Under Construction
Accessibility and Inclusion Toolkit
We are updating and will be back online soon!
Introduction
Visual Description
Darlene Thornton is a Deaf Australian woman with white skin and blue-green eyes. In this video, she is wearing a black 3/4 jumper with a brown top inside and talking about the introduction of the project. She begins by smiling at you and signs in a polite and friendly way.
Transcript
This is one of several projects that Deaf Australia is undertaking this year and we are grateful that it has been possible through a government grant that allow us to move forward with this work.
This project is about developing and distributing a toolkit for inclusion and accessibility for Deaf Auslan users across Australia.
There will be three stages of the project. The first stage is with Gabrielle Hodge – our Deaf Project Researcher, who will be reaching out to the Deaf community through forums and interviews to gather information about lack of inclusion in the wider community for Deaf Auslan users; they will discuss gaps and barriers as well as ideas on improvements and adjustments to broaden inclusion beyond just some minorities. All of this information will be collated and reported.
Then we will move onto stage two of the project where Lee Murray – a hearing researcher, will delve into statistics within Government and business around accessibility. This information will be paired with the first report is order to move into stage three of the project, where I will be using the information and data to create a toolkit that includes guides, checklists or plans in a clear format that can be distributed to assist groups to improve access and inclusion, whether that be service providers, buildings, workplaces, venues, etc, all around Australia. With the aim of improving everyday access for Deaf Auslan users.
I am excited to see how this project unfolds so if you have any questions or are keen to get involved please keep an eye on this page and information as it is distributed to find out how to engage in the project and any discussions and interviews that are taking place.
Deaf Australia has applied for and received funding through the Community Grants Hub, under the Department of Social Services (DSS), for the concept of empowering Deaf, Deafblind and hard of hearing Auslan users in Australia with choice and control on choosing services and products that are Auslan- and deaf-friendly. The funding timeline for this project is from June 2021 to December 2022.
To this end, we will:
- Develop ‘Access and Inclusion’ initiatives that the public and private sectors can use on their services and products to ensure that they are accessible to Auslan Deaf users and other deaf people in Australia, which will be backed up by evidence collected by researchers. This will also be available for Deaf, Deafblind and hard of hearing people and their families and friends for advocacy purposes.
- Create and disseminate toolkits, which will inform users to understand what Deaf, Deafblind and hard of hearing Auslan users genuinely are, their requirements, and support deaf people and families with deaf children to ensure their deaf children can be involved in their communities and families on an equitable basis as their peers.
ILC 2 Focus Group
EOI is now closed
Deaf Census of 2022 is now open!
Ethics Notice
Contact details
Deaf Australia will summarise the Deaf Census report in Auslan and share the summary on our website. If you would like to receive a link to the video when it is uploaded, please email: [email protected].
If you have any questions about the Deaf Census, you can email:
Jennifer Blyth: [email protected]
Gabrielle Hodge: [email protected]
Lee Murray: [email protected]
Darlene Thornton: [email protected]
Privacy Notice
Australian privacy rules require us to tell you how the ANU handles your private information:
https://policies.anu.edu.au/ppl/document/ANUP_010007
Ethics Committee approval
The ethical aspects of this research have been approved by the ANU Human Research Ethics Committee (Protocol 2022/272).
If you have any concerns or complaints about how this research has been conducted, please contact:
Ethics Manager
The ANU Human Research Ethics Committee
The Australian National University
Telephone: +61 2 6125 3427
Email: [email protected]
Visual Description
Dr. Gab Hodge is a Deaf Australian woman with white skin and brown eyes. In this video, she is wearing a blue jumper and talking about a new project with Deaf Australia. Gab is passionate about this project. She begins by smiling at you and signs in a warm and friendly way.
Transcript
Hi I'm Gab Hodge. I'm Deaf and I work as researcher to support sign language, d/Deaf people and d/Deaf communities. At the moment I'm working with Deaf Australia on one project led by Darlene Thornton. The aim of this project is to develop a good toolkit and to collect information that will support Deaf Australia advocacy planning.
We want to host some focus groups with d/Deaf, d/Deafblind and h/Hard of hearing people over 18 who use Auslan. The focus groups will be on different topics: (1) education, (2) employment, (3) healthcare, and (4) language policy. We want to ask about your access and inclusion experiences in relation to these four areas. We are interested in your bad experiences and your good experiences. We also want to know your thoughts on if we could throw it all out and start fresh, what would this look like?
The focus groups will be online or in person. If you don't want to discuss in a group, we can meet you one-on-one instead. You can bring a support person if you want. Each focus group will take two hours. We will pay you $90 for your time. I will analyse and summarise the information from each discussion and write a report for Deaf Australia. Your name can be confidential if you prefer. It is up to you.
Are you interested? If yes, please fill out the form below with your name, phone number, and email address. We will contact you soon. If you know others who may be interested, please tell them too.
Thank you.
Fill out the form
Disclaimer: Your contact details will be sent directly to Dr Gab Hodge. She will then contact you with more information about this project. Your details will be stored securely and privately. We won’t pass them on to anyone else or use them in any other way.
