Results of the 2011 Telstra-TJA Christopher Newell Prize for telecommunications and disability
On 10 May 2011 Dr Rhonda Galbally AO, on behalf of Senator the Hon Jan McLucas,
Federal Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children’s Services,
presented the 2011 Telstra-TJA Christopher Newell Prize for Telecommunications
and Disability at a ceremony in Melbourne hosted by the competition sponsor,
Telstra.
The Prize is for the best original paper or papers submitted to
the Telecommunications Journal of Australia (TJA) that demonstrate the tangible
benefits that an innovative use of telecommunications technology can deliver in
assisting people with disability. The winners are selected by an independent
Judging Panel, chaired by the Managing Editor of TJA, Dr Peter
Gerrand.
This year three papers shared the prize money of $15,000 and a
total of five papers have been accepted for publication in TJA. This is a
significant increase on the previous year when three papers were accepted for
publishing. The 2011 award winners are:
(i) Melissa McCarthy, from the Royal
Institute for Deaf and Blind Children, NSW, for her paper “Using technology to
support children with sensory disability in remote areas: The RIDBC Teleschool
model” [Equal First Prize];
(ii) Robert Morsillo, from the Institute for
Social Research at Swinburne University and Telstra Consumer Affairs, Melbourne,
for his paper “One down, two to go: Public policy in service of an available,
affordable and accessible National Broadband Network for people with disability”
[Equal First Prize]; and
(iii) Quoc Vu Vy and Deborah Ingrid Fels, from
the Centre for Learning Technologies at Ryerson University, Canada, for their
paper “Enhanced Captioning. Speaker Identification: Text vs. Images” [Second
Prize].
These papers have been published in the May 2011 issue of TJA, together
with those of the other finalists and are made publicly available with the
support of the Sponsor.
At the Awards ceremony Mr Phill Sporton, Executive Director, Telstra Service Delivery,
announced that Telstra will sponsor the Christopher Newell Prize again in 2012,
in collaboration with TJA. The prize recognises and commemorates the
ground-breaking work that the late Revd Canon Dr Christopher Newell AM undertook
within the telecommunications industry from 1990 to 2008 in representing the
needs of people with disability.
$15,000 will again be made available in prizes
awarded for the best, original papers offered for publication by TJA that
demonstrate the tangible benefits that an innovative use of telecommunications
technology can deliver in assisting individuals with disabilities. The
competition is world-wide, and the deadline for entries will be 15 January
2012. The event was hosted by Telstra in Melbourne.