National Week of Deaf People – 21 – 27 September 2019

The National Week of Deaf People (NWDP) is a weeklong national celebration of Deaf individuals and the Deaf Australian community.

It is an opportunity for Deaf people to:

• Celebrate their community, language, culture and history
• Make the public aware of their local, state and national Deaf communities
• Recognise their achievements

It is also an opportunity for organisations involved with, or wishing to be involved with the Deaf Community to:

• Showcase their services and/or products
• Build/maintain relationships with Deaf People
• Be recognised for giving Deaf people a fair go

Type of events usually organised during the NWDP

The types of events that Deaf Australia encourages includes but are not restricted to:

• Deaf Festival Day/Expo
• Information dissemination (pamphlets, posters, booklets etc)
• Workshops/Forums
• Deaf Comedy/Quiz/Theatre/Debate Nights
• Film nights
• Open days

… And so on …

History of National Week of Deaf People

The International Week of Deaf People (IWDP) and International Day of Deaf People (IDDP) are an initiative of the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD). These two events are traditionally held during September and are based on the founding dates of the WFD.

The WFD has advised that member countries are not bound to follow the dates set for IWDP and IDDP, but are instead free to set their own dates for national programs. Deaf Australia is the Australian ordinary member of the WFD.

Deaf Australia traditionally hold the National Week of Deaf People during the third (3rd) week of October. Since the recognition of International Day of Sign Languages by the United Nations, we have moved our NWDP to September to coincide with first recognition of IDSL.

Register your NWDP event

Why register your event?

All state based or local events held during with NWDP are organised in collaboration with the Deaf Australia state branches. All events need to be registered with Deaf Australia to be part of the official NWDP program.

This gives your event official recognition and helps Deaf Australia to promote the program in more detail. As all events need to meet certain criteria in order to be part of the NWDP, it is essential that events are registered.

What you need to do to register

We request that all participating organisations:

1. Read the terms of reference (download a copy of it here)
2. Complete the online Event Registration Form and upload flyers (PDF format only) if you have made them.
3. Register your event by close of business Friday, 7 September 2019. No event registrations will be accepted after this date.

Promotion of events during NWDP

All registered events that are happening as part of NWDP must have the Deaf Australia NWDP logo on ALL printed and visual material. This includes pamphlets, flyers, poster, DVDs, etc. (Please see below for information on how to get the NWDP logo for use on your promotional material).

Verbal promotions (for example, for radio or television) must include a statement that makes it clear NWDP is Deaf Australia’s national week, for example: “As part of the Deaf Australia’s National Week of Deaf people 2019, we have great pleasure in…”

At start of each event

Deaf Australia encourage the host to acknowledge First People and Deaf People (see video)

Event calendar on DEAF AUSTRALIA Website

All events will be listed on our event calendar as soon as registration forms for approved events are received. It is your responsibility to provide us with accurate information.

Along with completing the online Event Registration Form, we also require a PDF version of the flyer created for the event (if a flyer has been created). This is to be uploaded as part of the registration process.

In the flyer, the following information should be included –

• Title of event
• Date
• Time
• Venue
• Organisation Name
• Contact Person
• Contact details (where applicable)
• RSVP Dates (where applicable)
• Appropriate NWDP Logo

The NWDP is subject to copyright and may not be distributed to anyone else without the written consent from Deaf Australia. You may download the logo set for your use, or use by your nominated designer for the purpose of promoting your NWDP event only. The logo set download is a .zip file and contains two different colour versions of the logo in various file formats (PDF, EPS, JPG and PNG) along with a logo usage guide. Please read this carefully and refer to it when using the NWDP logo on your materials.

We will notify the Event’s Organiser by email that your event has been registered. We reserve the right to refuse entries that do not comply with the terms of reference.

We look forward to receiving your Event Registration by the deadline and seeing your event as part of our National Week of Deaf People.