CRAIG WALLACE welcomes the new world of all-electricity, but warns that newer products come with touch screens that blind people can’t use or confusing functions that create barriers for people with disabilities. 

CANBERRA is on the precipice of an electrifying transition. Quite literally. By 2045, the goal is to achieve net zero emissions from fossil fuel gas and instead realise 100 per cent electrification across the city.

The ACT government’s Pathway to Electrification strategy expounds the environmental, health, and economic advantages that come with the shift. 

And there are advantages, but the key challenge is ensuring everyone has the chance to enjoy them without unacceptable damage on the way through, especially to people with disability.  

As you read this you might wonder why we would be talking about energy transition. Yet as we finally feel the chill of an oncoming Canberra winter, some issues are clear. High unstable prices for gas and electricity can be a savage blow to the budgets of people with disabilities on fixed low and modest incomes, unlike high-income earners or those who can absorb them or the able-bodied thrifty who can try and defray them. 

Some impairments, such as quadriplegia, have medical issues with temperature regulation and potentially life-threatening implications when things go awry. Throwing on an extra jumper to save on bills doesn’t cut it.   

Investing in solar panels and switching to renewable household sources offer relief from costs and bill shock. Yet these investments represent a large upfront cost and are generally dependent on a person owning their home. Unfortunately, this remains out of reach for people with disability often stuck struggling in the private rental market or in public housing.  

This lack of control – coupled with the inability to “act early” – poses real risks to gas consumers. As gas is phased out, those unable to make an early transition to electricity will face higher gas network costs as they are spread across a declining customer base. 

An all-electric future offers opportunities to improve quality of life for all of us. Not only are electrical kitchen appliances and household heating more efficient and modern, but they are also considered safer. 

But the lack of regulation and user support surrounding newer electrically designed household products creates accessibility and usability issues. For instance, some newer products come with touch screens that blind people can’t use, or confusing programmable functions that create barriers for people with disabilities, as well as older people. 

My older relative, who has never used a computer or smartphone, recently moved from a ex government home with a gas oven into a swish unit complete with a self-programmable electric one with an array of buttons, pre-programmed cook settings but, sadly, no instruction manual.  I’m fairly tech savvy but after two hours wrangling with online videos we could barely get the clock to work let alone grill cheese on toast. Now they simply won’t use it.  

As people are “moved” across to electricity and new devices, the government has a role in tandem with industry, in ensuring that they are accessible and people are supported to use them. 

The current expansion of the electric vehicle (EV) market also highlights these issues. 

The ACT has the fastest growing fleet of EVs. In March, almost 19 per cent of newly registered vehicles were battery EVs. Despite high levels of EVs, public charging facilities throughout the ACT are sparse and often inaccessible. 

A lack of public stations means that people rely on home or work-based charging: again out of reach for those who rent. These newer vehicles are also being built with features that make them incompatible with disabled driver modifications. 

As the EV market share continues to expand, these issues must be taken seriously and sorted.   

Reliability is an elephant in the room and we need to face its social dimensions. As we move towards an electricity market reliant on balancing supply and demand with real-time data from consumers instead of baseload power, some commentators have noted potential vulnerabilities related to cyber-attack or other circumstances.  

The regulator has also noted risks of outages at individual plants.  Outages are unlikely but conceivable risks.  

While occasional outages might be a (serious) inconvenience to most people and an acceptable cost within a transition with enormous benefits, they risk serious harm to people with disability. This includes those on home ventilation or oxygen, using CPAP (sleep apnea) machines, car-dependent people being unable to access vehicles in electric garages or people being unable to charge electric mobility scooters or other assistive devices.

Power outages in Australia have had tragic outcomes for people with disability reliant on specific medical devices. In Perth, two young men died when their respirators failed during a major storm in 2014, and in Adelaide, a power-line malfunction resulted in the death of a man relying on a ventilator.  

Planning for the transition must include public provision for emergency supply by people with medical devices, existential heating and cooling needs and other issues requiring a reliable affordable supply of power and backups such as home batteries. 

Issues like these are why Advocacy for Inclusion’s recent submission to the ACT government’s consultation on preventing new fossil-fuel gas network connections urges close attention to cost, accessibility and universal design considerations in mandating the take-up of electric products. The market should be closely monitored to negate price fluctuations and bill shock and firm up reliability.

If signs in the planning space – where the government recently rejected long-standing calls from within the ACT community sector for a greater focus on universal design and social planning – are any indication, vulnerable Canberrans may struggle to get the ACT government to take these issues seriously in the journey to an all-electric future. 

People with disabilities are among the first affected by failures to consider social needs in transitions across infrastructure, transport, housing, and utilities. This involves foresight but also demands a conversation around the kind of city we are building, and more importantly, for whom. A failure to do so will see many of us left in the dark. 

Craig Wallace is the A/g CEO for Advocacy for Inclusion