Crippling Competition: Critical Reflections on Disability and Australian Telecommunications Policy

Telecommunications reform in Australia, and in particular the introduction of competition, is often claimed to have delivered benefits to consumers. From the perspective of people with disability, this competition so far can been seen as crippling rather than enabling. There have been some gains for telecommunications for people with disabilities over the past decade in particular —delivered by slowly changing corporate attitudes buttressed by the explicit reference to the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 in the Telecommunications Act 1997. This article examines telecommunications and disability in Australia since 1975, and concludes that it is high time for a telecommunications and new media industry where measures of outcomes would include utilising the experiences and meeting the needs, expectations and aspirations of those who live with disability.