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:
- John Hilvert
- Blake Preston
- Australian Music Industry Network
- Evolution Media Group Screenrights
- Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman
- Advertising Standards Bureau Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft Limited (AFACT) - Joint Submission
- Australian Home Entertainment Distributors Association (AHEDA) - Joint Submission
- Motion Picture Distributors of Australia (MPDA) - Joint Submission
- National Association of Cinema Operators Australasia (NACO) - Joint Submission
- Australia Council for the Arts
- Australian Coalition for Cultural Diversity
- Australian Copyright Council
- Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association
- Broadcast Australia
- Time Warner
- Research In Motion
- Lesley Hitchens
- Telstra
- Qualcomm
- Western Australian Screen Industry
- State and Territory Screen Agency Forum
- Australian Content Industry Group
- Australian Subscription Television and Radio Association
- Free TV Australia ARC Centre for Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation
- Australian Broadcasting Corporation
- Australian Information Industry Association
- Australian Recording Industry Association
- Australian Children's Television Foundation
- Australian Competition and Consumer Commission
- DigEcon Research
- Motorola
- Australian Major Performing Arts Group
- Macquarie Telecom Cricket Australia
- National Film and Sound Archives
- APN News and Media Australian Publishers Association
- Commercial Radio Australia
- iiNet
- Screen Australia
- Communications Alliance
- Communications Alliance Attachment (Regulation in the Digital Economy by IBES)
- Australian Council on Children and the Media
- Australian Press Council
- Screen Producers Association of Australia Australian Direct Marketing Association (Joint Submission)
- Australian Interactive Media Industry Association (Joint Submission)
- Australian Library and Information Association (Joint Submission)
- eBay (Joint Submission)
- Google (Joint Submission)
- Interactive Games and Entertainment Association (Joint Submission)
- nineMSN (Joint Submission)
- Yahoo!7 (Joint Submission)
- APRA AMCOS
- Australian Writers Guild
- Communications Law Centre UTS
- Community Broadcasters Association of Australia
- Media Classifiers Association of Australia
- Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance
- Music Council of Australia
- Premium Movie Partnership
- Special Broadcasting Service
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