+++AUSTRALIAN BLINDNESS FORUM and NATIONAL DISABILITY SERVICES ABF/NDS UPDATE November-December 2010 +Contents. +01.News from ABF Members and Associates. +02.ABF Committee News. +03.Feature: Improving Media Access. +04.Disability Access Facilitation Plans. +05.Telephone Voting Standard for Australian Elections. +06.Inclusive Education and Children with Vision Loss. +07.Other Information and Publications. +08.NDS Events. 09.Other National Events. +10.World Blind Union. +11.Other International News and Events. +12.Notable Quote. - End Notes Best wishes for the festive season and for a happy 2011 from the ABF! +01.NEWS FROM ABF MEMBERS AND ASSOCIATES. -ABF Board of Directors: Following the annual general meeting on 10 November and a recent Board meeting, the new Directors are Andrew Daly (Chair); Cheryl Pascual (Vice Chair); Tony Starkey (Treasurer); David Blyth, Chris Laine, Dan English (Directors). -ABF Members’ Forum, held in Melbourne on 10 November, was well attended and provided members with a varied and interesting program. The report of the 2010 Forum will appear on the ABF website http://www.australianblindnessforum.org.au/ and a summary will shortly be emailed to members in an ABF/NDS Special Update. -ABF website has updated information on bushfire safety for 2010.at http://www.australianblindnessforum.org.au/Resources/Bushfires/EmergencyInformation.html. -Feedback on cinema access: Recently, Blind Citizens Australia asked members to share their experiences navigating websites of the four major cinema chains. This feedback was given directly to the cinemas for discussion at the Accessible Cinemas Advisory Group (ACAG) meeting in late November. BCA is pleased that the cinemas have noted BCA members’ comments and will incorporate them into adjustments of their websites. However, at the ACAG meeting, BCA also learned there is going to be a delay in the rollout of accessible cinemas across Australia because of some technical issues on the standardisation of digital packages being made available by the major six Hollywood studios. Shortly, ACAG will issue an official announcement about the rollout and some interim measures. -BCA’s new website: Blind Citizens Australia has launched a new website http://www.bca.org.au/ designed to comply with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 standards. The refreshed website, the first in over a decade, was created by students at the University of Melbourne and supported by Media Access Australia. The focus is on ensuring that people who are blind or vision impaired can access the latest information from BCA using assistive technology products such as screen readers and screen magnification software. (The Media Access Report, Spring 2010 http://www.mediaaccess.org.au/ ). -‘Don’t turn a blind eye’: Guide Dogs NSW/ACT has launched a public education campaign to encourage positive changes in the community that will make it easier for people with impaired vision to more easily move around. Launched on International White Cane Day on 15 October, ‘Don’t turn a blind eye’ offers practical solutions to encourage the community to play a more active role in helping people with impaired vision to get around safely and independently. For more information, go to http://www.guidedogs.com.au/education-and-resources/access/dont-turn-a-blind-eye. -Sight For All Foundation has embarked on an initiative with the Royal Society for the Blind of SA and the Freemason’s Foundation to raise awareness in the wider South Australian community of blinding yet preventable eye diseases and services available for people with vision impairment. Sight For All Foundation is also working to prevent blindness in the developing world and in the Indigenous and general communities of Australia. Sight For All’s team of Australian consultants give their time and expertise voluntarily to strengthen the capacity of ophthalmologists, ancillary staff and health workers to deliver effective, high quality and sustainable ophthalmic health care. Sight For All is working with The Aboriginal Health Council of South Australia. For more information, go to http://www.sightforall.org/. A new drug under study for dry macular degeneration: A report of an early study on a new drug, Fenretinide, was presented at the American Academy of Ophthalmology congress in October. The US study showed that the drug may help slow the progression of the dry form of macular degeneration to the end stage of dry MD called geographic atrophy. It may also help to stop or slow the progression of the dry form to the more serious wet form. Fenretinide is already in use for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis and some other skin conditions. More information is on Australia’s Macular Degeneration Foundation website at http://www.mdfoundation.com.au/Fenretinide.aspx. +02.ABF COMMITTEE NEWS. The ABF Board of Directors recently reviewed its committee structure and agreed on five separate committees to continue the work of creating and implementing ABF Policies on: * Access to Information (including Braille) – Tony Starkey, Chair * Access to Premises – Tony Starkey, Chair * Education and Children’s Services – Cheryl Pascual, Chair * Employment – Andrew Daly, Chair * National Vision Loss Rehabilitation Services Plan – to be advised If you would like to get involved with any ABF Committee, please contact the Committee Chair or Andrew Daly at ADaly@rsb.org.au. +03.FEATURE: IMPROVING MEDIA ACCESS. The just released final report of the ‘Investigation into access to electronic media for the hearing and vision-impaired’ has twenty-two recommendations for action needed to improve access levels. The Australian Government has announced it will move to immediately implement those recommendations and has called on industry and disability group stakeholders to similarly take action to implement recommendations that affect them. In the accompanying media release, the Government stated that it will introduce legislation in 2011 to: * Provide regulatory certainty by consolidating captioning requirements for both free-to-air and subscription television broadcaster in to the Broadcasting Services Act 1992; * Raise captioning targets to provide a better outcome for people with disability; and * Introduce requirements for caption quality. Audio Description: The Government has also stated that it will commission the ABC to conduct a technical trial of audio description in the second half of 2011, subject to funding approval (refer to recommendation 5 of the report). This is something Blind Citizens Australia and the blindness sector have been calling for for some time. A further review of captioning and audio description on electronic media in 2013 will consider the effectiveness of action agreed in 2010 in the light of transformational communication techniques, such as the introduction of the National Broadband Network and the switch to digital television. The report’s recommendations 10 to 12 deal with emergency broadcasts and the need for captioning and audio support for emergency, disaster or safety announcements. It is noted that the Government has already committed to the establishment of an SMS emergency service for people with disability. Further details of the report are at http://www.dbcde.gov.au/television/television_captioning/media_access_review. Braille copies of the report and related papers will be provided on request to the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy. 04.DISABILITY ACCESS FACILITATION PLANS. In December 2009, the Australian Government released the National Aviation Policy White Paper. In the paper, the Government encouraged airlines and airports to develop and publish Disability Access Facilitation Plans with the aim of providing detailed information on approaches to meeting the needs of travellers with disability. Participating operators were encouraged to consult with disability advocacy organisations (the ABF was represented on the Aviation Access Working Group), the Australian Human Rights Commission and the Civil Aviation Safety Authority in the preparation of their plans. A list of links to Disability Access Facilitation Plans of airline and airport operators that have been published can be accessed via the Department of Infrastructure and Transport at http://www.infrastructure.gov.au/aviation/aawg/disability.aspx. 05.TELEPHONE VOTING STANDARD FOR AUSTRALIAN ELECTIONS. The Electoral Council of Australia (ECA), a consultative council of all Australian governments, has announced a new common standard for telephone voting. The standard has been designed to assist specific and special categories of electors, including those who are blind or have low vision, where legislation permits this flexibility. The standard does not signal any change to the existing voting method required under electoral laws and familiar to the overwhelming majority of Australian electors of marking a ballot paper at a polling place or via a postal vote. The Automated Telephone Voting Industry Standard is available on the ECA website at http://www.eca.gov.au/research/files/telephone-voting-standard.pdf. 06.INCLUSIVE EDUCATION AND CHILDREN WITH VISION LOSS. A Senate motion by the Shadow Minister for Disabilities, Carers and the Voluntary Sector, Mitch Fifield, called for $2.2 million to fund the development of a specialist school for children who are blind: the Insight Education Centre for the Blind and Vision Impaired in Victoria (http://www.insightvision.com.au/). Blind Citizens Australia responded that the funding of a blind specialist school in Victoria alone only goes a small way to addressing the root problem of the resourcing of education for Australian children who are blind or vision impaired. Key problem areas include inconsistent delivery of expanded core curriculum; poor, and in some cases, no access to class work and materials in accessible formats including Braille; overwhelmed teachers leaving students alone in classrooms due to poorly communicated integration strategies; and a child being taught Braille maths by a teacher concurrently learning Braille maths. BCA’s recently released Education Policy (http://www.bca.org.au) calls for an accessible curriculum and education system that supports the needs of all students with vision impairment. 07.OTHER INFORMATION & PUBLICATIONS. -The blind obvious about fashion. There are minimal support outlets to help people with vision impairment become fashion-savvy. New technology is helping, such as the colour recognition iPhone app, Colour ID, providing ‘temporary eyes’ for the shopper. However, more is needed. Sydneysider Dawson Ko has created a magazine and a website which offer articles from skilled writers, both with and without vision impairment. Find the free online glossy, ‘Fashionable Eye for the Blind Guy and Gal’ at www.fashionableeye.com. (Link disability magazine December 2010 http://www.linkonline.com.au/index.shtml) -e-Playground for Children of all Abilities: This new free online play environment is for children with special needs and disabilities. It has memory improvement games and activities allowing children to create their own music. The link is http://www.allabilitiesplayground.net.au. It was created by the Australian arm of Sonokids (http://www.sonokids.org), an international non-profit organisation developing technology for people with disability. 08.NDS EVENTS. -ADE New Business Opportunities EXPO: NSW Government Procurement Project will be held from 10am to 4pm on16 February 2011, Lower Town Hall, Sydney following the NDS NSW Annual State Conference on 14-15 February, Sydney – NDS members can read more at http://www.nds.org.au. -NDS National Disability and Carer Conference will be held in Melbourne on 2 and 3 May 2011 – NDS members go to http://www.nds.org.au. 09.OTHER NATIONAL EVENTS. - Connecting Up Australia (operators of the DonorTec program) is joining forces with the Community’s ‘Communities in Control’ conference to host a blockbuster nonprofit event week in Melbourne. ‘Communities in Control’ will be held on 30 to 31 May 2011 and be immediately followed at the same venue by ‘Connecting Up 2011’ on 1 and 2 June. For more information please see the OurCommunity website. +10.WORLD BLIND UNION. -WBU Executive met in Melbourne on 11 to 13 November, hosted by Vision Australia. Two outcomes were the release of a Melbourne Declaration Issued by the World Blind Union and the DAISY Consortium and a Resolution on Joint ICEVI-WBU Advocacy for EFA-VI. Read more in the WBU E-Bulletin for November 2010 at http://www.worldblindunion.org/en/home847b.html?id=43&nivel=2). -WBU 8th General Assembly will be hosted by the Thailand Association of the Blind in Bangkok from 12 to 16 November 2012. It will be preceded by a Diversity Forum on 10 and 11 November. In addition, the WBU will explore the possibility of organising the Assembly in collaboration with ICEVI, who will also be holding its Assembly and World Conference in 2012. Further information about plans for the General Assembly will be included in the next and following WBU e-Bulletins. -Braille21: The official website of the World Congress Braille21 is online at http://www.braille21.net/. This WBU congress will be held from 27 to 30 September 2011 in Leipzig, Germany. The first edition of the ‘Braille Post’ has been launched and will continue to be published every three months. It will prepare the themes of the World Congress Braille21 for the long term. The ‘Braille Post’ will inform regularly about the progress of the project Braille21 and it will communicate current knowledge about braille. All editions of the ‘Braille Post’ can be downloaded at http://www.braille21.net/en/press. Copies can be ordered by emailing info@braille21.net. -UNESCO Report on Disability and Technology summarises the recommendations of a group of experts on how UNESCO could assist its Member States in facilitating social inclusion of persons with disabilities through information and communication technologies (ICT). The Report can be read by following links at http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=30877&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html. -Lions Club International Essay Contest is open to 11, 12 and 13-year-old students who are vision impaired. In collaboration with fellow Lions, local schools and area families, young people who are interested in participating and who could benefit from this program should be identified. One grand prize winner will receive an award and US $5,000. The theme for the essay is ‘Power of Peace’. Each essay must be submitted with a completed entry form. Essays must be no longer than 500 words in length, submitted in English, type-written in black ink and double-spaced. For the complete rules and entry form, visit http://www.lionsclubs.org/EN/common/pdfs/pr41.pdf. Deadline to submit an essay is February 15, 2011. +11.OTHER INTERNATIONAL NEWS & EVENTS. -NGOs help gIve people with disability an international voice The Australian Disability and Development Consortium (ADDC), of which NDS is a lead partner, hosted a parliamentary breakfast in Canberra in November to promote disability-inclusive development within the Australian international development program. In his opening address, Kevin Rudd, Minister for Foreign Affairs, drew attention to the importance of Australia’s foreign aid and development programs. He acknowledged the efforts of many NGOs to ensure that people with disability are included in development programs and encouraged them to continue. The Government has committed to raising Overseas Development Aid to 0.5 per cent of Gross National Income by 2015. For more information, contact Margaret Gadd, NDS’s Project Officer, Asia Pacific Partnerships Program at margaret.gadd@nds.org.au. -Women with Disabilities recognised at United Nations: WWDA (Women With Disabilities Australia) was part of the Australian NGO delegation that appeared before the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) Monitoring Committee in July this year in New York. (Australia ratified CEDAW in 1983.) The CEDAW Committee accepted a separate Shadow Report from WWDA, in addition to Australia’s NGO report. WWDA states that the Committee took great deal of notice of its input and has made very strong recommendations regarding the need for urgent action by the Australian Government in relation to women with disability. For more information about WWDA, go to http://www.wwda.org.au/. -Sight Line – designing better streets for people with low vision, a partnership between CABE Space (Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment) and the Royal College of Art Helen Hamlyn Centre, is looking at how the needs of people with vision impairment can be better addressed in the design of public spaces. The report can be read at http://www.cabe.org.uk/publications/sight-line. -Improving access to white and brown goods: Anyone buying a home appliance already knows how difficult it is to find something that does not have touch pads, multi-function buttons or a visual interface which makes it impossible to know whether you are about to cook for hours or defrost for minutes. RNIB is keen to learn more about efforts being made to change this situation and asks that a summary of efforts about the development of legislation, regulation and any projects that may have global appeal be emailed to Pete Osborne, Head International Development and Partnerships at pete.osborne@rnib.org.uk. -Inclusive Planet is an online platform that enables people with vision impairment to connect with each other, share accessible content and build conversations and communities around these shared experiences. Over 2200 members from 76 countries have come together to attempt to make this an inclusive planet. Check it out at http://www.inclusiveplanet.com/en/login?destination=node%2F241416. -World Standards Day was held on 14 October. Accessibility is increasingly an issue as the world population and people with disability demand equal access to social, political and economic life. The International Organisation for Standardization (ISO, http://www.iso.org), the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and the International Telecommunication Network (ITN) coordinate their work and offer a system of standardisation that helps designers, manufacturers and policy makers to make the world safer and more accessible. For more information on World Standards Day, visit http://www.iec.ch/news_centre/release/nr2010/nr1010.htm. -2011 Biennial Conference of the South Pacific Educators in Vision Impairment (SPEVI) is to be held from 16 to 21 January 2011 in Sydney. The theme is "Unlocking Student's Potential: What's working for you?" The program will be important for educators, vision professionals including the allied professions, ophthalmologists, orthoptists, opticians, pediatricians, GP's, teacher aides, agencies, parents and community groups. The program will feature an impressive array of high quality guest speakers from our South Pacific Region. Please see the Conference Flyer on the SPEVI Homepage for more information. -World Glaucoma Week will be held from 7 to 13 March 2011. For more information, contact Glaucoma Australia on 1800 500 880. -International Mobility Conference 2012, ‘Mobility through the Ages, Up, Over and Down Under’ will be held in Palmerston North, New Zealand on 13 to 17 February 2012. The call for abstracts opens in February 2011 and closes 30 April 2011. To register your interest, please see the conference website. -TRANSED 2012: The 13th International Conference on Mobility and Transport for Elderly and Disabled Persons will be held from 17 to 21 September 2012 in Delhi, India on the theme "Seamless Access for All: Universal Design for Transport Systems and Infrastructure as a key element in the creation of livable cities". TRANSED 2012 will showcase international innovation and technological solutions for accessible transportation and travel through papers and posters as well as through live exhibitions of products, services, and best practices. Deadline for receipt of abstracts is March 30, 2011. For further details, visit http://www.transed2012.in/abstract_submission.html. +12.NOTABLE QUOTE. Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek. - Barack Obama. - End Notes. Getting more information on issues in the ABF/NDS Update: Unless otherwise stated, please contact the ABF by emailing Tony Starkey at tstarkey@rsb.org.au Reproducing information from the ABF/NDS Update: Anyone may reproduce any of the information in this Update, with appropriate acknowledgement of the source. About AUSTRALIAN BLINDNESS FORUM http://www.australianblindnessforum.org.au. Australian Blindness Forum (ABF) was first formed as an unincorporated body in 1992, funded only by its members. In April 2007, the ABF became an Australian public company limited by guarantee, funded by its members and governed by a board of directors. The purpose of the ABF is to operate as a peak body representing the blindness sector for the benefit of people who are blind or vision impaired. To contact the ABF, email Tony Starkey at TStarkey@rsb.org.au. About NATIONAL DISABILTY SERVICES http://www.nds.org.au. National Disability Services (NDS) is the national industry association for disability services, representing over 650 not-for-profit organizations. Collectively, NDS’ members operate several thousand services for Australians with all types of disability. NDS’s members range in size from small support groups to large multi-service organizations, and are located in every State and Territory across Australia.