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Obituary: Emeritus Professor Desmond J. Power AM
[divider style=”hr-dotted”]Deafness is a part of the natural human condition …
Des Power, ‘Signs of Life’ (1989)
Emeritus Professor Des Power AM, who was known to many Deaf people in Australia and around the world, died on the 3rd of April, 2013 after respiratory complications following heart surgery. He was born in Cobden, Victoria on 23 March 1936, and trained as a teacher at the Geelong Teacher’s College and the Training Centre for Teachers of the Deaf in Melbourne. He later completed a Bachelor of Arts in psychology and a Master of Education at the University of Melbourne. After winning a Harkness Fellowship he completed a PhD at the University of Illinois in the USA. He began work in Deaf education in the late 1950s at the Victorian School for Deaf Children and Glendonald School for Deaf Children, and he is remembered fondly by many Deaf adults who were students at these schools, such as Robert’s father. Des lectured at the Training Centre for Teachers of the Deaf in Victoria, until moving to the Mt Gravatt Teacher’s College (later part of Brisbane College of Advanced Education and then the Education Faculty of Griffith University) in Brisbane in 1979.[notification style=”neutral” font_size=”12px” closeable=”false”] Des Power was not only an educator and academic in the field of Deaf Education, he was also a long-time supporter of Deaf people and their aspirations for more access and opportunity. The areas where this was most evident to the Deaf community were his support for the recognition of signed languages and his belief that Deaf people should be able to access higher education. He did much practical advocacy for this at a time when very few other people thought it was important. [/notification] Breda recalls that when she decided she wanted to be a teacher of the deaf in the mid-1970s, she visited teacher training programs and Deaf Societies in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. She met with people who told her it was not possible ‘at this time’, that there had never been any deaf teachers of the deaf before, that she should be satisfied with a job in the Public Service, that she was silly to aspire to something like teaching. One ‘expert’ laughed at the idea. Her final visit was to the State College of Victoria in Burwood, where she met Des Power. He said that he thought it was an excellent idea, that he had long wanted to see deaf teachers in Australia and hoped to make teacher training courses accessible to them. He gave her practical advice and wished her well. In the mid-late 1970s, encouraging deaf people to become teachers was not a fashionable position to take, and most of Des’ colleagues would have been sceptical if not downright dismissive. But Des Power was always ahead of his time.
Des followed through on his wish to see deaf teachers in Australia. In 1985 the Mt Gravatt campus of Brisbane CAE began an innovative program to support five deaf students through its Bachelor of Teaching. Few people remember how precarious this program was – there was not yet a Disability Discrimination Act, and most schools for deaf students at that time only provided education up to Year 10. It was a challenge to recruit and retain the deaf students, a battle to persuade local schools to accept them for practice teaching, and for several years the money for interpreters, note-takers and tutors was scrabbled together from small one-off grants from Quota Clubs and other similar sources. But it was a success, and after the merger with Griffith University the program was able to expand into the Deaf Student Support Program, enabling deaf students to study across all faculties. Scores of today’s professional deaf people in Australia are alumni of Griffith University. The DSSP has since been regarded as a model for other Australian universities, especially after the Disability Discrimination Act came into force in 1992.
Through the Centre for Deafness Studies and Research which he established at Griffith, Des supported the production of educational video projects such as Signs of Life (1989), the development of teaching materials for Deaf Studies in schools, and many other innovative programs. He worked with Deaf researchers and supported many Deaf people in their studies. Breda is one such grateful colleague who was able to work with Des on a range of projects and to complete her PhD at Griffith with his support.
Des Power was a consistent ally of Deaf Australia (until 2007 the Australian Association of the Deaf – AAD) and always showed great interest in the lobbying activities of Deaf people. Robert recalls several examples from his time on the AAD Board. Des helped AAD with the writing of position papers and articles, and advised the project officers who worked on the first study design for Auslan in the Victorian Certificate of Education. He and Merv Hyde completed a demographic study of Auslan use, ‘The Use of Australian Sign Language by Deaf People’, in 1990, a study that has been very important to Deaf Australia’s work. Des was also instrumental in the drive for official recognition of Auslan and its inclusion in the National Policy on Languages (1992).
For many Deaf people, he was a bastion of support for the use of signing in education; he was a very important counterbalance for the strong oralism that pervaded Deaf education in some quarters from the 1960s. This view can even be seen as recently as in his submission with Merv Hyde (2010) to the Australian Government’s Hearing Health Inquiry, where they write that signing has a role in early language and cognitive development.
Des Power was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia in 1993 and on retirement, was made an Emeritus Professor in Special Education by Griffith University. He continued to consult, research, publish and present around the world during his retirement. A quick glance at his list of publications shows how varied his interests were: from Deaf people and text communication, and Irish Deaf people in the newspapers, to how Deaf children learn English in the classroom. His last paper was on ‘Australian Aboriginal Deaf people and Aboriginal Sign Language’, published in Sign Language Studies in early 2013.
Des was active on many levels. Robert recalls sitting as an advisor to the Kosovar Association of the Deaf (for their sign language dictionary project) in a government office in Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, high in the Balkan mountains talking with government officials, and the disability advisor to the Prime Minister of Kosovo leant over and asked him, ‘Do you know Des Power?’ This was characteristic of Des – he managed to be of assistance to a wide range of people although most of us were not aware of how wide his influence was. Deaf people and educators in Kosovo remember Des Power for helping them put their Deaf education system back together after the bombing of Kosovo and they talk of him and his colleagues with great respect.
Des was a mentor to many people. His advice tended to be brief and succinct rather than expansive. He was often blunt, even gruff. Breda recalls an occasion when she was working as a research associate for Des, enjoying the beginning of a stimulating academic career thanks to his support. She received an invitation from a small training college a couple of hours drive away, with a little group of deaf students who had just completed a short vocational qualification. Would she come and present their certificates, so they could see a successful Deaf person who could motivate them to continue their studies? It was a long way to go and would necessitate a day off work. She discussed the invitation with Des, suggesting she should decline it as she was so busy and it was so far away. Fingerspelling emphatically, Des’ response was simple and unmistakable: “Noblesse oblige!” he said. When you have been fortunate enough to reach a position of some privilege, you have a responsibility to help others achieve their potential. You never know when you may be able to make a difference in someone’s life. And that is how he lived too.
Des leaves his wife, Professor Mary Power (Bond University), children Lucy, Ben, Linus and Peter, and grandchildren Jack, Caitlin, Lucy and Ella. Our condolences are extended to his family and his many friends and colleagues around the world. Not only will he be missed by them all, he is also a great loss to the Deaf world.
References:
http://www.heavenaddress.com/Desmond-John-(Des)-Power/436500/484875/content
http://www.deafau.org.au/info/langacqu.php
Carty, B., Davie, C., & Power, D. J. (Writers). (1989). Signs of Life: Australia’s Deaf Community. Australia: Deafness Resource Project, Division of Education, Griffith University.
Dawkins, J. (1992). Australia’s Language: The Australian Language and Literacy Policy: Australian Government Publishing Office.
Hyde, M., & Power, D. (1991). The Use of Australian Sign Language by Deaf people: Australian Federation of Deaf Societies and Griffith University Centre for Deafness Studies and Research.
Hyde, M., & Power, D. (2010). Hearing Health inquiry submission: Community Affairs References Committee. Research Contexts of Cochlear Implantation of Young Deaf Children.
An edited version of this obituary will appear in the next edition of Sign Language Studies, Vol. 14, no. 1, Fall 2013.
[content_box style=”green” title=”Written by:”] Robert Adam, Deafness Cognition and Language Research Centre, University College London/Department of Linguistics, Gallaudet University; Breda Carty, RIDBC Renwick Centre [/content_box]
Four positions open at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal
The Government is seeking expressions of interest for four positions at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
The Tribunal is an independent statutory body that reviews a broad range of administrative decisions made by Australian Government ministers, officers, authorities and Tribunals.
The positions, which have arisen due to the designation of the Tribunal as the external merits review body for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), are:
- a part-time member in New South Wales (Sydney) or the Australian Capital Territory (Canberra)
- a part-time member in Victoria (Melbourne)
- a part-time member in South Australia (Adelaide), and
- a part-time member in Tasmania (Hobart).
Further information about the NDIS can be found at www.ndis.gov.au.
The successful candidate must have a high-level of demonstrated experience, knowledge or expertise with disability. Individuals with a lived experience of disability are particularly encouraged to apply. The successful candidate must have the ability to conduct hearings and must also have decision-making and decision-writing skills. Legal qualifications are not required.
The advertisement for all positions was published in the Australian, Sydney Morning Herald, Melbourne Age, Canberra Times, Adelaide Advertiser, and the Hobart Mercury on Saturday 30 March 2013. The advertisement has also been placed on the APS Employment Gazette at www.apsjobs.gov.au.
A full information package, including the selection criteria, is currently available from the Attorney-General Department’s website at www.ag.gov.au/AATemployment.
Applications close on 19 April 2013.
Further information on the available position can be obtained by emailing [mailto][email protected][/mailto] or by calling Edward Lee on (02) 6141 3439.
Captioning Working Group – Expressions of Interest
Deaf Australia is setting up a Captioning Working Group.
We want to bring together like-minded organisations and community groups to work co-operatively to:
- Work as a unified front to address captioning issues across various media formats
- Undertake campaigns to promote increased access to captioned content suitable for Deaf and hard of hearing people in various media formats
- Keep abreast of research and identify best practice for delivery of captioning.
The following organisations and community groups have been invited to send a representative to the Working Group: Deaf Australia, Deaf Victoria, Deafness Forum, AOCA, Media Access Australia and Arts Access Victoria.
We are also calling for Expressions of Interest for two independent community representatives to join the Working Group. Please see the Expressions of Interest document and the Terms of Reference and send your EOI in English or in Auslan to [email protected] by 26th April 2013.
[button url=”http://www.creativemindsdesign.com.au/DeafAustralia/Call%20for%20Expressions%20of%20Interest%20WorkingCaptioningGroup.pdf” class=”button” size=”large” color=”green” target=”_blank” lightbox_content=”” lightbox_description=””] Download the EOI Document (PDF 87KB) [/button] [button url=”http://www.creativemindsdesign.com.au/DeafAustralia/Terms%20of%20Ref%20Captioning%20Working%20Group%20v1.pdf” class=”button” size=”large” color=”green” target=”_blank” lightbox_content=”” lightbox_description=””] Download the Terms of Reference (PDF 100KB) [/button]
It’s official – the NDIS is really happening!
The legislation to establish the National Disability Insurance Scheme passed the Parliament on 21 March 2013 – the NDIS has now become law!
Congratulations and a big thank you to everyone who has worked so hard to make this happen. And a special thank you to the chief drivers of it in the Parliament – Jenny Macklin in the House and Jan McLucas in the Senate; and also to Bill Shorten for his earlier and ongoing championing of the NDIS.
This week, the Government also announced the name for the scheme – DisabilityCare Australia.
According to the Government, the NDIS will give people with disability choice and control over the care and support they receive.
The Bill establishes the National Disability Insurance Scheme and the NDIS Launch Transition Agency (the Agency) to deliver the launch of the scheme.
About 26,000 people with significant and permanent disabilities, their families and carers, will benefit from the first stage of the NDIS. The Government has provided $1 billion to launch the NDIS from 1 July this year.
As a result of the agreement reached between the Australian and New South Wales governments in December last year, the NDIS will roll out in full across NSW by July 2018.
The Australian Government continues to work with other states and territories towards agreement to roll out the NDIS across Australia.
The Agency now has an established presence in the launch sites. When the scheme launches in July this year, there will be more than 250 people working in seven regional offices in the launch locations.
The Agency will work with people with disability to develop a personal plan that identifies the person’s needs, goals and life aspirations, and recognises the support they receive from family and friends. This plan forms the basis of the person’s funded NDIS support package which they can choose to manage themselves or with the help of local Agency workers, family or friends.
The Bill, and the amendments agreed during the Bill’s progress through the Parliament, was heavily shaped by the feedback the Government received from people with disability, their families, carers and service providers, through consultations across the country.
Agreed amendments included:
[tabset style=”vertical”] [tab title=”Amendment 1.” active=”yes”] Elevating the importance of certain obligations that Australia has as a party to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and explicitly recognising the broader context for disability reform. This ensures that the rights of people with disability, their families and carers are at the heart of the NDIS. [/tab] [tab title=”Amendement 2.” active=”no”] Clarification that people who need early intervention therapies and supports, including for degenerative conditions, and who are not better supported by another systems such as the health care system, can access the NDIS. [/tab] [tab title=”Amendment 3.” active=”no”] Clarification that all people who are NDIS participants will be able to choose to remain in the scheme after they turn 65. [/tab] [tab title=”Amendment 4.” active=”no”] Changes to the compensation provisions so that the NDIS Launch Transition Agency (the Agency) can conduct legal proceedings on behalf of a person with disability who does not choose to conduct those proceedings. [/tab] [tab title=”Amendment 5.” active=”no”] Ensuring the NDIS Board receives and considers actuarial advice, helping to safeguard the financial sustainability of the NDIS. [/tab] [tab title=”Amendment 6.” active=”no”] Recognising the important role of advocacy in the lives of people with disability. [/tab] [tab title=”Amendment 7.” active=”no”] Bolstering the requirements for representation of people with disability on the NDIS Advisory Council. [/tab] [/tabset]
Missed the NDIS consultation but still want to have a say?
If you weren’t able to attend one of the consultations in your area, you can watch the videos yourself here and provide feedback to the government through Deaf Australia.
Watch the videos and give yourself time to think about the information and come up with any comments or feedback. Email Deaf Australia to let us know what you think of the rules by 21 March 2013.
Introduction:
Rule 1:
Rule 2:
Rule 3:
Rule 4:
Rule 5:
Rule 6:
Rule 7:
Remember: your comments need to be emailed to [mailto][email protected][/mailto] by 21 March, 2013!
NDIS Deaf Community Consultation
The next step in making the NDIS a reality is here.
The Government has released a set of draft rules for the NDIS and would like feedback from the Deaf community.
The rules set out how the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) will work with people with disability, their families and carers, and how supports will be identified and delivered.
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They cover:
- becoming a participant
- the protection and disclosure of information
- support for participants
- children
- nominees
- registered providers
- plan management
Deaf Australia is running a series of community forums so that Deaf people can have their say about these rules. It is important that Deaf people understand and comment on the rules, so that they can make choices and be in control of the decisions that affect their lives.
You should come to a forum and participate; make sure the Government hears your opinion!
Light refreshments will be provided.
You can also see the rules the www.ndis.gov.au site and have your say on the Your Say forum there.[divider style=”hr-dotted”]
Adelaide Forum
Date: Saturday 16 March 2013
Time:10am-12pm
Venue: Adelaide Deaf Centre, 262 South Terrace, Adelaide (to be confirmed)[divider style=”hr-dotted”]
Brisbane Forum
Date: Saturday 16 March 2013
Time: 1-3pm
Venue: Deaf Australia Office, 271a Stafford Road, Stafford[divider style=”hr-dotted”]
Sydney Forum
TBA[divider style=”hr-dotted”]
Melbourne Forum
TBA[divider style=”hr-dotted”]
Tasmania Forum
TBA[divider style=”hr-dotted”]
Perth Forum
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Deaf Australia Activities November 2012 – February 2013
Deaf Australia is always a hive of activity, busy with all sorts of tasks; working hard to make life better for Deaf people. Read more here about what we’ve been up to lately.
[divider style=”hr-dotted”] [accordion_set] [accordion title=”Key Priority 1: Early intervention and education” active=”yes”]National Summit on Early Intervention and Education for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children, Canberra, 29 and 30 November 2012
The summit was a great success. We are now working with strategic planning company Grant Thornton on the report from the summit.
Early Intervention Working Group (Qld) and Qld Forum on Young Children with a Hearing Loss
I attended a meeting of the EIWG on 4 December 2012 and the QFYCHL on 26 February. Our involvement in these groups continues our work on building bridges with the early intervention industry and raising awareness of the importance of deaf children having access to both speech and Auslan from the time their deafness is identified.
Employment
Employment is not currently a key priority (because we don’t have the resources to do everything that needs doing) but when opportunities arise to advocate for employment, we do take them.
The Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, the Hon Bill Shorten MP, released a discussion paper about how to improve employment participation for people with disabilities. We set up a survey based on the questions asked in the paper and received some fantastic feedback from the community – thank you everyone. Based on this feedback, we sent in a submission paper on 15 February. The paper can be seen on our website www.deafau.org.au in the advocacy section.
Along with representatives from other peak disability organisations, I also attended a roundtable discussion with the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations on this topic on 21 February. [/accordion] [/accordion_set]
[accordion_set] [accordion title=”Key Priority 2: Access to communications” active=”no”]
SMS emergency call service
We have been advocating for an SMS emergency call service for about eight years now and our efforts have finally succeeded. The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy announced on 7 February that the new National Relay Service (NRS) contract will include an SMS emergency call service from 1 July 2013. We are delighted with this outcome, and we will be watching closely to see the service established.
Video Relay Service and Captioned telephony
We have also been advocating for many years for a Video Relay Service (VRS) and captioned telephony to be included in the NRS. The announcement on 7 February included that VRS and captioned telephony will be included from 1 July 2013. For information about the new and improved NRS go to Improved National Relay Service from 1 July 2013 (AUSLAN)
ACCAN Roundtable on accessible ICT procurement
I participated in a teleconference organised by ACCAN on 27 February to discuss a campaign and toolkit for lobbying governments to purchase accessible ICT (information and communication technology). This is an excellent idea and we congratulate ACCAN and the authors of the toolkit. Unfortunately our ability to participate in the campaign is very limited because we have no funding for communications related advocacy and we are already overloaded with work related to the funding we receive from FaHCSIA. However we will do our best to send out information about the campaign and to encourage everyone to get involved.
ACCAN Board
Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) announced on 1 November 2012, the results of the board election at their AGM, and there were no persons with a disability elected. I sent an email to ACCAN asking about this, but I have still not received a reply from anyone at ACCAN. However, we have recently received a general information email advising that Dean Barton Smith has been co-opted to the ACCAN board. We congratulate Dean on this appointment. However, it is of serious concern to us that only one person on the board is a person with a disability and is only been co-opted, not elected. ACCAN is supposed to be representing the communications needs of deaf people and people with disabilities generally, about 30% of their membership is from the disability sector, and they are the only body that government now funds to do communications advocacy work. There is a view that the ACCAN constitution should mandate that at least 30% of its board should be people with disability. [/accordion] [/accordion_set] [accordion_set] [accordion title=”Key Priority 3: Access to information and media” active=”no”]
NDIS
AFDO, in alliance with other organisations has been conducting an NDIS engagement project since mid-2012, but we have had little opportunity to be involved and we have not had any funding to organise community engagement meetings specifically for Deaf people. So we organised for AFDO to hold an NDIS workshop during our early intervention and education summit on 29 November 2012 in Canberra. Although it was not the best time to do this as people were tired after a long and intense day, it was an opportunity for Deaf people and family members to at least have some input while some of us were together in Canberra. Our thanks to Leah Hobson of AFDO for travelling to Canberra to do this workshop.
In August last year we sent in a submission for funding from the Practical Design Fund for funds for a project to raise Deaf community awareness and understanding of the NDIS. We included ASLIA in our submission. Other organisations in the deaf sector also sent in submissions for projects. Successful applicants were announced in November 2012 and not one deaf sector submission was approved. In December Deaf Australia sent a letter to the Minister, the Hon Jenny Macklin MP and the Parliamentary Secretary, Senator the Hon Jan McLucas on behalf of the sector. This letter was co-signed by eight other organisations in the Deaf sector plus AFDO, and we thank them for their collaboration and support. We have not yet received a response.
However, late in February received an offer of $8,000 funding from FaHCSIA to help us with our NDIS engagement work and this is very much appreciated; while it is only a little, it will help. The funding documents and requirements for how we can use it have not yet been received but we should be able to organise some community information and engagement activities about the NDIS very soon.
I met with FaHCSIA on 28 November 2012 to discuss the draft NDIS Legislation before it was released for public comment in December.
Our President Ann Darwin and I attended an AFDO members meeting on 14 January 2013, about the NDIS legislation. From this meeting AFDS prepared a submission to the Senate Inquiry on the legislation. We provided comments and further information on the draft submission.
We also sent a small submission of our own to the Senate inquiry on 25 January. Our submission said that we support the AFDO submission and highlighted issues of particular concern to deaf people. You can see our submission on our website www.deafau.org.au in the advocacy section.
It seems government is consulting on the name for the new NDIS and at the end of January I was interviewed by a market research company contracted by FaHCSIA about my views on various names for the NDIS.
ACMA TV captioning quality standard
Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is developing TV captioning quality standards. The standards are required by last year’s changes to the Broadcasting Services Act and need to be developed by 30 June 2013. ACMA has consulted with Deaf Australia and other stakeholders at a number of meetings over the past few years. There have been two basic issues of disagreement between consumer representatives and industry representatives: we want numeric measures in the quality standards, i.e., 98% (or 95% or something similar) accuracy and no more than 5 seconds time lag in the captions but the industry does not want any numeric measures.
ACMA released a discussion paper and the draft standard in December 2012 and we were extremely disappointed with it.
We liaised with Media Access Australia (MAA) and ACCAN on our responses to the draft standard (Deafness Forum was also invited but was unable to attend the teleconference) and we sent a submission to ACMA on 21 January 2013. Deaf Victoria, all state Deaf Societies/Services, Arts Access Victoria and Deaf Children Australia all agreed to have their names on the first page as organisations supporting our submission. We thank them all for their support.
Our submission also covered other issues not in the draft standard:
- How complaints to ACMA about captioning will be managed effectively. ACMA tends to take a long time to investigate complaints and we are concerned about this.
- How standards will be communicated to the community, stressing that they need to be communicated also in Auslan.
You can see our submission on our website www.deafau.org.au in the advocacy section.
Cinema Captioning
ACAG (Accessible Cinema Advisory Group) will next meet on 15 March 2013.
Deaf Australia continues to work with ACAG to try to improve the situation for deaf people’s access to movies screened by the ‘big 4’ cinemas. However, we are concerned about the lack of progress in resolving many of the issues such as the poor service patrons are receiving from cinema staff and problems with the Captiview units not working. We are also exploring other strategies to get open captioning in cinemas, outside the ACAG process, such as working with the independent cinemas.
AHRC ’20 years, 20 stories’
The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) is now 20 years old, and to celebrate this, the Australian Human Rights Commission has made a series of 20 videos telling the stories of 20 people who have used the DDA to fight for their rights. The Governor General led a celebration of this and launched the videos at a function at Admiralty House in Sydney on 1 March. Disability Discrimination Commissioner Graeme Innes, Minister for Disability Reform the Hon Jenny Macklin and Queensland Anti-Discrimination Commissioner Kevin Cocks all made presentations at the event. It was wonderful to catch up with so many fellow disability advocates and to remember the achievements over the years. Of course there is still a great deal to do, but we have made some progress. You can see the videos on the AHRC website at http://www.humanrights.gov.au/twentystories/videos.html#works-for-me [/accordion] [/accordion_set] [accordion_set] [accordion title=”Key Priority 4: Organisational stability and growth” active=”no”] The board met on 2 and 3 February in Brisbane. This was the first meeting for new board members Rachel Miers and Ida Rogers, and our President Ann Darwin gave them a warm welcome to the board. The first day of the meeting was devoted to governance training and action planning, led by past board member Kyle Miers and current board member Todd Wright.
National Disability Awards
Ann Darwin and I attended the National Disability Awards dinner in Canberra on 28 November 2012. Many deserving people won awards and we congratulate them all. We were especially excited to see The Captioning Studio and Australian Communication Exchange jointly win the award for Excellence in Improving Social Participation, and Michael Small jointly win with Samantha Jenkinson the Minister’s Award for Excellence in Disability Reform. Deaf Australia has a long history or working with ACE and also with Michael Small in his previous role at the Australian Human Rights Commission. Our congratulations to them.
4Senses
The second 4Senses event was held on 9 February. At the first event the organisers learnt a lot about how to make it really accessible for deaf people and they put this experience into practice the second time around, resulting in an even better event this time. Numbers of hearing people attending were higher but there were less deaf people than at the first event. The volunteer organisers are very enthusiastic and committed to the 4Senses concept, but it is a huge amount of work for them so they will only continue to hold it if lots of deaf people attend. They hope to hold another 4Senses in mid-2013 so we will need to promote it widely and encourage everyone to come along and bring their friends.
Newsletters
We are starting 2013 with a new format for our newsletters – a blog. We hope that this will help make our information easier for you to access and more widely available, and easier for us to keep you up to date more quickly. In combination with the new blog we will send out monthly summaries. We would welcome your feedback on this new format.
Deaf Australia still has a small number of members who do not have Internet access or for some other reason still need to receive paper copies of the newsletter. For these people we will continue to send information in paper format.
Partnerships:
States branches
The annual meeting of Deaf Australia’s board and state branch representatives was held in Canberra on 1 December 2012. We were very lucky to have WFD President Colin Allen lead a workshop on leadership and partnerships. Deaf Australia board member Todd Wright then led a workshop on governance. We hope these workshops will assist the states with their work.
Three QAD board members joined the Deaf Australia board for the board training day 2 February, focusing on governance and action planning. We hope to be able to do more training involving states to provide more support to them.
World Federation of the Deaf
WFD President Colin Allen made an engaging presentation at Deaf Australia’s AGM on 30 November 2012 and led a training workshop for our board and states on 1 December. We thank Colin for making time in his busy international schedule to be with us in Canberra and share his wide knowledge and experience.
The WFD Board has asked Deaf Australia to host a workshop for WFD Ordinary Members in Sydney on 16 October 2013, the afternoon before the WFD Conference begins. We have found a fabulous venue, a heritage room at the State Library of NSW and look forward to welcoming WFD and its delegates there.
In our November newsletter we included information about and a call for expressions of interest to attend the WFD junior camp in Rome this year but received none. Applications for the camp have now closed, but there may be a chance we can still send some so if you are interested please send your expression of interest to me urgently at [mailto][email protected][/mailto]
Australian Federation of Disability Organisations (AFDO)
AFDO has been through a review by consultants appointed by FaHCSIA. I was interviewed as part of the review on 15 November 2012. The report of the review has now been received and Deaf Australia joined other AFDO members at two days of strategic planning for AFDO on 28 February and 1 March.
AFDO, in partnership with People with Disabilities Australia and others wrote the Australian Shadow report on Australia’s compliance with the UNCRPD (we had some input into it way back). To assist the group, I obtained quotes from three different organisations for the cost of translating the summary into Auslan. We hope the translation will be available soon.
Australian Federation of Deaf Societies (AFDS)
Our President Ann Darwin and I met with AFDS representatives in Canberra on 29 November 2012 and in Melbourne on 15 January 2013. We hope to organise a half day workshop for Deaf Australia and AFDS representatives to revisit roles and try to resolve long standing issues in a new and positive way.
Deafness Forum
Board members met with DF board members over breakfast in Canberra on 30 November 2012.
ASLIA
Ann Darwin and I met with ASLIA President Paul Heuston and Secretary Teresa Cumpston-Bird on 14 January and discussed a number of issues of mutual interest to Deaf Australia and ASLIA. We are currently working on developing a Memorandum of Understanding.
Deaf Children Australia
We met with DCA in November 2012 and January 2013 and discussed a number of issues, including preparations for the coming NDIS.
DCA’s SignUp Employment Service has won a contract to provide an employment service for deaf people in Brisbane. Deaf Australia has agreed to provide some office space for SignUp and they will be based in our office from 4 March. Two other DCA staff who work on DCA children’s and family programs will also be based at our Stafford office with the SignUp team. We welcome the DCA team to our office.
Vicdeaf
Vicdeaf has very generously offered to organise some WFD Youth Section activities in Melbourne while everyone is in Australia for the WFD Conference in October this year. Deaf Australia and Deaf Victoria will jointly host these activities with Vicdeaf’s support. A big thank you to Vicdeaf for their generosity. [/accordion] [/accordion_set] [content_box style=”green” title=”About the contributor”] Karen Lloyd AM is Executive Officer of Deaf Australia. [/content_box]
Introducing the new Outlook blog
Welcome to the Deaf Australia Outlook Blog!
This blog contains information, articles and stories that are relevant to the Deaf community, as well as Government departments, businesses and organisations that work with Deaf people.
We hope you enjoy this new Outlook format.