This is the time of the year when our Board members stay in Wellington for two further days after our regular Board meeting, and usually we try to have meetings with politicians and key Government staff so we can persuade Government to understand and hopefully cater for the needs of blind and vision impaired people. Each year we focus on just a few specific issues or themes. This year they included audio description, telecommunications and banking.

This is the time of the year when our Board members stay in Wellington for two further days after our regular Board meeting, and usually we try to have meetings with politicians and key Government staff so we can persuade Government to understand and hopefully cater for the needs of blind and vision impaired people. Each year we focus on just a few specific issues or themes. This year they included audio description, telecommunications and banking.

On the first day, we presented three one and a half hour sessions covering different aspects of audio description. These were ably conducted by Alex Varley of Media Access Australia. Each session had a different focus, namely television and broadcasting, theatre and the arts, and cinema and DVD. Audio description is becoming increasingly important to blind and vision impaired people as we strive to be more included in today’s mainstream media.

On the second day we held a discussion forum on accessible telecommunications, focusing in particular on accessible landline and mobile phones, related services and accessible websites. It was particularly noteworthy that all but one of the telecommunications companies we invited did not attend. The only telco that attended was Telstra Clear.

Whilst this was disappointing, it only served to highlight for those who did attend that the needs of people with disabilities are a low priority as far as the telcos are concerned. Their lack of attendance was painfully obvious and particularly noted by the Telecommunications Users Association of New Zealand (TUANZ). It just goes to show that we know we have some way to go to get our message across to the telcos. I’ll focus my next post on what we really are seeking from the telecommunications industry.

Our parliamentary informational function was held on the evening of Monday 11 July. It was kindly hosted by the Minister for Culture and Heritage, Hon Chris Finlayson, who took a particular interest in audio description. During this function we launched briefing documents on accessible websites, Audio Description and Accessible Bankin. I will give more information on these new briefs in future posts.

We truly appreciate the support of the Ministry for Culture and Heritage and Wellington City Council for hosting these presentations.