Fed: Disabled left out of bushfire warning system

AAP General News (Australia)
12-17-2009
Fed: Disabled left out of bushfire warning system

By Susanna Dunkerley

CANBERRA, Dec 17 AAP - Millions of vision and hearing impaired Australians are at risk
of not receiving new life saving bushfire warnings.

The national emergency alert system, currently under trial, sends text messages to
mobile phones registered to addresses near threatening fires.

Developed in response to the deadly Black Saturday fires, the $15 million taxpayer-funded
system also makes calls to landlines in areas at risk.

The Australian Federation of Disability Organisations says the alerts fail to reach
millions of people with disabilities.

"As it stands the system has put people with disabilities lives at risk," the lobby
group's spokesman Dean Barton-Smith told AAP.

"People with disabilities who rely on text telephone services (TTY) or other forms
of communication and aids, will simply miss out."

The federation voiced its concerns to the Victorian government department responsible
for the system's initial development earlier this year.

It wanted TTY, used by around 17,000 Australians, included as well as compulsory captions
on the television warning advertisements.

A spokeswoman for the office of the emergency services commissioner says it wasn't
feasible to include the TTY in the initial system, but is a service that could be included
at a later stage.

The peak body representing the deaf, Deafness Forum Australia, is furious the measures
weren't incorporated in time for the bushfire season.

More than 3.5 million Australians have some sort of hearing loss, and many are elderly
who are not text savy, spokeswoman Nicole Lauder says.

"Every Australian has the right to be warned of these types of emergencies, it should
be a warning system for everyone who's at risk," she told AAP.

The Blind Society also says more than 400,000 Australians with vision impairments can't
rely on the text messages.

Canberra branch president Peter Granleese says very few people have the technology
to convert text messages to audio.

"Text messages would not be the way to go, you can't rely on that at all, very few
of our clients would be able to be contacted," he told AAP, adding that many people don't
have home phone voicemail.

He suggested a national database be set up to identify people at risk of not receiving
the messages.

The ACT government, which undertook a trial of the alert service on Thursday, said
the system is just one tool for bushfire management.

"It is crucial that communities do not rely on receiving a telephone warning and have
an emergency plan," Emergency Services Minister Simon Corbell told AAP.

AAP sld/sb/it

KEYWORD: BUSHFIRES WARNING

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