What we do …
Deaf Australia is always actively advocating for Deaf people with governments, industry and service providers for improved access to all areas that affect Deaf people’s daily lives – employment, interpreting, education, telecommunications, information access, youth, human rights, and so on.
Some of the areas in which Deaf Australia is making a difference are:
Disability sector reforms
- Deaf people’s issues are included in the National Disability Strategy
- Deaf people are included in the National Disability Insurance Scheme
- Deaf people’s issues included in Disability Employment Services reforms
Interpreting
- Employment (the Employment Assistance Fund).
- Health and medical (NABS).
Auslan
- The Auslan Shop.
- The Auslan Endorsement System (which identifies quality Auslan materials and resources).
Education and early intervention
- Better Start for Children program (Auslan now included).
- Vidkids early intervention for children in remote areas (Auslan now included).
- The National Curriculum (Auslan now included).
- Education Queensland now use Auslan, instead of signed English, in schools (from 2008).
- The bilingual program at Toowong State School.
Youth
- New national Deaf Youth group – first meeting held 1 March 2014
- Leadership camps.
- Dorothy Shaw Young Writers Competition.
- Youth representatives to World Federation of the Deaf Youth Camps.
Captioning
- Television, Pay TV, cinemas and DVDs.
- Changes to the Broadcasting Services Act in June 2012 to require all programs to be captioned between 6.00am and midnight by 2014.
Communications
- SMS access to emergency services.
- Video Relay Service (VRS).
- National Relay Service (NRS) and Internet Relay.