Optus went down and the smart lights came on. And then Marayke was stranded in bed

The Optus outage was devastating for people with disability like Marayke Jonkers who rely on internet-assisted technology for life’s essentials

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Marayke Jonkers first realised something was wrong when all her bedroom lights turned on early in the morning. All the devices in the Paralympian’s home are smart – they need the internet to work. When the internet went down, the lights went on and she couldn’t turn them off.

Wednesday’s Optus outage left her trapped in bed, unable to contact a support worker, with no access to food or water, and no idea what was going on. Jonkers – a paratriathlete, a Paralympic swimmer and the co-vice-president of People with Disability Australia (PWDA) – couldn’t get support until Thursday morning. Continue reading...


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