Powerd NewsWrap 13th August 2025

Vision Australia ID 0:00

Welcome to a Vision Australia radio podcast. Love our podcasts. Why not listen to us live? Tune in anywhere, anytime, ask your smart device to play Vision Australia radio or visit va radio.org,

Kate Cooper 0:22

all on Vision Australia and reading radio networks. This is the Powerd news wrap, good.

Sam Rickard 0:29

I'm Sam Ricard. It's the 13th of July, 2025 we're presenting articles from the powered dot media website, and joining me resplendent in her work gear, which is a dressing gown and Ugg boots, is Emma Myers, that is not true.

Emma Myers 0:43

Yeah. Thank you very much. Sam,

Sam Rickard 0:45

well, I'm blind. I wouldn't notice the difference anyway. All right, so where we got this week, it's we've gone from doom and gloom and fires and hailstone and all that sort of stuff to, well, it's two very positive articles.

Emma Myers 1:00

I know who knew it's been a good week for the community.

Sam Rickard 1:05

A nice little bug bear of mine, really is an attempt to modernize the Disability Discrimination Act. What is your sort of take on this? It's about damn time. Sorry, that was a bit I think that's completely accurate. It's it is about damn time. Yeah,

Emma Myers 1:20

we had one update back in 2013 but then they subsequently reversed that update, so it then just went back to the original 1992 version. And although we've had disability discrimination somewhat addressed in the disability education standards in 2005 what shocked me is that in the the actual Disability Discrimination Act, we don't explicitly have a cause that prevents offensive behavior or harassment towards the community as a whole. And so I was kind of flabbergasted at that, because you put disability discrimination, and that's pretty much top priority look. The way that I view it personally is, I'm 31 years old. I was born in 1994 had I been born any earlier, I would have had nothing to protect my rights, and that's something that I just can't fathom. But even so, what we do have clearly isn't sufficient enough to actually enforce those legalities.

Sam Rickard 2:45

It all seems like a nice idea that with no teeth, and now it's over to our guest reader for the week, Kate Cooper, with the news.

Kate Cooper 2:53

Thank you, Sam, the Disability Discrimination Commissioner has welcomed the Australian Government's intention to review the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 this follows calls for reform over many years from across the disability sector, including from the recent disability Royal Commission. Disability Discrimination Commissioner rose believes simplifying and modernizing Australia's Disability Discrimination Act, the DDA will better protect the rights of people with disability. The DDA hasn't been updated for over 15 years. Much has changed over that time, including court rulings, which have made it harder to prove discrimination under the DDA. The commissioner argues that the act needs to be modernized to ensure it resonates with society at present and well into the future. During the last 10 years, the Australian Human Rights Commission has proposed a range of reforms which would modernize and simplify the DDA as well as strengthen how it protects the rights of people with disability. She says, the disability Royal Commission also made similar recommendations in the final report back in 2023 one of our key proposals is for the introduction of a positive duty, which is a requirement for those with obligations under the DDA to take active steps to prevent discrimination from happening in the first place. The Disability Discrimination Commissioner explains, Australian Human Rights Commission President Hugh decretsa argues, reform of the DDA is an opportunity to improve Australia's other anti discrimination laws, the DDA and the racial sex and age discrimination acts, have inconsistent standards of protection. This creates confusion and inefficiency and makes non compliance more like. Likely, says Mr. Decretsa, we need to make it easy for people to understand their rights and obligations. Commissioner kayess wants to see DDA reform of the tests for direct and indirect discrimination, as well as a strengthening of the Act's disability standards. This would make the DDA more relevant to the contemporary experience of discrimination and easier to enforce. She says, we are looking forward to working with the disability community, the business sector, government and other stakeholders to ensure the DDA review delivers workable anti discrimination protection for people with disability throughout Australia, the lives of many gamers with disability are set to become easier, as a well known tech giant has just introduced a major accessibility initiative designed to help players find gaming features that suit their individual needs. Gaming developer Microsoft claims to have partnered with accessibility consultants and player advocates in its development stage to create searchable filter tags, which include labels such as colorblind modes, audio description, re mappable controls and one handed play, so gamers will know what functions are available before purchasing content. Until now, many players with disability had no real way of knowing if a gaming title would include accessibility features relevant to their disability until they had already purchased the game and got it out of the box. So for gamers with additional accessibility needs, these tags could be a real game changer. However, this isn't the first time action has been taken to improve accessibility for gamers with disability. Rival developer Sony Interactive Entertainment Sie, the company behind the popular PlayStation five console, also lays claim to have made significant contributions to the accessible gaming world, according to product inclusion specialist and change management expert Yuichi haga in 2020 Mr. Haga founded the able at PlayStation employee network, a community dedicated to elevating the importance of accessibility and working to remove barriers in the gaming industry. He believes the company's efforts towards a better playing experience have been well received winning the disability equality index's best places to work for disability inclusion award in 2021 Mr. Haggis says he finds it thrilling to see a community of millions of gamers benefit from the impact bringing together like minded people and realizing the impact we can have, not only within sie and our work culture, but also through providing insights and guidance to cross functional teams in The business. A leader in championing accessibility as Able Gamers, a gaming development organization which focuses on supporting people with disabilities and driving action oriented advocacy within the gaming industry, two out of every 10 gamers live with disability, while 45% of individuals with disability play video games, according to ablegamers.org, Activision Blizzard, the gaming developer behind the crash, bandicoot and Call of Duty franchises, has been collaborating with AbleGamers In upgrading accessibility features within their games since 2020 according to the company's website. In a statement on Activision Blizzard's website, head of inclusive game design, Adrian leder says accessibility in gaming has a particular responsibility to help gamers of all abilities feel invited to try gaming experiences. Accessibility in gaming is an abstract concept for some, and it is new for others, but for everyone, it means a new way to connect, understand and experience, according to accessibility.org.au, companies like Sony, Ubisoft, Amazon games and Riot Games have also joined the latest iteration in accessible gaming, making it a cross industry effort. Whatever the outcome, the move could push the gaming industry to make accessibility features a mandatory component. Component of video games in the future. Now, back to Emma and Sam. Thank

Sam Rickard 10:06

you, Kate, video games. Now, are you much of a gamer? Look,

Emma Myers 10:10

I wouldn't call myself another gamer. I don't sit up until all hours of the night doing it, but I do spend about two hours per day. It's kind of my way of relaxing after a big day, and I actually use it to do a bit of armchair traveling. I like video games that are set in historical periods.

Sam Rickard 10:35

Okay, so what sort of games?

Emma Myers 10:37

Specifically I like the Assassin's Creed video game franchise, because it takes you to, you know, ancient Greece, ancient Egypt. It takes you to feudal Japan. That takes you to all of these far places that if you have a disability, it's often quite difficult to travel to the remnants of these civilizations,

Sam Rickard 11:04

I find sometimes some of these games, also the random violence, can be somewhat cathartic. When you've had a rather stressful day. It's like, yes, okay, I spent an entire slaving over a hot computer, and now I'm going to go and beat somebody up, as it were, I don't know about you, that's I mean,

Emma Myers 11:20

I quite like the Call of Duty games. I like, I like Gan said in World War Two and World War One. I mean, I just reach for the machine gun because then I don't have to accurately aim well. And this

Sam Rickard 11:35

is what brings it up, really is there are a lot of games that I'll steer clear of and especially the open world games and things like that. Because, yeah, I mean, I have limited hand to eye coordination, so it's very hard for me to compete against other people in this kind of thing. And yes, I am colorblind, so there are some things which I have trouble seeing. The thing is,

Emma Myers 11:59

for me, is I don't know what what accessibility functions are built into a game, until I buy and put it into the machine, and then I go to the settings, and I go, Okay, there's no settings for different dexterity functions and And it's the same with like, as you were saying, Sam, I don't game online because I know that if other players are looking at my character, they're going to go for my character because they can't control the character properly, and so they're going to immediately take me out. But there is hope now, because a lot of the major gaming companies are now implementing accessibility tags in their online store, which can show you what accessibility functions are available in your favorite game, such as colorblind features.

Sam Rickard 13:00

Ah, and I think this is a really positive thing. It's like any other industry. I think they're slowly starting to learn that there are more of us out there playing their games or consuming their consumables. Then they would have thought so if they can tailor things for us, then they will have more of us buying things and maybe less consumer pushback. So that is a really positive side to things. All right, so what have we got to look forward to next week,

Emma Myers 13:27

we are looking at the Disability Research Center, and we're looking at what they've got in the pipeline in terms of the projects that they're funding towards achieving equality for people with disability.

Sam Rickard 13:43

Anyway, this is a wrap for this wrap, we'll be back, of course, next week. Bye for now,

Kate Cooper 13:47

you can find these articles and more by going to Powerd, spelt, P, O, W, E, R, D, dot media, along with the podcast of this show, the powered news wrap was brought to you by disability media Australia. This show was produced by Sam Rickard in the Adelaide studios of Vision Australia radio you.