Cuts in federal funding mean blind and vision impaired told to use websites to find suppliers of braille, large-print

VISION impaired people are being told they must use websites to find interstate suppliers of information in large print, e-text, audio and braille because of federal funding changes, the Royal Society for the Blind says.

VISION impaired people are being told they must use websites to find interstate suppliers of information in large print, e-text, audio and braille because of federal funding changes, the Royal Society for the Blind says.

A decision to cut Print Disability Services from four providers to two, on contracts worth $5.7 million from 2018 to 2021, means South Australia and Northern Territory will now have no local service provider.

At present, the RSB uses its network of nine branches across South Australia, along with staff who visit clients in their homes or workplaces, to arrange services.

The Department of Social Services is advising the RSB it should tell its clients to go to the website of the interstate suppliers to access services.

RSB spokesman Darrin Johnson said more than 75 per cent of their clients were elderly and many lived alone.

“We believe that directing an 82-year-old woman who has gone blind late in life after developing glaucoma to use a website to arrange a service, shows just how out of touch the department is,” Mr Johnson said

“If they can manage to use the supplier’s website to arrange a service, they will then be required to write a letter explaining what they need and to send the materials to the two interstate service providers.

“Our fear is that for the majority of blind and vision impaired people using this type of service, this is just all too hard and quite frankly, unfair.

“We are extremely disappointed by this decision which we feel demonstrates a lack of understanding of the difficulties associated with being blind and vision impaired.”
Mr Johnson said federal funding only covered about half the cost of providing the service, but if it was cut completely the RSB would have no choice but to direct clients to the interstate providers.

The RSB has decided to use charitable funding and grant funding from other sources to maintain a skeleton service for the next six months while lobbying the Social Services Minister Dan Tehan to overturn the decision.

It is launching a Not Happy Dan campaign with an online petition.

Mr Tehan said the government has increased funding to the program.

“A review in 2017 recommended improvements to the program to reach a wider audience,” he said. “Following a competitive tender process in 2017, VisAbility and Vision Australia were selected to provide services under the Print Disability Services Program 2018-2021.”