Links—Telecommunications for people with disabilities

Access to telecommunications services & equipment for people with disabilities

General overview & service provider contacts

• Access for people with disabilities - overview of industry obligations & consumer protections - DBCDE
• Disability services - ACMA factsheet
• Access to disability services - ACMA portal with links to disability organisations
• Your rights to a telephone service-the universal service obligation - ACMA factsheet
• Service provider contacts
  • Optus
    • Disability services & action plan
    • TTY contact numbers
  • Telstra
    • Telstra's page on services for people with a disability
    • Disability action planning page
    • Contacts including TTY faults reporting line
  • Vodafone
    • Disability services

Emergency & priority assistance services

• Essential and emergency services - ACMA factsheet
• Text-based emergency call service for people with disabilities - NRS factsheet
• Priority assistance - ACMA's factsheet on services for persons with diagnosed life-threatening medical conditions who need a reliable, home telephone service so they can call for assistance if necessary
  • Optus special assistance service
  • Telstra's priority assistance page

Payphones

• Telstra's TTY payphone locator
• Accessibility of Payphones Industry Guideline G630:2006
• See general payphones links

Equipment

• Disability equipment - TIO position statement
• Access to equipment - DBCDE
• Disability services - ACMA factsheet
• Telecommunications (Equipment for the Disabled) Regulations 1998 - ComLaw
• Requirements for customer equipment for use with the standard telephone service - features for special needs Australian/ACIF Standard
• Australian Communications Industry Forum - ACIF:
  • Information on accessibility features for telephone equipment
• Hearing aids and mobile phones - ACMA factsheet
• Compliance requirements for medical devices - ACMA factsheet
• Service providers disability equipment pages:
  • Optus disability equipment
  • Telstra's disability equipment online or via enquiry line:

    FREECALL™ 1800 068 424* - Voice
    FREECALL™ 1800 808 981*- TTY only
    FREEFAX™ 1800 814 777*- Fax

Laws & regulations about access to telecommunications services & equipment for people with disabilities

• The Disability Discrimination Act 1992 imposes general obligations on telecommunications providers to ensure that services they provide are accessible to people with disabilities. This may extend to the provision of equipment.
• Telecommunications (Equipment for the Disabled) Regulations 1998 - ComLaw
• Industry standards, codes of practice and guidelines involving disability include:
  • Requirements for customer equipment for use with the standard telephone service - features for special needs
  • Disability matters: Access to communication technologies for people with disabilities and older Australians G586:2006
  • Information on accessibility features for telephone equipment ACIF C625:2005 - accessibility features in this code include mobility/dexterity, vision and hearing features
  • Accessibility of payphones G630:2006
  • Handling of life threatening & unwelcome calls ACIF C525:2006 - see section on calls to the National Relay Service
  • Priority assistance for life threatening medical conditions ACIF C609:2007

Web accessibility

• Web accessibility initiative - develops guidelines for web accessibility

Access to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO)

The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman has a disability action plan. Our goal in this plan is to make sure the policies and practices of our office do not discriminate in any way against people with disabilities and are inclusive of all its stakeholders.

You can access our services in any of the following ways:

Acronyms explained

ACMA - Australian Communications

Last updated September 2007