Medicare benefits are payable for professional health services. A professional service is a clinically relevant service that is listed on the MBS. A medical service is clinically relevant if it is generally accepted in the medical profession as necessary for the appropriate treatment of the patient. The audiology items require a review by the Government […]
We are part of a group of not-for-profit organisations representing people who rely on captions for information, which draws attention to the growing issue of inaccessibility of online audio and visual content. We are concerned that while there is an increasing amount of web video content being auto-captioned, the vast majority of these captioned videos […]
Severe health complications can develop within two hours if a young child was to swallow a coin lithium battery, such as those used in hearing aids and a range of other products. If it isn’t removed quickly, they could die within 24 hours. Most instances happened where children removed the battery from a device or the battery was […]
Read more about Life-threatening danger to children posed by button batteries
The ‘Willing to Work’ inquiry, conducted by the Age and Disability Discrimination Commission looked at obstacles faced by, and discrimination against, older persons and persons with disabilities in taking part in the workforce We highlighted that taking into account Australia’s looming workforce challenges, it was critical that all people with disability and businesses be placed […]
The Office of Hearing Services (part of the federal Health Department) is developing national practice standards in audiology. The process is supported by an audiology expert reference group. We are a member of the reference group. The objective of the group is for the voluntary standards to reflect nationally agreed practice expectations of those working in […]
We have advocated since early 2012 the need for on-demand captions and Auslan interpreting services to improve customers’ interactions at Australian Government service shopfronts, such as Centrelink, Medicare and NDIS offices. The current communication arrangements in most government shopfronts are inconsistent, time-consuming for all involved, and the source of tension and misunderstandings for customers and staff. People with hearing devices […]
Read more about On-demand, real time captions and interpreters in government service centres