Ofcom under requirements better service for disabled customers

Communication providers must give text Relay services for phone users hearing and/or speech impairment photograph: Graham Turner for the guardian

People with disabilities rely on communication services to make phone calls is set to take advantage of the new measures proposed by the communications regulatory authority Ofcom under.

By law, communication service providers (ISPs) give text Relay services for phone users consulting and/or speech impairment. The service allows users to write messages in a text telephone which is provided by a relay-Assistant to the recipient. The Assistant then converts your reply back to the text for the user.

Ofcom under research has shown that users are current communication services slow, with conversations sometimes lack flow naturally. Under the current service, users have to say "go ahead" after each part of a conversation.

The new features of the text Relay service will include permits users to interject during a conversation, rather than to wait until the end of a message. They will also give the service access to mainstream consumer electronics devices such as PCs and netbooks, as well as existing Relay equipment, such as textphones.

By Ofcom concerning consumer group Director, Claudio Pollack, said: "people with disabilities may face barriers when you use the communication services. Although the wide availability and use of broadband and mobile text services have given greater opportunities for people with disabilities to communicate, still people with hearing and/or speech impairment meet barriers when using voice telephony.

"The proposed measures aim to reduce these barriers by allowing conversations to flow naturally in real time."

Ofcom under also proposes the introduction of the video relay on a limited basis for registered users, British sign language. Under the Communications Act 2003, Ofcom under the obligation to meet the needs of the disabled and the elderly.

In May introduced regulatory authorities an emergency SMS system for 14,500 users with hearing and speech barriers to text details about events to emergency services, instead of calling 999.

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Google fight Spanish requirements to Remove ' libellous ' links

Google will challenge Spain's privacy regulator in court this week. Photo: Bloomberg/Getty Images

Google will this week challenge a Spanish demand will remove links to articles in newspapers, including El País and official journals, the items that have complained about violate their privacy.

Technology-giant has been ordered to remove nearly 100 online articles from its search listings by Spanish data protection authority, which Google warns would have a "deep," chilling effect on freedom of expression.

Google will challenge the orders in a Madrid Court on Wednesday, the result of which could constitute a precedent for controversial new for the release of internet in Spain.

Injunction against search engines is the only way to block access to sensitive materials published by these sites, the Spanish authorities argue that newspapers in the country legally can refuse to comply with more informal requests.

Google says, however, it works only as an intermediary, and therefore it cannot be held responsible for all content on the Internet.

Peter Barron, Google's Director of external relations for Europe, told the guardian: "we are disappointed by the Spanish privacy regulator acts. Spanish and European law rightly hold the Publisher of the material that is responsible for its content.

"Require intermediaries like search engines to censor material published by the other would have a profound, chilling effect on free expression without to protect people's personal information."

The event covers the five contested articles will reach Madrid magistrates ' court this week. Google will be ordered to remove articles from its search results, if its Court challenge has failed. However, the articles would still be available at newspaper sites should Google loses.

Requirements Follow a burgeoning public debate in Spain on the "right to be forgotten" – or to the right of people to delete their internet data "trails". Complaints from the public about their representation online has jumped 75% year after year, the country's privacy regulator said in June last year.

Padraig Reidy, news editor at index on censorship, said the ruling would have "massive ramifications" for freedom of expression. "What is worrying is the reason why they should go to Google, rather than the people who put up this content — some of which are legally bound.

"It intervenes in privacy law, and has massive ramifications on freedom of expression and how the Internet works. If Spain punish search engines for indexing content, how can there be freedom of speech? It looks like a level of people who don't know how the Internet works. "

Spain Agencia Española de Protección de Datos – national data protection agency – declined to comment.

• This article heading and the first subparagraph was amended on 17 January 2011 reflects the fact that complaints against Google is about invasion of privacy, rather than libel, as previously stated

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