Access to Telecommunications for People with Disabilities: Regulatory Impact Statement

The proposal's compliance cost is the time taken by each liable operator to pay for the levy to fund the Relay Service, and is considered to be minimal. Consequently, a Business Compliance Cost Statement has not been prepared.

Contents

• Nature and Magnitude of the Problem
• Public Policy Objectives
• Feasible Options to Achieve Policy Objectives
• Statement of the Net Benefit of the Proposal
• Provision of a Relay Service
• Provision of Teletypewriters (TTYs)
• Consultation Undertaken

Nature and Magnitude of the Problem

The telephone service communication needs of severely hearing and speech impaired people including Deaf people¹ (the affected population) are not being met by existing telephone services. Lack of access to the standard telephone network limits the affected population's ability to participate in society.²

Public Policy Objectives

The objective of the policy is to provide the means for the affected population to use telephones services to communicate with any other telephone service user. This would enable the affected population to more fully participate in New Zealand society and address their human rights concerns in respect of access to telephone communication services.

Feasible Options to Achieve Policy Objectives

Three options to meet the telephone service needs of the affected population have been assessed:

• the status quo, incorporating fax, mobile phones providing text services and computer email communication;
• new technologies including voice recognition software; and
• a Relay Service.³

Neither the status quo nor new technologies currently meet the telephone service needs of the affected population, because they do not currently provide both the instant response and the wide availability required to communicate with any telephone service user in the world. A Relay Service does meet these needs as it can provide instant response communication with all telephone service users.

Statement of the Net Benefit of the Proposal

The benefits are:

• the affected population will be able to communicate by telephone with other members of the community. This will enable significantly greater participation in the community, including in the workforce, and benefit the whole community;⁴
• it would address the telephone service related human rights issues for the affected population; and
• it is consistent with implementation of government policy for telecommunications services and the objectives of the New Zealand Disability Strategy.

The Costs are:

• provision of a Relay Service is likely to cost $2 million per annum, possibly rising to $5 million per annum over time (excluding the costs of TTYs);
• the cost to users of purchasing or renting a TTY;
• the cost to government agencies of funding the purchase or rental of TTYs. These costs are estimated to be between $500,000 and $1 million over the initial five-year uptake period for the Ministry of Health, excluding possible costs to Vote: Work and Income and Votes: Veterans Affairs (which will be assessed and reported on by 30 September 2002); and
• a possible disincentive for the users of the Relay Service to use future alternative communication systems. This risk can be managed by use of a tender specification that is technologically neutral, that specifies an initial supply term of 3-5 years, and by incorporating a review of the best means of achieving the required functionality when calling for tenders in advance of the expiry of an existing Relay Service TSO contract.

The introduction of a relay service would overcome the barriers that the affected population face in accessing standard telephone services, and would support the Government's objective of providing telecommunication services on a "fair and equitable basis" to all existing and potential users. Officials consider that there are likely to be considerable benefits to the disability community and the community at large from the Relay Service and that the costs of providing the service are modest by comparison.

The Minister of Communications and the Minster of Disability Issues therefore recommend that the Government move to ensure that a Relay Service is introduced.

Provision of a Relay Service

Three potential options could be used to provide a Relay Service. They are:

• rely on the Human Rights Commission proceedings;
• government funding; and
• use the Telecommunications Service Obligation (TSO) funding mechanism in the Telecommunications Act 2001.⁵

Reliance on the Human Rights Review Tribunal's proceedings is not favoured as it is not certain that this mechanism will provide funding for a Relay Service in a timely manner. While the telecommunications industry has indicated in consultation that their preferred option is for Government funding to cover the cost of the Relay Service, the Minister of Communications and the Minister for Disability Issues recommend the use of the Telecommunications Service Obligation (TSO) mechanism. A Relay Service meets the purpose of the TSO mechanism, which is to provide services to groups of end users where those services may not otherwise be provided on a commercial basis or at an affordable price. Use of the TSO mechanism to fund a Relay Service is also consistent with the Government's decision to fund (via the TSO mechanism) the net cost to Telecom of complying with the Kiwi Share Obligations.

Provision of Teletypewriters (TTYs)

Teletypewriters (TTYs) are required to access the Relay Service. A standard TTY costs about $900. It is expected that commercial rental of TTYs will be available; further work around TTY access issues will be undertaken by the Ministry of Economic Development the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Social Development prior to tenders being called for the provision of a Relay Service by TSO.

Consultation Undertaken

This paper has been jointly prepared by the Ministry of Economic Development and the Ministry of Health. The Ministries of Justice; Social Development, including the Senior Citizens Unit; Agriculture and Forestry; Veterans Affairs; Te Puni Kokiri, and The Treasury have been consulted on this paper.

There has also been consultation with groups representing the disability community and telecommunications service providers.

¹ The use of a capital D for Deaf denotes a group of people who consider themselves a distinct cultural and linguistic minority.

² The number of Deaf and speech impaired people who cannot use the standard telephone network is estimated to be about seven thousand.

³ A Relay Service will enable people who have difficulty hearing or speaking on the telephone to communicate using a teletypewriter (TTY) with an intermediary, who in turn speaks to the other person, and to read the incoming reply from the other person on the TTY's display.

⁴ Relay Services have proven to be an effective method of meeting the telephone service communication needs of Deaf and speech impaired people internationally. Eighteen countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Brazil operate Relay Services.

⁵ The Telecommunications Act 2001 provides for the establishment of Telecommunications Service Obligations (TSOs). The purpose of a TSO is to facilitate the supply of certain telecommunications services to groups of end users within New Zealand to whom these telecommunications services may not otherwise be supplied on a commercial basis and/or at an affordable price. The cost of any new TSOs will be borne by telephone service providers, and ultimately reflected in telephone service prices.

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