Submissions received on the Convergence Review Framing Paper

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The Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (DBCDE) has published submissions received on the Convergence Review Framing Paper (Framing Paper). The Framing Paper put forward for comment a range of principles which the Review Committee envisioned would guide their approach to the Convergence Review.

A number of submissions raised access to convergent media for people with disability as an issue for the Review Committee to take into account:

Media Access Australia

Our submission focused on the need for access to convergent media to follow the content. In particular, we emphasised examples of accessible convergent media initiatives (such as captions on ABC’s iview service) and existing Government policies and programs which promote access to media (such as the National Disability Strategy and the Media Access Review).

Michael Lockrey

Michael Lockrey, a long-time campaigner for the rights of people who are Deaf and hearing impaired, emphasised that ensuring that Australians should have access to the broadest range of content across platforms and services as possible (Principle 6) must be understood to include access to this content for people with disability.

ACCAN

The submission by the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) called for a new Principle to be included under the portfolio of ‘Consumer and Citizen Rights’, namely that ‘The broadest range of devices, services and content should be accessible to people with disabilities.’

The Treasury

The Commonwealth Treasury, whilst it did not raise the issue of access to convergent media per se, did emphasise that the Review Committee should ensure the Convergence Review examined and promoted the Government’s social and cultural objectives for convergent media. As we have noted above, these include the National Disability Strategy and the Media Access Review.

Other submissions

Other submissions were received from:


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