Category: Updates

CE update – 21 Jan 2022

Transcript

Hello, I’m Jen Blyth, CEO of Deaf Australia. Happy New Year, am really excited to be back, Deaf Australia is really keen to see what’s happening this year with the Deaf community. To let you know a few things that’s happening, first, the CEO Q & A that was postponed last January. It will now be in February, on the 10th at 5pm Melbourne time. The format is the same as the Q & A that was held last year where the community asked some hard questions as well as easy questions; am looking forward to the next one.

In March we have the SGM, will release more details soon. The SGM will cover a few topics, and an important one for you all are the awards. We’ll have nominations open for the awards very soon. The Deaf community has indicated that they really want this to happen, so we’ll make sure it does happen for you all. You can nominate someone for Deaf Australian of the Year, Deaf Youth of the Year and Community volunteer of the year. There will also be an AGM later on this year and the awards will be presented again. The SGM awards this year is to acknowledge those for last year’s; the AGM awards are for this year.

Now for the NDIA update. You remember that I encouraged you all last year to let me know of barriers encountered with getting Auslan provided for children in your NDIA plans. I thank those who’ve already done so. The NDIA recognises that there is a gap in their modelling and it needs to be improved. We are collaborating with them to fix the situation where Auslan is put under the ‘core’ section – it should be in the ‘capacity building’ section. We know that if you have a self-managed plan it’s fine, but if it’s managed by others that’s where the barriers are encountered. The NDIA will continue to note these issues and for now, do continue to ask for a review and AAT. You can ask Deaf Australia to be included as an AAT expert to explain why including Auslan is so important. Please do continue to contact me, and keep submitting your complaints to them.

This bit is exciting; you remember the Dot Shaw Writer’s Competition from last year? We also have an Auslan Competition! We’ll have the competition on 13th April, called the Auslan Day Video Competition. We’ll release further information very soon about this, and I’m excited about getting submissions from you all, from different categories, age groups and topics. I won’t tell you all the details just yet! Just know that I and the team will enjoy getting popcorn and watching all the submissions! We’ll give you more information soon.

Thank you!

I hope you have a wonderful 2022 and as always, contact me or the team any time.

Bye!

CE’s Q&A postponed

Transcript

Hello everyone! Hope you’ve all had a lovely break over the holidays, enjoying the time catching up with family and friends.

Maybe you know that we at Deaf Australia organised with the CE Jen to have a Q & A discussion online this Thursday (13th January). Unfortunately, we need to let you know that we’re postponing this event to the second week of February, Thursday 10th. We will inform you all of the time this will happen closer to the date. In the meantime, we will provide information over what time this will happen; how to participate in the session and what it will look like on Facebook and Instagram. We will also provide this information in the TTT newsletter in the not-too-distant future. If you’d like to subscribe to TTT, which is free, go to our website and fill in your information to receive the next TTT newsletter.

Hope to see you there! Bye bye.

Community Survey 2021

Transcript

This survey is important for our members to complete and help us to understand what our Deaf Community wants and to see what we can do. We have a few questions to ask you - which will relate to our upcoming Special General Meeting in February 2022. We want to hear from all of you and make sure we are going in the right direction. It will only take you 10 minutes.

  • First section - Membership
  • Second section – Awards
  • Third section – Colin Allen AM Lecture

We look forward to receiving your response and will share the results with you all when it is available.

Auslan Shop Update — 20 Dec 2021

Transcript

Hello! I want to let you know the Auslan Shop will close because of Christmas and New Year of course. That means from the 24th December we will be closed until the 3rd January. So we will be back on the 4th January but you can still make online orders, and when I’m back on the 4th January I will start processing all your orders and prepare to send them out, ready for you onwards. So we wish you all a great enjoyable time with your family and friends. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. See you next year! 

Meet our new staff members

Transcript

Hello Im June, I work for Deaf Australia in Project Support Officer role. I look after things like video editing, filming and other jobs. Im so excited to be a part of an awesome team to make improvements for the future. See you soon. 

Hi my name is Simon, this is my sign name, I work as a Project Manager for Deaf AustraliaIm really so excited to make sure the projects are successful and benefit the Deaf community. 

Hello my name is Ipek, Im a new staff member here at Deaf Australia and I work in a Project Support Officer role. Its so exciting to be involved with Deaf Australia advocating so much for the Deaf, hard of hearing and deafblind community. See you soon. 

CE’s Update – 20 December 2021

Transcript

Hello Im Jen Blyth, CE of Deaf Australia. I thought I would do one last update for 2021, maybe you think I look slightly relieved and yes I am, its been such a busy time since August, lots of things have been happening since I started.

The team has expanded, we started with four or five staff and there are now 11 staff members in the team. Its a really amazing team of people, I feel just honoured really every day seeing the amazing skills and knowledge and contribution to the organisation and the Deaf community the staff are making, and I feel extremely proud to be part of this amazing team of people I get to work with every day.

We have achieved many different things throughout the year: 

  • Weve set up the TTT thanks to some staff who have previously worked with us and some that are still working with us, this ensures we are updating the community regularly with information. 
  • We have also held many, many webinars which have been really popular and quite a success, people seem to love them. They are also up on the website so if you think you have missed one or perhaps want to watch it again-youve got your own free Netflix right there on the Deaf Australia website for you to watch. 
  • We have met with countless different organisations and meetings, not just me but the team as well 
  • We have also been really busy preparing and looking ahead to 2022, what can be achieved and also seeking more funding to ensure we succeed into the future and carry on the legacy of Deaf Australia in the years gone by and all the different CEs, managers, board members that have been involved in the past and we want to continue that into the future.

I do have some exciting news to share. We recently pitched to SBS after they did a call out for people who are interested in creating podcasts (you know that hearing thing where people talk and tell stories). We suggested an Auslan podcast and they agreed so we will have an SBS Vodcast (video Podcasts) for deaf people to talk about Deaf related content, it will be available to watch on SBS and we will share on our platform also. Hearing people can also watch and find out more about what its like to be part of the Deaf community. Im extremely excited about that particular project.

I want to say thank you to all those people who contacted me about their NDIS plans for their deaf children. I received lots of submissions and I do encourage you to please contact me and submit your story if you havent already. Its a really important topic and the NDIA are aware that I am collating thisinformation, but I want to collect as much information as possible. Please do send me your stories, if you would like to contact me and let me know about your family situation, I do need certain things: your childs participant number, where youre located, a brief summary about your story and details regarding if youve been to a review, if you have made a complaint or if you have been to AAT, what processes youve been through with the NDIS. That will really help with me with my advocacy with the NDIA.

In the previous update I spoke about our focus on education sector for the Deaf community. I only received one or two submissions. I would love to get more submissions to help us build understanding for our advocacy work in this area.

I also want to let you know that in February we will have an SGM, at the recent AGM this was announced and this will be held in February, date to be announced in January. The board will be there in person and at that time will talk about a few different things: we will talk about our membership system, what the structure of the membership should be, the awards, and the Colin Allen AM Lecture with this TTT there is a survey so please see fill this in.

In the last CE update we introduced our new DRC advocacy officer, this TTT includes introductions from three new staff members so we have grown but thats it for now.

I also wanted to add we recently had a Q&A with the CE and there was some brilliant questions - that was quite successful so we have decided we will hold another one on 13th January. We will promote it a bit more closer to the date but perhaps with this Q&A with the CE therell be less questions because of holidays or maybe therell be loads because youre bored over the holidays and thinking all about what Deaf Australia could achieve and discussing this with your family and friends over the Christmas period, Im sure youll be doing that, right?

Thank you for your support over this year, the team really feel quite supported from the Deaf community and I feel very supported. I also have had some criticism but I really do welcome that because I really appreciate that it helps us to improve and make things better. Any feedback or advice or information that you give us we take on board, and we really believe in transparency and accountability to the community. We believe in making sure we are achieving what you want and need from Deaf Australia as your peak advocacy body.

We look forward to 2022 I think it will be an amazing year with all the things we have planned for you and I hope you will join us on our journey.  Thank you, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to you all. Please stay safe. 

ABC radio interview – shortage of Auslan interpreters

Jen Blyth (CEO of Deaf Australia) and Joanna Aguis (First Nations Deaf person and the founder of Deaf Aboriginal Services) was interviewed about the shortage of Auslan interpreters. 

There are 30,000 signing Deaf people in Australia who may need an Auslan interpreter at any one time. And yet there are only 300 qualified and accredited practicing interpreters Australia wide, and not all of them work full-time. This growing lack of Auslan interpreters is a huge issue for the Deaf community, leaving many without access to an interpreter to communicate with the hearing world. 

CE’s Update – 2 December 2021

Transcript

Hello, I’m Jen Blyth, CEO of Deaf Australia. I have a really brief update for you all this week. Exciting news; I’ve recruited 4 new staff to join us. You’ve already seen one video from Edan; he now works as a DRC advocacy officer. When we receive videos of introduction from the other three, we will release them for our next TTT newsletter.

One of my current advocacy focuses is on deaf children and NDIA plans; many want Auslan for their children yet this has been rejected. They focus on speech and occupational therapy only, disallowing access to Auslan. If there are requested plans to access both speech and Auslan it’s still refused; there is an insistence on speech only. I and Deaf Australia disagree with that. We have told NDIA that this is an issue. 

We want to hear from you all, from families and friends with deaf children; if their NDIA packages don’t include access to Auslan we want to know about it. We want to provide the NDIA with significant numbers to advocate for the right to include Auslan.

I also want to let you know that the WFD will have their conference in Thailand next year from 20th to 22nd April and applications soon close. They’re keen to have people apply, yet at the moment there are not many applications received. They need people to apply for the opportunity to attend the congress. We’ll keep you updated if the situation changes especially with this new strain of COVID19. 

I’ve observed that education for deaf children is one area of concern and would like to know what your experiences were or are. It doesn’t matter if you finished your education a long time ago, or if you’re currently attending school or if you will attend; I’m keen to know what it was or is like for you.

As always you are welcome to contact me any time, if you have feedback, you can contact me and the team. Thank you and enjoy the summer ahead!

Our new representative for DRC

Transcript

Hello. I am Edan, Deaf Australia's representative for the Disability Royal Commission. 
 
I will be collecting all the information we can get and writing it up to submit to the DRC in English and Auslan about a wide range of topics including interpreting issues, education for deaf, deafblind and hard of hearing children and access to Auslan. If you would rather contact the DRC directly (which I also encourage you to do), there is a new confidential SMS number, which is 0459 906 629 and there is a link to the video explaining further. 
 
I look forward to helping the government understand how to create a brighter, more accessible future for Australian Deaf, Hard of Hearing and Deafblind people.

Edan's email address is [email protected] 

Auslan shop – Christmas shopping

It’s soon Christmas! It’s fast approaching and if you’ve not yet bought presents for your friends and family, if you don’t know what to buy them, not to worry, you can have a look at our Auslan Shop website. A perfect present for example would be the book Future Girl by Asphyxia. Perhaps you’d like to get it for your friends or family members who absolutely love reading or for the children too. We also have board games that you could play with your family, they’re a lot of fun. There are lots of things at the Shop. Another example could be that family members want to improve their Auslan skills, so you could give them the perfect gift of ‘The Survival Guide to Auslan’ to help them with that. 

If you want to have your order delivered in time to wrap up and put under the Christmas tree for those who live in WA or QLD make sure you order before the 1st December. For those who live in Greater Sydney, the western areas you have more time; you can order before 8th December. If you live in the city, Parramatta – Hill District, you can order before 11 December. So come have a look and get ordering! 

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