A vision impaired member contacted the Blind Citizens Australia (BCA) office for support in a case against his local post office. During a visit to the post office to have his passport photos taken, he was advised that he would need to go elsewhere to have his photos taken as the computer system was detecting an issue with his eyes. His eye movements were not conforming to the usual photo layout and therefore the system was not allowing his photo to be printed out. Staff advised that they were also unable to override the system manually.

The member had then attended a chemist to have his photos taken. The photos were taken successfully and the chemist had attached a signed certificate certifying that the member had vision impairment. The member was required to pay $20 for this certificate.

The individual felt embarrassed and inconvenienced and wanted to make a systemic change so that other people who were blind or vision impaired didn’t have to experience the same issue.

The member sought assistance from an advocate to have his complaint heard and was supported to draft up a complaint letter to be submitted through online complaint systems. The matter was unresolved at the level of the post office level and the member was assisted to escalate the complaint further up to the Postal Ombudsman, the Commonwealth Ombudsman and finally to the Victorian Human Rights Commission.

Through mediation with the Victorian Human Rights commission, Australia Post was able to commit to a timeframe to audit and modify information systems to produce photos for people who are blind or vision impaired.

Australia Post has also committed to engaging with blindness agencies to develop and implement its Accessibility Action Plan, as well as to provide feedback to the Australian Passport Office on its findings in relation to the limitations of the passport photographic requirements.