Excellent work Gisele and team!!
I liked Anna B while she was premier of QLD but of course I don’t live in that
State and she also has heaps of bureaucrats Advising her so you never know what
the final outcome might be.
Anyway, don’t give up!!!
Kind Regards, Ros.
From: Gisele Mesnage
Sent: Saturday, March 4, 2017 9:33 AM
To: vip-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: bca-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ; myagescare@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [myagescare] Can we Bank on Anna Bligh bringing the Absolutely
Everybody stamp to her new role?
Hello all,
Digital Gap Initiative has contributed a submission to the Australian Bankers'
Association's (ABA) review into accessible banking services. Due to the ABA's
confidentiality protocols,we are unable to share our actual submission at this
time. However,from information that is in the public domain, DGI has
published a new post on its website highlighting the broad questions at the
heart of this review. Please read on and visit our website (link at the end
of this post) for other related articles, interviews, Martin's petition and
more :
Can we Bank on Anna Bligh bringing the Absolutely Everybody stamp to her new
role?
When she was Queensland Premier, Anna Bligh championed the state's "Absolutely
everybody" disability policy, saying that "a Queensland that is inclusive and
accessible to all community members will be better for everyone."
The "Absolutely Everybody" theme was based on the popular song by Vanessa
Amorosi, featured in her 1999 album, "The Power".
In February 2017, Anna Bligh was appointed CEO of the Australian Bankers'
Association (ABA).
After publishing our first editorial on CommBank's Albert EFTPOS tablet way
back in September 2015, we were invited to an interview with the ABA and
informed that their Industry Standards on Accessibility of Electronic Banking,
introduced in 2002, were currently under review. The ABA further informed us
that they would be consulting with stakeholders on updating these standards to
ensure the ongoing accessibility of banking in a digitally changing environment
(with hopes that the review would be completed by mid-2016). Some twelve
months later we had heard nothing further, so reached out to the ABA and were
advised in December 2016 that the review was still underway and that we would
receive an invite early in the New Year with a copy of the draft principles for
comment. Upon receiving in late January we were disappointed that this
redrafting had replaced the standards with "Guiding Principles for
Accessibility", so in effect what would appear to be a watering down, upsetting
at a time when more and more inaccessible EFTPOS terminals and other devices
used in retail are being released onto the market totally unregulated.
We have since submitted our response to the ABA's draft of their "Accessibility
Guiding Principles for banking services" highlighting our concerns that they
fall well short of providing an effective pathway to Accessible Banking
Products and Services, but are sadly unable to share our set out concerns, and
our recommendations, until the Principles have been finalised which will not
be until at least mid-year.
Rest assured though, in our usual way we have provided open, constructive
feedback, with the objective of assisting the ABA and its member banks to
better serve the community, especially people with disability, older persons
and others who experience barriers to inclusion in the digital transformation
era.
What we can explain to our faithful readers here, however, is the difference
between Standards and Guiding Principles.
Principles are quite different from both rules and standards – at least from a
legal standpoint. Both rules and standards provide a framework that is, in
theory, sufficient for resolving a particular issue in a legal dispute, whereas
the term, "principle" only provides guidance for the interpretation or
application of a rule or standard. Principles by themselves do not resolve
legal issues.
We can also cite the following information on the benefits of standards from
the Standards Australia website:
"Australian Standards ensure goods and services consistently perform the way
they are intended. They support the economy, improve safety and health, use our
national resources more efficiently and improve our quality of life.
1. Standards give businesses and consumers' confidence that the goods and
services they are developing or using are safe, reliable and will do the job
they were intended for.
2. Standards provide a platform on which to build new and exciting ideas. As
our world changes, new Standards are introduced to reflect the latest
technologies, innovations and community needs - redundant Standards are
discarded.
3. Products that comply with Australian Standards have a competitive edge over
products that don't - consumers know the difference. Australian exporters using
international Standards have a head start when they move into overseas markets.
4. Standards ensure products manufactured in one country can be sold and used
in another. Standards reduce technical barriers to international trade,
increase the size of potential markets and position Australian firms to compete
in the world economy.
Standards help make laws and regulations consistent across Australia. Standards
offer an alternative to regulation, with less red tape and business costs,
while still providing security for families and small business consumers."
On 15 April 2002, when Dr Sev Ozdowski OAM, Acting Disability Discrimination
Commissioner, launched the inaugural ABA’s Standards for making electronic
based services more accessible to people with disabilities and older
Australians, there was a resounding note of optimism in his address, and a
sense of commitment from the ABA and its member banks to meet the challenge of
implementing the standards. It was evident that a lot of hard work and
collaboration between the ABA, the banks and community stakeholders had gone
into developing the standards. And generally speaking, the standards led to
marked improvements for accessible banking services in the intervening years.
The challenge for Anna Bligh now is to ensure that the ABA invests in
accessibility of banking services for Absolutely Everybody. You can perhaps
start helping her in her new role by signing our Change.org petition.
From the DGI website:
http://www.digitalgap.org/
Gisele Mesnage
email: giselemesnage@xxxxxxxxxxx
phone: 02 9799 5388
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