Preview of the 2014 print disability conference

Transcript

23 February 2014

Roberta: The annual Round Table Conference on Information Access for People with Print Disabilities is an important event in the blind calendar, especially for organisations providing services to blind people. This year’s conference is in May and will be held in Brisbane. To talk to me about the conference and what he will be covering is Media Access Australia’s CEO Alex Varley who is a regular presenter at the conference. Welcome Alex.
Alex: Hi there Roberta.

Roberta: Now, who is included in the group, people with print disabilities?

Alex: Well, in the old days it used to be mainly blind people and just looking at issues specifically around things like Braille. But, of course what’s happened over the years is that it has expanded to become the whole range of print disabilities. So we’re actually looking at people with dyslexia as well as blind and vision impaired people, and it has moved away from being things just like Braille to looking at talking books, audio description, anything where there’s a substitute for print.
Roberta: Alex, why is the conference so important to service providers?

Alex: Well, I think the good thing about this conference is that firstly everybody is there, so, from Vision Australia, obviously is the biggest agency, downwards, so covering the whole range of issues that are interested for people who are blind. But, particularly the important thing is that it focuses on information access, so it’s not a general blind conference if you want all the blind issues. It’s actually looking at print, it’s looking at radio, it’s looking at audio description, it’s looking at access to the web, so all those things about how do you get information.

Roberta: So, what sort of themes and topics are covered?

Alex: Well, this year’s is quite interesting because the main theme is information access, putting the person at the centre and what I think this is really picking up on is this sort of new direction in disability access, disability themes which is re driven by things like the National Disability Insurance Scheme which is about actually empowering the individual and understanding how all these different services and things work from their perspective. So, it’s not being delivered at them, it’s being delivered for them and what are they interested in? What do they want? That’s really what it’s all going to pick up this year.

Roberta: Now Alex, you are doing a presentation on Making Blind People Centre Stage in Entertainment Access. What’s this all about?

Alex: Yes, well I looked at the theme and thought well what does it really mean in terms of things like audio description and you know a lot of people think that once you secure audio description on say, you know a film or a DVD on television that’s it, but actually there’s a lot more to the entertainment experience than just having the basic accessibility to the service. So, you know, what I'm going to explore there are things like customer service. So, are the people actually able to deal with blind people properly and understand their needs? Publicity; so how do they actually find out about what’s being made accessible and how do they access it? What kind of bits of equipment do they need? What time is the thing on? And, what I'm specifically going to look at is things like whether new technology developments actually help or hinder this process and just a couple of quick examples. If you look at something like DVD kiosks which are popping up everywhere and replacing DVD stores, they may seem more convenient in shopping centres, but of course for blind people it’s actually a step backwards, because you don’t have a human you can ask questions of and find out what actually has been audio described and what’s available and of course the kiosk don’t have that information on them readily. But, then you have other developments which are very positive like the new ranges of talking TVs that are coming out where a blind person can turn on the TV and use all the audio menus from scratch without needing any other assistance. So, as always happens in these areas there’s great big positives and leap forwards, and then there’s sometimes steps back. But, I'm going to be looking at that and thinking very much about it from, well, I'm the blind person. What are all these things I need to know and is that being properly delivered for me? 

Roberta: Well, that sounds like a big one Alex and I'm sure you’ll cover it well. The conference is from Saturday the 17th May until Tuesday 20th May at the Royal on the Park Hotel in Brisbane. For more information you can visit the website, printdisability.org or for more information about accessing media you can visit the Media Access Australia Website mediaaccess.org.au or call the team with any questions on 02 9212 6242. Thank you Alex for all of that and I may even see you in Brisbane.

Alex: Fantastic. Thanks Roberta.

Roberta: I’ve been speaking with Media Access Australia’s CEO Alex Varley, and Media Access Australia are supporters of this program

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