Deaf/hearing impaired Digital Technology & Online Media news

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Australian web accessibility awarded

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The winners of the Australian Web Awards have been announced, recognising the importance of accessibility in web development and design.  The Cerebral Palsy Alliance took out the national award for best overall accessibility for its main website.

"We're delighted that there's a growing recognition of the importance of web accessibility in Australia," said Robyn Cummins, Manager of the Communication Design Team at Cerebral Palsy Alliance." With one in five Australians with a disability and a rapidly ageing population, it should be on every organisation's agenda."

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Excluded web visitors often don’t complain, they just leave

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The facts speak clearly – 71% of web users with a disability will simply leave a website that is not accessible to them, according to recent research from the US Government’s 'Section 508'. Not only is this bad for the business community, Government utilities, and society in general, digital inaccessibility is excluding millions of Australians from enjoying the positive interactions online that people without disability take for granted.

Area Closed Keep Out sign

Area Closed Keep Out sign


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Push for mandatory captioning in New Zealand

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Change is being urged in New Zealand when it comes to TV and film captioning for Deaf and hearing impaired people. The reality behind this call to action is the fact that this important section of society is missing out on a huge amount that contributes to their quality of life when captioning isn't available.

Don’t just tell me. Show me.

Don’t just tell me. Show me.


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New funding cap of National Relay Service leads to fears of reduced services

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While the Government’s recent recommitment to support the National Relay Service (NRS) is welcomed, there are fears that services will have to be cut. This is because the Government will have NRS funding capped at the 2012 level of $20 million (ex GST) per year, rather than a user-need model, and this will lead to less people being able to access and use this service.

Image of National Relay Service logo

National Relay Service logo


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Free captioning and description editing tool launched

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The National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) in the USA has just launched CADET (Caption and Description Editing Tool) which was previously only available as a Beta project. This official launch version of CADET was developed with partial funding from the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office with the rest coming from crowd-funding, and is available via a free download.

Dashboard of CADET being used

Dashboard of CADET being used

CADET has taken over two years to develop from the initial beta test, and is the result of a mix of grant funding and crowd-funding from an Indiegogo campaign launched in late 2015. It is a free, downloadable caption-authoring software tool that can also be used to generate audio-description scripts.


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4 leading Startups in the Deaf and hearing-impaired space

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1 in 6 Australians are affected by hearing loss including around 30,000 Deaf Auslan users with total hearing loss, according to the Australian Network on Disability (AND). On a global scale, the World Health Organization puts the total number of those with disabling hearing loss at about 360 million people, so it’s no wonder more Startups are springing up to help.

International Symbol for Deafness

International Symbol for Deafness

Around the world, dedicated research teams and tech experts working for Startups are striving to address hearing loss in a wide variety of ways. A few of the most prominent Startups that are making a real difference in the Deaf and hearing-impaired space are covered in this news piece.


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Ava app makes group conversations accessible

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For those with hearing disability, simple dinner table group conversations can be pretty painful to stay on top of. However, the Ava app aims to bring Deaf and hearing impaired people back into group conversations with each other plus people of all abilities – and the May 2017 update provides even more functionality.

Image of Ava being used on a smartphone

Ava being used on a smartphone

The Ava threaded speech-to-text application gives people with hearing disability an easy way to stay engaged in conversation with a group of friends, colleagues or family.

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Don’t miss The Future of Accessible Work

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The 14th International Web for All Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A 2017), run in conjunction with the 26th International World Wide Web Conference (WWW 2017), is taking place in Perth from 2-4 April – with the overall theme being ‘The Future of Accessible Work’.

Image of W4A 2017 logo plus Perth skyline

W4A 2017 logo plus Perth skyline

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