Deaf or hearing impaired

Media Access Australia has secured an Australian Communications Consumers Action Network (ACCAN) grant for its Affordable Access project, which will look at low-cost, mainstream accessible technology for people with disabilities with an aim to help people make more informed choices when it comes to devices.

The accessibility of video-on-demand (VOD) services is a hot topic in Australia, the UK and other countries at the moment. There have been calls for legislation to be introduced unless the VOD services make acceptable progress in introducing captions and audio description voluntarily. But what constitutes accessible progress? In the UK, the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), Action on Hearing Loss, and Sense (who represent people who are deafblind or have associated disabilities) have issued a report that attempts to answer that question.

The UK communications regulator Ofcom has released the third of four planned reports on the quality of live captioning on television.

The Federal Government has released the submissions it has received in response to its review of digital television regulations, with a number of them focusing on accessibility issues.