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M-Enabling downunder
Transcript
25 August 2013
Roberta: Today we have Dr Scott Hollier, accessibility expert and Project Manager at Media Access Australia here to talk to us about a recent event held in Sydney, the M-Enabling Australasia 2013 Conference. Welcome, Scott.
Scott: Thanks, Roberta, great to be back again.
Roberta: Now, what is M-Enabling?
Scott: M-Enabling is a series of conferences run around the world and basically they look at the progress of technology in areas like disability and people getting older and, yeah, just recently we had the M-Enabling Australasia event, which was the first time this conference has been run in Australia and, yeah, it was a great success. There was about 260 people there, which is fantastic.
Roberta: Of those 260, who was involved?
Scott: There were a few different people and organisations involved. So Telstra was a partner in running the event. There were disability service providers. There were organisation like ours, not-for-profit organisations, individuals; a raft of people. I think what was really nice about the fact that there were so many different types of organisations involved, from the corporates to not-for-profit and individuals, is that there was a really nice tone through the conference. A lot of people came with problems and other people came offering solutions. Everyone sort of had little pieces of the puzzle, if you like, on how to make things better in the technology space. So it was a really nice event.
Roberta: What were some of the topics discussed?
Scott: There were a few. The keynote, which was by Axel Leblois, who’s the President and Executive Director of The Global Initiative for Inclusive ICTs or G3ict, he basically represents the technology arm of the United Nations and his discussions were looking at how to improve technology for people with disabilities and older Australians and that was a fantastic keynote. There were also some other presentations in terms of some really great accessible apps. We also had some people from the United States who talked about some of the legislation they’ve got there in terms of improving online accessibility, like captions, and looking a bit at how websites could be made more accessible. So there was a raft of different conversations around policy, around technology and, yeah, just lots and lots of great information.
Roberta: So, Scott, is accessibility getting better in the everyday devices we use?
Scott: I’m happy to say it is. As we’ve talked about on this program a few times, it seems like every day there’s a new device coming out and the nice thing is that accessibility is really improving. So if you buy, say, an iPhone or an iPad there’s lots of great built-in accessibility. If you buy an android device, especially a recent one the past year or so, the accessibility has really, really stepped up in those android phones, which is most phones that aren’t an Apple one. Also, on the Windows front, to have Windows 8, if you have a Windows 8 computer with a touchscreen then you have a choice of using accessibility by the keyboard or by moving your finger around the screen. So the really exciting thing is that there’s just so much choice now to really make accessibility happen. The challenge, though, is that the other side of the coin is the developer space. So are websites being built in an accessible way? The apps that we use on our phones and tablets, are they accessible? The answer is some yes and some no. So while on the consumer side, the built-in products, it’s really nice that we’re at a point now where we can usually go to the shops, buy what we want and it will have some accessibility available to us. Yeah, the final frontier, if you like, of accessibility is still getting those websites and apps compatible so those technologies work.
Roberta: You talked about the makers and the builders of the technology, Scott. Conferences like the one that you’ve just talked about, do these sort of people attend those to see what’s needed with their products?
Scott: Well, they do and I think an example of Telstra being a partner means there’s a great opportunity for them to talk with people and understand more in the accessibility space and see what products they can come up with. Also there’s some great innovation going on, like the University of NSW have a project called SIMO which is a special app on android phones relating to orientation and mobility. So there’s all sorts of little bits and pieces going on around the place and conferences like this are really effective in bringing everyone together.
Roberta: That sounds like it was a very, very good event and I’m pleased about that. Listeners, you can find more information about accessible technologies, and on the M-Enabling Conference, from the Media Access Australia website, which is www.mediaaccess.org.au. That is a very good accessible site. Thank you, Scott Hollier, for all of that today.
Scott: Thanks very much, Roberta.
Roberta: I’ve been speaking with Dr Scott Hollier, accessibility expert and Project Manager at Media Access Australia. Media Access Australia are supporters of this program.