRS offers free TTY training to individuals, groups and businesses upon request. For information on TTY training visit the NRS www.relayservice.com or contact the m on:

Voice: 1800 555 660
TTY: 1800 555 630
FAX: 1800 555 690

Consumer representation grants

Funding is being provided to assist in the effective representation of consumers' interests in telecommunications issues, including through self-regulatory processes. A priority of this grants program is that people with disabilities, and consumers from regional, rural and remote Australia have adequate representation. More information on Consumer Representation Grants can be found here.

Document ID: 3520 |
Last modified: 6 February 2008, 12:19pm