September 16, 2025 • 27 mins
This week we hear from Vision Australia Radio Geelong volunteer Jo Smith, who catches up with Vision Australia access technology specialist Kent Walsdorf. Kent shares a series of tips and tricks for screen reader users to avoid email scams, and stay cyber secure.
You'll also hear from Vision Australia radio and audio manager Conrad Browne, Sam catches up with him to chat about the record nine nominations Vision Australia Radio has received this year for the upcoming Community Broadcasting Association of Australia awards, taking place in Hobart in late October.
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Episode Transcript
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S1 (00:21):
From Vision Australia. This is talking vision. And now here's
your host, Sam Colley.
S2 (00:31):
Hello, everyone. It's great to be here with you. And
for the next half hour, we talk matters of blindness
and low vision.
S3 (00:38):
Make sure you're trained in how to use the screen
reader properly. So knowing how to check character by character,
knowing how to select an email address and copy that
into a text editor. Those things are really, really important
to be able to do.
S2 (00:51):
Welcome to the program. This week you'll hear from Vision
Australia Access technology specialist Ken Walsdorf. He caught up with
Vision Australia Radio Geelong's Joe Smith to chat about cyber
security and how to keep on top of email scams
using a screen reader. That interview is coming up very shortly,
(01:14):
so make sure to stick around to hear from Joe
and Ken. And then later on in the show, there's
some exciting news from Vision Australia Radio, as the network
has picked up nine nominations for this year's Community Broadcasting
Association of Australia awards, taking place later this year in Hobart.
(01:35):
I had the great pleasure of catching up with manager
of radio and audio services at Vision Australia, Conrad Brown,
to chat all about it, so make sure to stick
around for that one. I hope you'll enjoy this week's
episode of Talking Vision. Kicking off the show this week,
(01:56):
we hear from a volunteer from Vision Australia radio in Geelong.
Her name is Joe Smith and she caught up with
Kent Walsdorf from Vision Australia. Now Kent is one of
our access technology specialists, and he chatted with Joe about
some tips and tricks for screen reader users to avoid
(02:20):
email scams and make sure their cyber security is rock solid,
and they can ensure any email that comes into their
inbox they can handle with confidence using either screen reader
or eyebrow technology. Should they have it? So without further ado,
(02:41):
here's Joe Smith with Kent Walsdorf.
S4 (02:44):
Hi and welcome to this information session about cyber safety
and screen reader users and how to unmask online scams.
I'm Joe Smith and I'm joined by Kent Walsdorf from
Vision Australia. Can you tell us a little bit about
what you do at Vision Australia and the topic we
are talking about today?
S3 (03:02):
Hey Joe. Yes, thanks for having me here today. So
my name's Kent Walsdorf and I've been with Vision Australia
for about nine years now, and I am an Access
Technology Development lead, which is a very long title. But
the good thing about my role is I do a
lot of things here at Vision Australia, a lot of projects,
and I work with our Access Technology development team. So
(03:23):
with that, I am involved in technology. I'm involved with
screen readers, which we're going to talk a little bit
about today. And one of the projects that I'm spearheading
at the moment is a project around cyber safety, in
particular for the blind and low vision community. So what
we're doing over this year and next is we're providing
some webinars, interviews and audio book course, which is going
(03:45):
to be great, where users can or listeners can listen
to that on demand and also provide access to Braille
materials around cyber safety. So I'm here today to talk
about cyber safety and in particular how that will affect
or does affect screen reader users. So that's a pretty
important topic. And I thought, Joe, I might just start
with just giving you some information around cyber safety and
(04:08):
why it's so important. Um, if that's okay with you. Sure.
Because it's quite interesting. This. Um. So I went online
and there was a report that came out from the
National Anti-scam Centre in, um, it came out in March 2025,
and in 2022, there was $3.1 billion lost in cyber
scams in Australia alone. And the good news, if there's
(04:29):
any of that, is that in 2024, that's come down
to 2 billion. So it's all about awareness. It's all
about education for people around being safe online. And there's
a breakdown of where those scams came from. So investment
scams were the number one cause for taking your money.
And that was a 945 million last year. The lowest
(04:51):
category was phishing. And we're going to talk about phishing
scams today. And that was $84.5 million last year on
phishing scams. So how does that relate to what we're
talking about today? It's around screen reader users and identifying
email scams. And one thing I just want to touch
on before we move on is just what is a
screen reader? So for a person who has little functional
(05:14):
vision or maybe blind, a screen reader is a program
that they can use to interface with a digital device
so they can go on to a phone or onto
a computer, and use a screen reader to access information
and to navigate that device.
S4 (05:29):
And what exactly is a scam email, and why do
they particularly tricky for screen reader users to spot?
S3 (05:35):
Yeah. So a scam email. I think we've all had
scam emails in our time. If you're online and you
use the email and use email, you would have got
a scam email along the way. And they're getting far
more sophisticated as the technology increases. So scam email is
also known as a phishing email, and they are fake
messages designed to trick you into revealing your personal details
(05:57):
or sending money or clicking on dangerous links. All of
those things can be quite dangerous to you. They often
are mimicked by, or they mimic organizations that you may trust.
So it could be a bank or a government service
that they're trying to trick you into giving information over,
because it might be your local bank and things like that.
So they use well known brands to gain your trust.
(06:21):
And the important thing here is for screen reader users
in particular, spotting these scams is particularly challenging because they
rely on audio to navigate. So just to give you
an example of that, if you were to listen to
a screen reader user pronounce the words there t h
e I r or pronounce the word there t h
(06:41):
e r e. It actually sounds the same. So how
does that relate to what we're talking about? Well, that
relates by if a email came through that was commbank
and it was spelt c o m m b a
n k, it would sound exactly the same as the
real commbank name. So it's particularly difficult for screen reader
(07:01):
users to check spelling as they listen through the email.
So it's important to know that because there are ways
that you can check these kind of emails and make
sure that you're looking out for the clues that you
are not involved in a scam.
S4 (07:15):
And what are some of the top tactics scammers use
in these emails that screen reader users should be listening
out for?
S3 (07:22):
Yeah, absolutely. So you can go online. Actually there's an
act now stay secure. And this is where I've got
my information from. And this is from the Department of
Home Affairs providing this information. So there are some key
areas that you need to listen out for. So one
of them is scammers will use urgency and fear. So
you know immediate action required right now and get you
(07:43):
to act without thinking about it. I think more and
more nowadays people are becoming more aware about that. But
the key message there is just slow down and make
sure you verify through an official contact. So for example,
if you got something from Commbank that asks you to
input details, don't do that. Ring the bank or go
onto their website and check it out. That way it's really,
(08:03):
really important. They often have prizes, or we'll say things
like there's a refund or an unexpected payment. Enter your
details now to get that. That's also a very common one.
They will impersonate trusted organisations. So we talked a little
bit about that. So typically you might see this from
government websites the Australia Post or Telstra those kinds of
(08:24):
big organisations because they have a lot of clients. So
that's where they sort of target those people. There's also
generic or odd greetings that come through as well. So
this is one of the key markers that you can
help to identify. So if it's if the email sort
of starts off like Dear user or dear Valued customer,
that's something to think about because often those emails will
(08:44):
actually use your real name. So it's just a bit
of a red flag there. It doesn't mean that it's
completely fake, but it's just a red flag to kind
of check and just take your time with with that email.
The last one, which is really important for everyone, is
unexpected attachments. So if an email comes through and there
might be a fake invoice or a shipping notice. Or
more importantly, if there's something that gets downloaded to your
(09:06):
device and you install it, that can be a real problem,
because that can install what we call malware. And malware
is almost like a virus that can infect your computer,
or they can track what you're viewing and what you're
typing into your computer. So it's really important just with
any email that comes through. If you don't know where
that's coming from, take your time and just confirm it
(09:27):
with either that organization itself or if you don't think
it's related to you, delete it.
S4 (09:31):
So for screen reader users specifically, how can they safely
check sender email addresses and where links actually lead to
without putting themselves at risk?
S3 (09:42):
So the important thing with emails is that display names
can be faked. And what I mean by that is
that if an email comes into your inbox, it can
actually read as, say, from Amazon, but it's the actual
email address that's important. So you might see in your
inbox on your email Amazon okay. That's legitimate. It's not.
(10:02):
The important part is the actual email address. And that's
what you need to focus on. So to do that
with a screen reader, it's really important that you are
reading that email address letter by letter. That's actually the
only way that you can tell whether it's a real
email address or a fake one. And again, as we mentioned,
commbank with an extra M will sound exactly the same
(10:24):
as commbank spelt correctly. So you need to actually go
through with a screen reader and identify each letter going through.
So check the email itself. It's a big one. The
other one with screen reader users is that they'll often,
or some will be Braille users as well. And that's
a really nice way to also be able to read
the email address, so you can pull the email up
(10:44):
on Braille and read it character by character. And this
can help catch those typos and those hidden little hyphens
and things like that. The other thing is, don't click
on the link. You can actually copy the link out
and paste it into a plain text editor. Now if
you don't know what that means, it's basically a separate
program that if you copy that link into that program,
(11:06):
you can again read the email character by character. Now
that might be like, I don't even know what that
means or I don't know how to do that. What
I will say is that we do have access technology
specialists that can help walk through these steps and show
you the tools of using your screen reader to be
able to read character by character, or copy the email
into those text editor programs. So that's often available through
(11:27):
Vision Australia. And the last one is verify links and
make sure they match the official site. So again, if
you get an email and it's asking for information, just
check with the domain names coming from. So make sure
it's like at commbank or whatever it might be. And
that matches up to the actual organization. It's really, really important.
(11:48):
And again if you need any advice on this, the
website which is the Department of Home Affairs website. Act
now stay secure. Has all of this information on there
for you.
S4 (11:58):
So beyond recognizing scams, what are some general cyber security
actions everyone, specifically screen reader users can take to stay
safer online?
S3 (12:09):
I think one of the important things is make sure
you're trained in how to use the screen reader properly.
So knowing how to check character by character, knowing how
to select an email address and copy that into a
text editor. Those things are really, really important to be
able to do. And then it's just the things that
everyone else needs to do as well. Just take it slow,
so check everything that comes your way thoroughly. You don't
(12:32):
need to act right away. You can take your time.
Call the organization itself if you're unsure. Get levelled up
on scams and how they're evolving. Levelled up as a
term that my kids use nowadays, but it basically means
become educated on where the scams are coming from and
how they're happening, because they are moving quickly. So back
in the days, we used to be able to identify
scams with spelling errors and those kinds of things. That's
(12:54):
becoming less and less easy to do because the scammers
are using more sophisticated tools to make sure the emails
are correct. So understand what's happening out. There is a
big part of knowing how to stay secure and safe.
And we also have at Vision Australia tools for you
to access. So we've got some upcoming webinars that I'll
be presenting. Uh, one will be in October, and we'll
(13:16):
be promoting that through our social channels and through our blog.
And that will be looking at cyber safety and security
specifically for the blind and low vision community. And there's
also the resources out there. Again, the Act Now Stay
Secure website is really important one. And also interviews like
this will be forming hopefully some more of these throughout
the year.
S4 (13:33):
Well thank you Ken for joining us for this information
session about cyber safety for screen reader users and how
to unmask online scams.
S3 (13:41):
Thanks for having me. Appreciate it.
S2 (13:48):
I'm Sam Corley and you're listening to Talking Vision on
Vision Australia Radio. Associated stations of the Disability Media Australia
Network and the Community Radio Network. I hope you enjoyed
that conversation there with Joe and Kent. If you missed
any part of that chat or you'd love to hear
(14:09):
it again. Talking vision is available on the podcast app
of your choice or through the Vision Australia library. In
just over a month's time, the winners of the 2025
Community Radio Awards will be announced in Hobart. And in
some very exciting news this year. Vision Australia Radio has
(14:32):
received a record nine finalist nominations. And to have a
chat with us about this fantastic news, it's my great
pleasure to welcome back a favourite of ours on Talking Vision,
manager of radio and audio Services at Vision Australia, Conrad Brown. Conrad,
(14:52):
welcome back to Talking Vision. Great to have you.
S5 (14:55):
Nice to be back, Sam.
S2 (14:57):
Now we've got a very exciting few bits of info
to let our listeners know about. The Cbaa Awards are
coming up, and there's quite a few nominations from Vision
Australia Radio that are coming through, which is very exciting.
S5 (15:13):
Yes, we've had a record nine nominations for the Community
Radio Awards this year. It was a really lovely surprise,
although I shouldn't say totally unexpected. You know, we obviously
did put a lot of work into the nominations following
all the fantastic work our staff and volunteers have done
over the 12 month period in broadcasting. And so I
(15:37):
guess the difficult part was making sure that we remembered
everyone that we wanted to put forward into the nominations.
And yes, it was really wonderful to see nine nominations
come through for a really diverse and interesting amount of
programming and different types of content as well that spanned
everything from sports to news, disability engagement, podcasting and special
(16:01):
events as well. So yeah, a really wonderful acknowledgment for
all the hard work that many people have put in
this year.
S2 (16:08):
Absolutely. And from your perspective, what does it mean to
see this recognition of so many programs and so many
great people involved in Vision Australia Radio getting that recognition
in these awards?
S5 (16:22):
I think you've nailed it just with that, Sam. It's
all about that recognition and acknowledgement. Many of our volunteers
and our staff as well, they just kind of are
always getting on with what they need to do, and
they do it so well. And I think it's nice
to take a moment to recognize their contribution, and particularly
when they've done something, you know, potentially that is above
(16:45):
and beyond or really highlights their skill and expertise that
they bring to Vision Australia Radio as well. And that
includes yourself Sam.
S2 (16:55):
Mhm.
S5 (16:56):
Yeah.
S2 (16:57):
You know.
S5 (16:58):
Can I embarrass you by.
S2 (16:59):
Letting.
S5 (17:00):
Everyone know that Sam is once again nominated this year, however,
in a new category, Outstanding Presenter News and Current Affairs.
For your role in talking Vision and Sam, I think
obviously we know and all appreciate the importance of talking
vision and what it brings to our radio service. But
there'd be no talking vision without Sam Collie. So, uh,
(17:22):
we're very delighted to see that your contribution and all
of the work that you put in was acknowledged in
the category of best presenter as well.
S2 (17:31):
Well, I will say it's the guests that make it special,
and I'm just the conduit to, um, telling all these stories.
And there's so many people out there and being involved,
you know, having the disability radio network available and being
able to work through that is, um, you know, it's been, um,
it's been great and I'm looking forward to seeing how
(17:54):
things go. But as always, it's about the guests and
it's about all the, you know, people behind the scenes
who make it happen.
S5 (18:00):
Oh, that's very generous of you. And when you say guests,
you know, I'm your current guest. So I took that
as a pat on the back for me, which I'll take.
S2 (18:07):
Yes, absolutely.
S5 (18:08):
So thanks for that, Sam. Yeah. We also received some
nominations in categories that we've shown, you know, a really
good showing in the past, um, including best programme news
and Current affairs and also best programme talks and best
programme new as well. But we're also hoping to pick
up a win for some of the categories. One of
(18:30):
the ones that I'm really excited about, which you were
also a contributor to, was our Midsummer Carnival Day Live
broadcast in January of this year. That really amazing crossover
and intersectionality, I guess, that we try to achieve when
we're looking at getting involved in different partnerships and different events.
(18:50):
And for me, midsummer is such a great way to
not only highlight the importance of what the LGBTQIA+ community
are doing and what's happening in that space as well,
but that intersectionality with the disability community and all of
those things that connect us. You know, we are more
than one thing, obviously, but it was really wonderful to
(19:11):
be able to broadcast from Carnival Day in Melbourne, down
at the gardens and spread the word about all the
great work that midsummer is doing, and also all the
wonderful things that Vision Australia and Vision Australia Radio are
contributing in that space as well. So yeah, really excited
to see that. Nominated for excellence in special events and
outside broadcasting.
S2 (19:32):
Absolutely. And just quickly, I will let our listeners know
out there, get involved in an outside broadcast if you
ever get the opportunity. It's one of the highlights of
the year for anyone involved in radio. I do love
an outside broadcast. They're so much fun, aren't they? Conrad.
When they go right.
S5 (19:53):
Of course, most of the.
S2 (19:54):
Time when they go right, you know, live radio. Live radio,
you know, if it all goes to plan, it's an absolute. Ball. So, yeah,
all people out there get involved with your local community broadcaster.
If there's an outside broadcast happening, definitely put your hand up.
You'll have an absolutely fantastic time. Now, Conrad, one other
(20:15):
thing I'd love to mention the fact that last year,
Vision Australia Radio and the Disability Radio Network was involved
in eight nominations, and this year it's gone up to nine.
So what does that mean from your standpoint to see
those sort of numbers coming through and the network going
(20:36):
from strength to strength and really putting its best foot
forward and being involved in so many great things and
increasing those number of nominations.
S5 (20:46):
You know, it's I mean, it's lovely to get the nominations.
It's lovely that we were able to do, you know,
one up on last year. I think for me we
are such a proud member of the community radio sector.
We really are passionate about what we do. Everyone at
Vision Australia, from the staff to the 500 plus volunteers
within the radio service, you know we're all here to
(21:08):
deliver a service and to also provide a platform for
people within the community to be able to share their
lived experience of being blind or having low vision or
a print disability, but also celebrating all the different things,
the achievements in there and also acknowledging the challenges. And sometimes,
you know, the difficult things that we have to cover
(21:29):
and that we put out there through our radio network
as well. You know, there's categories this year, like we've
received our first ever nomination and outstanding youth contribution for Cal,
one of our incredible volunteers in Perth, you know, highlighting
the importance of someone under the age of 26, and
their contribution to the radio service is so special in
(21:50):
so many ways, and Cal does a fantastic job at
exemplifying why it is so important to get involved and
be a part of the radio service as well. One
thing about these nominations too, Sam, as someone asked me recently,
how do you figure out how to make a radio
program on Vision Australia Radio? How do you decide what's
(22:11):
going to be a new program on there? And I said,
you know, it can happen in so many different ways.
It can be an idea that a volunteer or a
staff member has. It can be come from externally. It
can come from listeners emailing us or giving us a
call and saying, why don't you have a show about this?
And look, everyone can have ideas, but not often can
(22:31):
you actually then always turn them into a radio program.
It might just be for lots of different reasons, but
I wanted to share that. About 18 months ago, I
received an email from a publisher of a journal called
Paper Change. His name is Damien, and he said he'd
been contacted by a listener to our digital radio service
(22:53):
in Darwin, and that the person who was writing to
Damien was incarcerated at the time in a facility. And
he loves radio, and he had discovered our service and
loved the fact that we read news and had a
different kind of perspective, I guess, on what was happening
and being able to really listen to and hear what
(23:15):
was happening around the world. And this listener just thought
it was such a great service. But he wished that
there was also information out there for people who were
imprisoned or incarcerated and their families and friends as well.
And Damien said, probably a real long shot, but if you've.
If you'd like to talk about doing something like that,
let me know. And I went back to him and said, well,
(23:37):
what would it look like? You know, how how would
what sort of show would this be? So luckily, Damien
is a very smart person, and he put us in
touch with another individual called Joseph, who is currently the
editor of a newspaper for incarcerated people, called About Time
and both About Time and Paper Chains are written for
and by people who have a real understanding of the
(23:59):
prison system, um, and also the people that are incarcerated
as well. And so they said, well, what about a
reading program where you could use us, both of our
sources and, uh, take it from there? So we did
what we do. We did a bit of a trial episode.
We worked through a few of the issues, and then
we launched the program, and it's been a really great
(24:21):
program to add within our incredible range of programs across
the Vision Australia Radio Network, plus also to be able
to actually take something that came from listener feedback and
turn it into something worthwhile has been really exciting. So
to know that we put that show forward in the
best program news and current affairs, it's called Inside Voice.
(24:43):
We podcast that program as well. Check out VA radio.org
for more details on that. But yeah, to know that
that program has been acknowledged in that way was a
really you know, I know it's a bit of a cliche,
but a full circle moment.
S2 (24:55):
Yeah.
S5 (24:56):
To take an email in some conversations and turn it
into an award nominated program is something that I'm really
proud of, that we've all done as a team too.
S2 (25:04):
Mhm. And I had the great pleasure of catching up
with Joseph Friedman a few months ago when that was
all kicking off, and it was great to have a
chat with him about the show and about his involvement
as the editor of About Time and how that all
sort of that collaboration got off the ground. And yeah,
(25:24):
so it's fantastic to hear that it's going really well
and nominated for that award. Now, just finally to let
people know out there, the winners of the 2025 Community
Radio Awards will be announced later this year in Hobart.
And regardless of the outcome, this year's recognition marks a
(25:46):
proud milestone for our community and a celebration of accessible
broadcasting at its very best. And if you'd love to
find out a little bit more about the nominations for
this year, both the programs and the volunteers that make
the network possible, you can, of course, head to the
(26:06):
Vision Australia Radio website. At radio that's radio all. One
word dot to check it all out. Conrad, thank you
so much for your time today. Great to have you
back on the show. Always great to chat and really
pleased to hear about the nine nominations for this year's
(26:28):
Community Radio Awards. Thank you Conrad, so much. It's been great.
S5 (26:32):
Thank you. Sam, I always appreciate the opportunity to speak
with you.
S2 (26:42):
And that's all the time we have for today. You've
been listening to Talking Vision. Talking vision is a Vision
Australia radio production. Thanks to all involved with putting the
show together every week. And remember, we love hearing from you.
So please get in touch anytime on our email at
Talking Panavision Australia. That's talking vision all. One word at
(27:07):
Vision Australia dot. But until next week it's Sam Corley
saying bye for now.
S1 (27:16):
You can contact Vision Australia by phoning us anytime during
business hours on one 384 746. That's one 384 74
six or by visiting Vision Australia that's Vision Australia.
From Vision Australia. This is talking vision. And now here's
your host, Sam Colley.
S2 (00:31):
Hello, everyone. It's great to be here with you. And
for the next half hour, we talk matters of blindness
and low vision.
S3 (00:38):
Make sure you're trained in how to use the screen
reader properly. So knowing how to check character by character,
knowing how to select an email address and copy that
into a text editor. Those things are really, really important
to be able to do.
S2 (00:51):
Welcome to the program. This week you'll hear from Vision
Australia Access technology specialist Ken Walsdorf. He caught up with
Vision Australia Radio Geelong's Joe Smith to chat about cyber
security and how to keep on top of email scams
using a screen reader. That interview is coming up very shortly,
(01:14):
so make sure to stick around to hear from Joe
and Ken. And then later on in the show, there's
some exciting news from Vision Australia Radio, as the network
has picked up nine nominations for this year's Community Broadcasting
Association of Australia awards, taking place later this year in Hobart.
(01:35):
I had the great pleasure of catching up with manager
of radio and audio services at Vision Australia, Conrad Brown,
to chat all about it, so make sure to stick
around for that one. I hope you'll enjoy this week's
episode of Talking Vision. Kicking off the show this week,
(01:56):
we hear from a volunteer from Vision Australia radio in Geelong.
Her name is Joe Smith and she caught up with
Kent Walsdorf from Vision Australia. Now Kent is one of
our access technology specialists, and he chatted with Joe about
some tips and tricks for screen reader users to avoid
(02:20):
email scams and make sure their cyber security is rock solid,
and they can ensure any email that comes into their
inbox they can handle with confidence using either screen reader
or eyebrow technology. Should they have it? So without further ado,
(02:41):
here's Joe Smith with Kent Walsdorf.
S4 (02:44):
Hi and welcome to this information session about cyber safety
and screen reader users and how to unmask online scams.
I'm Joe Smith and I'm joined by Kent Walsdorf from
Vision Australia. Can you tell us a little bit about
what you do at Vision Australia and the topic we
are talking about today?
S3 (03:02):
Hey Joe. Yes, thanks for having me here today. So
my name's Kent Walsdorf and I've been with Vision Australia
for about nine years now, and I am an Access
Technology Development lead, which is a very long title. But
the good thing about my role is I do a
lot of things here at Vision Australia, a lot of projects,
and I work with our Access Technology development team. So
(03:23):
with that, I am involved in technology. I'm involved with
screen readers, which we're going to talk a little bit
about today. And one of the projects that I'm spearheading
at the moment is a project around cyber safety, in
particular for the blind and low vision community. So what
we're doing over this year and next is we're providing
some webinars, interviews and audio book course, which is going
(03:45):
to be great, where users can or listeners can listen
to that on demand and also provide access to Braille
materials around cyber safety. So I'm here today to talk
about cyber safety and in particular how that will affect
or does affect screen reader users. So that's a pretty
important topic. And I thought, Joe, I might just start
with just giving you some information around cyber safety and
(04:08):
why it's so important. Um, if that's okay with you. Sure.
Because it's quite interesting. This. Um. So I went online
and there was a report that came out from the
National Anti-scam Centre in, um, it came out in March 2025,
and in 2022, there was $3.1 billion lost in cyber
scams in Australia alone. And the good news, if there's
(04:29):
any of that, is that in 2024, that's come down
to 2 billion. So it's all about awareness. It's all
about education for people around being safe online. And there's
a breakdown of where those scams came from. So investment
scams were the number one cause for taking your money.
And that was a 945 million last year. The lowest
(04:51):
category was phishing. And we're going to talk about phishing
scams today. And that was $84.5 million last year on
phishing scams. So how does that relate to what we're
talking about today? It's around screen reader users and identifying
email scams. And one thing I just want to touch
on before we move on is just what is a
screen reader? So for a person who has little functional
(05:14):
vision or maybe blind, a screen reader is a program
that they can use to interface with a digital device
so they can go on to a phone or onto
a computer, and use a screen reader to access information
and to navigate that device.
S4 (05:29):
And what exactly is a scam email, and why do
they particularly tricky for screen reader users to spot?
S3 (05:35):
Yeah. So a scam email. I think we've all had
scam emails in our time. If you're online and you
use the email and use email, you would have got
a scam email along the way. And they're getting far
more sophisticated as the technology increases. So scam email is
also known as a phishing email, and they are fake
messages designed to trick you into revealing your personal details
(05:57):
or sending money or clicking on dangerous links. All of
those things can be quite dangerous to you. They often
are mimicked by, or they mimic organizations that you may trust.
So it could be a bank or a government service
that they're trying to trick you into giving information over,
because it might be your local bank and things like that.
So they use well known brands to gain your trust.
(06:21):
And the important thing here is for screen reader users
in particular, spotting these scams is particularly challenging because they
rely on audio to navigate. So just to give you
an example of that, if you were to listen to
a screen reader user pronounce the words there t h
e I r or pronounce the word there t h
(06:41):
e r e. It actually sounds the same. So how
does that relate to what we're talking about? Well, that
relates by if a email came through that was commbank
and it was spelt c o m m b a
n k, it would sound exactly the same as the
real commbank name. So it's particularly difficult for screen reader
(07:01):
users to check spelling as they listen through the email.
So it's important to know that because there are ways
that you can check these kind of emails and make
sure that you're looking out for the clues that you
are not involved in a scam.
S4 (07:15):
And what are some of the top tactics scammers use
in these emails that screen reader users should be listening
out for?
S3 (07:22):
Yeah, absolutely. So you can go online. Actually there's an
act now stay secure. And this is where I've got
my information from. And this is from the Department of
Home Affairs providing this information. So there are some key
areas that you need to listen out for. So one
of them is scammers will use urgency and fear. So
you know immediate action required right now and get you
(07:43):
to act without thinking about it. I think more and
more nowadays people are becoming more aware about that. But
the key message there is just slow down and make
sure you verify through an official contact. So for example,
if you got something from Commbank that asks you to
input details, don't do that. Ring the bank or go
onto their website and check it out. That way it's really,
(08:03):
really important. They often have prizes, or we'll say things
like there's a refund or an unexpected payment. Enter your
details now to get that. That's also a very common one.
They will impersonate trusted organisations. So we talked a little
bit about that. So typically you might see this from
government websites the Australia Post or Telstra those kinds of
(08:24):
big organisations because they have a lot of clients. So
that's where they sort of target those people. There's also
generic or odd greetings that come through as well. So
this is one of the key markers that you can
help to identify. So if it's if the email sort
of starts off like Dear user or dear Valued customer,
that's something to think about because often those emails will
(08:44):
actually use your real name. So it's just a bit
of a red flag there. It doesn't mean that it's
completely fake, but it's just a red flag to kind
of check and just take your time with with that email.
The last one, which is really important for everyone, is
unexpected attachments. So if an email comes through and there
might be a fake invoice or a shipping notice. Or
more importantly, if there's something that gets downloaded to your
(09:06):
device and you install it, that can be a real problem,
because that can install what we call malware. And malware
is almost like a virus that can infect your computer,
or they can track what you're viewing and what you're
typing into your computer. So it's really important just with
any email that comes through. If you don't know where
that's coming from, take your time and just confirm it
(09:27):
with either that organization itself or if you don't think
it's related to you, delete it.
S4 (09:31):
So for screen reader users specifically, how can they safely
check sender email addresses and where links actually lead to
without putting themselves at risk?
S3 (09:42):
So the important thing with emails is that display names
can be faked. And what I mean by that is
that if an email comes into your inbox, it can
actually read as, say, from Amazon, but it's the actual
email address that's important. So you might see in your
inbox on your email Amazon okay. That's legitimate. It's not.
(10:02):
The important part is the actual email address. And that's
what you need to focus on. So to do that
with a screen reader, it's really important that you are
reading that email address letter by letter. That's actually the
only way that you can tell whether it's a real
email address or a fake one. And again, as we mentioned,
commbank with an extra M will sound exactly the same
(10:24):
as commbank spelt correctly. So you need to actually go
through with a screen reader and identify each letter going through.
So check the email itself. It's a big one. The
other one with screen reader users is that they'll often,
or some will be Braille users as well. And that's
a really nice way to also be able to read
the email address, so you can pull the email up
(10:44):
on Braille and read it character by character. And this
can help catch those typos and those hidden little hyphens
and things like that. The other thing is, don't click
on the link. You can actually copy the link out
and paste it into a plain text editor. Now if
you don't know what that means, it's basically a separate
program that if you copy that link into that program,
(11:06):
you can again read the email character by character. Now
that might be like, I don't even know what that
means or I don't know how to do that. What
I will say is that we do have access technology
specialists that can help walk through these steps and show
you the tools of using your screen reader to be
able to read character by character, or copy the email
into those text editor programs. So that's often available through
(11:27):
Vision Australia. And the last one is verify links and
make sure they match the official site. So again, if
you get an email and it's asking for information, just
check with the domain names coming from. So make sure
it's like at commbank or whatever it might be. And
that matches up to the actual organization. It's really, really important.
(11:48):
And again if you need any advice on this, the
website which is the Department of Home Affairs website. Act
now stay secure. Has all of this information on there
for you.
S4 (11:58):
So beyond recognizing scams, what are some general cyber security
actions everyone, specifically screen reader users can take to stay
safer online?
S3 (12:09):
I think one of the important things is make sure
you're trained in how to use the screen reader properly.
So knowing how to check character by character, knowing how
to select an email address and copy that into a
text editor. Those things are really, really important to be
able to do. And then it's just the things that
everyone else needs to do as well. Just take it slow,
so check everything that comes your way thoroughly. You don't
(12:32):
need to act right away. You can take your time.
Call the organization itself if you're unsure. Get levelled up
on scams and how they're evolving. Levelled up as a
term that my kids use nowadays, but it basically means
become educated on where the scams are coming from and
how they're happening, because they are moving quickly. So back
in the days, we used to be able to identify
scams with spelling errors and those kinds of things. That's
(12:54):
becoming less and less easy to do because the scammers
are using more sophisticated tools to make sure the emails
are correct. So understand what's happening out. There is a
big part of knowing how to stay secure and safe.
And we also have at Vision Australia tools for you
to access. So we've got some upcoming webinars that I'll
be presenting. Uh, one will be in October, and we'll
(13:16):
be promoting that through our social channels and through our blog.
And that will be looking at cyber safety and security
specifically for the blind and low vision community. And there's
also the resources out there. Again, the Act Now Stay
Secure website is really important one. And also interviews like
this will be forming hopefully some more of these throughout
the year.
S4 (13:33):
Well thank you Ken for joining us for this information
session about cyber safety for screen reader users and how
to unmask online scams.
S3 (13:41):
Thanks for having me. Appreciate it.
S2 (13:48):
I'm Sam Corley and you're listening to Talking Vision on
Vision Australia Radio. Associated stations of the Disability Media Australia
Network and the Community Radio Network. I hope you enjoyed
that conversation there with Joe and Kent. If you missed
any part of that chat or you'd love to hear
(14:09):
it again. Talking vision is available on the podcast app
of your choice or through the Vision Australia library. In
just over a month's time, the winners of the 2025
Community Radio Awards will be announced in Hobart. And in
some very exciting news this year. Vision Australia Radio has
(14:32):
received a record nine finalist nominations. And to have a
chat with us about this fantastic news, it's my great
pleasure to welcome back a favourite of ours on Talking Vision,
manager of radio and audio Services at Vision Australia, Conrad Brown. Conrad,
(14:52):
welcome back to Talking Vision. Great to have you.
S5 (14:55):
Nice to be back, Sam.
S2 (14:57):
Now we've got a very exciting few bits of info
to let our listeners know about. The Cbaa Awards are
coming up, and there's quite a few nominations from Vision
Australia Radio that are coming through, which is very exciting.
S5 (15:13):
Yes, we've had a record nine nominations for the Community
Radio Awards this year. It was a really lovely surprise,
although I shouldn't say totally unexpected. You know, we obviously
did put a lot of work into the nominations following
all the fantastic work our staff and volunteers have done
over the 12 month period in broadcasting. And so I
(15:37):
guess the difficult part was making sure that we remembered
everyone that we wanted to put forward into the nominations.
And yes, it was really wonderful to see nine nominations
come through for a really diverse and interesting amount of
programming and different types of content as well that spanned
everything from sports to news, disability engagement, podcasting and special
(16:01):
events as well. So yeah, a really wonderful acknowledgment for
all the hard work that many people have put in
this year.
S2 (16:08):
Absolutely. And from your perspective, what does it mean to
see this recognition of so many programs and so many
great people involved in Vision Australia Radio getting that recognition
in these awards?
S5 (16:22):
I think you've nailed it just with that, Sam. It's
all about that recognition and acknowledgement. Many of our volunteers
and our staff as well, they just kind of are
always getting on with what they need to do, and
they do it so well. And I think it's nice
to take a moment to recognize their contribution, and particularly
when they've done something, you know, potentially that is above
(16:45):
and beyond or really highlights their skill and expertise that
they bring to Vision Australia Radio as well. And that
includes yourself Sam.
S2 (16:55):
Mhm.
S5 (16:56):
Yeah.
S2 (16:57):
You know.
S5 (16:58):
Can I embarrass you by.
S2 (16:59):
Letting.
S5 (17:00):
Everyone know that Sam is once again nominated this year, however,
in a new category, Outstanding Presenter News and Current Affairs.
For your role in talking Vision and Sam, I think
obviously we know and all appreciate the importance of talking
vision and what it brings to our radio service. But
there'd be no talking vision without Sam Collie. So, uh,
(17:22):
we're very delighted to see that your contribution and all
of the work that you put in was acknowledged in
the category of best presenter as well.
S2 (17:31):
Well, I will say it's the guests that make it special,
and I'm just the conduit to, um, telling all these stories.
And there's so many people out there and being involved,
you know, having the disability radio network available and being
able to work through that is, um, you know, it's been, um,
it's been great and I'm looking forward to seeing how
(17:54):
things go. But as always, it's about the guests and
it's about all the, you know, people behind the scenes
who make it happen.
S5 (18:00):
Oh, that's very generous of you. And when you say guests,
you know, I'm your current guest. So I took that
as a pat on the back for me, which I'll take.
S2 (18:07):
Yes, absolutely.
S5 (18:08):
So thanks for that, Sam. Yeah. We also received some
nominations in categories that we've shown, you know, a really
good showing in the past, um, including best programme news
and Current affairs and also best programme talks and best
programme new as well. But we're also hoping to pick
up a win for some of the categories. One of
(18:30):
the ones that I'm really excited about, which you were
also a contributor to, was our Midsummer Carnival Day Live
broadcast in January of this year. That really amazing crossover
and intersectionality, I guess, that we try to achieve when
we're looking at getting involved in different partnerships and different events.
(18:50):
And for me, midsummer is such a great way to
not only highlight the importance of what the LGBTQIA+ community
are doing and what's happening in that space as well,
but that intersectionality with the disability community and all of
those things that connect us. You know, we are more
than one thing, obviously, but it was really wonderful to
(19:11):
be able to broadcast from Carnival Day in Melbourne, down
at the gardens and spread the word about all the
great work that midsummer is doing, and also all the
wonderful things that Vision Australia and Vision Australia Radio are
contributing in that space as well. So yeah, really excited
to see that. Nominated for excellence in special events and
outside broadcasting.
S2 (19:32):
Absolutely. And just quickly, I will let our listeners know
out there, get involved in an outside broadcast if you
ever get the opportunity. It's one of the highlights of
the year for anyone involved in radio. I do love
an outside broadcast. They're so much fun, aren't they? Conrad.
When they go right.
S5 (19:53):
Of course, most of the.
S2 (19:54):
Time when they go right, you know, live radio. Live radio,
you know, if it all goes to plan, it's an absolute. Ball. So, yeah,
all people out there get involved with your local community broadcaster.
If there's an outside broadcast happening, definitely put your hand up.
You'll have an absolutely fantastic time. Now, Conrad, one other
(20:15):
thing I'd love to mention the fact that last year,
Vision Australia Radio and the Disability Radio Network was involved
in eight nominations, and this year it's gone up to nine.
So what does that mean from your standpoint to see
those sort of numbers coming through and the network going
(20:36):
from strength to strength and really putting its best foot
forward and being involved in so many great things and
increasing those number of nominations.
S5 (20:46):
You know, it's I mean, it's lovely to get the nominations.
It's lovely that we were able to do, you know,
one up on last year. I think for me we
are such a proud member of the community radio sector.
We really are passionate about what we do. Everyone at
Vision Australia, from the staff to the 500 plus volunteers
within the radio service, you know we're all here to
(21:08):
deliver a service and to also provide a platform for
people within the community to be able to share their
lived experience of being blind or having low vision or
a print disability, but also celebrating all the different things,
the achievements in there and also acknowledging the challenges. And sometimes,
you know, the difficult things that we have to cover
(21:29):
and that we put out there through our radio network
as well. You know, there's categories this year, like we've
received our first ever nomination and outstanding youth contribution for Cal,
one of our incredible volunteers in Perth, you know, highlighting
the importance of someone under the age of 26, and
their contribution to the radio service is so special in
(21:50):
so many ways, and Cal does a fantastic job at
exemplifying why it is so important to get involved and
be a part of the radio service as well. One
thing about these nominations too, Sam, as someone asked me recently,
how do you figure out how to make a radio
program on Vision Australia Radio? How do you decide what's
(22:11):
going to be a new program on there? And I said,
you know, it can happen in so many different ways.
It can be an idea that a volunteer or a
staff member has. It can be come from externally. It
can come from listeners emailing us or giving us a
call and saying, why don't you have a show about this?
And look, everyone can have ideas, but not often can
(22:31):
you actually then always turn them into a radio program.
It might just be for lots of different reasons, but
I wanted to share that. About 18 months ago, I
received an email from a publisher of a journal called
Paper Change. His name is Damien, and he said he'd
been contacted by a listener to our digital radio service
(22:53):
in Darwin, and that the person who was writing to
Damien was incarcerated at the time in a facility. And
he loves radio, and he had discovered our service and
loved the fact that we read news and had a
different kind of perspective, I guess, on what was happening
and being able to really listen to and hear what
(23:15):
was happening around the world. And this listener just thought
it was such a great service. But he wished that
there was also information out there for people who were
imprisoned or incarcerated and their families and friends as well.
And Damien said, probably a real long shot, but if you've.
If you'd like to talk about doing something like that,
let me know. And I went back to him and said, well,
(23:37):
what would it look like? You know, how how would
what sort of show would this be? So luckily, Damien
is a very smart person, and he put us in
touch with another individual called Joseph, who is currently the
editor of a newspaper for incarcerated people, called About Time
and both About Time and Paper Chains are written for
and by people who have a real understanding of the
(23:59):
prison system, um, and also the people that are incarcerated
as well. And so they said, well, what about a
reading program where you could use us, both of our
sources and, uh, take it from there? So we did
what we do. We did a bit of a trial episode.
We worked through a few of the issues, and then
we launched the program, and it's been a really great
(24:21):
program to add within our incredible range of programs across
the Vision Australia Radio Network, plus also to be able
to actually take something that came from listener feedback and
turn it into something worthwhile has been really exciting. So
to know that we put that show forward in the
best program news and current affairs, it's called Inside Voice.
(24:43):
We podcast that program as well. Check out VA radio.org
for more details on that. But yeah, to know that
that program has been acknowledged in that way was a
really you know, I know it's a bit of a cliche,
but a full circle moment.
S2 (24:55):
Yeah.
S5 (24:56):
To take an email in some conversations and turn it
into an award nominated program is something that I'm really
proud of, that we've all done as a team too.
S2 (25:04):
Mhm. And I had the great pleasure of catching up
with Joseph Friedman a few months ago when that was
all kicking off, and it was great to have a
chat with him about the show and about his involvement
as the editor of About Time and how that all
sort of that collaboration got off the ground. And yeah,
(25:24):
so it's fantastic to hear that it's going really well
and nominated for that award. Now, just finally to let
people know out there, the winners of the 2025 Community
Radio Awards will be announced later this year in Hobart.
And regardless of the outcome, this year's recognition marks a
(25:46):
proud milestone for our community and a celebration of accessible
broadcasting at its very best. And if you'd love to
find out a little bit more about the nominations for
this year, both the programs and the volunteers that make
the network possible, you can, of course, head to the
(26:06):
Vision Australia Radio website. At radio that's radio all. One
word dot to check it all out. Conrad, thank you
so much for your time today. Great to have you
back on the show. Always great to chat and really
pleased to hear about the nine nominations for this year's
(26:28):
Community Radio Awards. Thank you Conrad, so much. It's been great.
S5 (26:32):
Thank you. Sam, I always appreciate the opportunity to speak
with you.
S2 (26:42):
And that's all the time we have for today. You've
been listening to Talking Vision. Talking vision is a Vision
Australia radio production. Thanks to all involved with putting the
show together every week. And remember, we love hearing from you.
So please get in touch anytime on our email at
Talking Panavision Australia. That's talking vision all. One word at
(27:07):
Vision Australia dot. But until next week it's Sam Corley
saying bye for now.
S1 (27:16):
You can contact Vision Australia by phoning us anytime during
business hours on one 384 746. That's one 384 74
six or by visiting Vision Australia that's Vision Australia.
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