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Achievements
Since its inception in 1986, Deaf Australia has made or contributed to major changes that have improved the quality of life for many Deaf Australians. Some changes and highlights are listed below.
- Commencement of the National Auslan Interpreter Payment and Booking Service (NABS) to provide Auslan interpreters for private health appointments, funded by the Commonwealth Government and provided by Wesley Mission Brisbane. Deaf Australia presents a series of information sessions about NABS in capital cities and regional areas.
- Deaf Australia h al, January 2005.
- Submission to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission public inquiry into employment and disability. Meetings with Federal Government Ministers on employment issues and the “Welfare to Work” reforms.
- Disability Discrimination Act Standards on Education become law.
- Following a submission from Deaf Australia on their Standards for General Practitioners, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners develops an information sheet for GPs on how to make their practices accessible for Deaf people.
2005 Achievements
| Commencement of the National Auslan Interpreter Payment and Booking Service (NABS) to provide Auslan interpreters for private health appointments, funded by the Commonwealth Government and provided by Wesley Mission Brisbane. Deaf Australia presents a series of information sessions about NABS in capital cities and regional areas. |
| Deaf Australia hosts the International Deaf Film and TV festival as part of M2005 Deaflympics cultural festival, January 2005. |
| Submission to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission public inquiry into employment and disability. Meetings with Federal Government Ministers on employment issues and the “Welfare to Work” reforms. |
| Disability Discrimination Act Standards on Education become law. |
| Following a submission from Deaf Australia on their Standards for General Practitioners, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners develops an information sheet for GPs on how to make their practices accessible for Deaf people. |
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2004 Achievements
| Commonwealth Government announces $18.4million over 4 years for a national Auslan interpreting service for private health appointments. |
| Pay TV commences broadcasting captions, under an agreement that pay TV will introduce captioning by the end of 2004, and 25% of programs across 40 channels will have captioning by 2009. |
| Second youth leadership training camp held under the “Networking Australia’s Deaf Youth” project, funded by the Telstra Foundation. Youths trained at the 2003 and 2004 camps become increasingly involved in organising local youth activities in their states. |
| Inaugural "Fair Go" Award to recognise the efforts of business, service providers, educators and other organisations in giving Deaf people a fair go. |
| National tour by World Federation of the Deaf General Secretary, Carol-lee Aquiline, presenting a series of workshops on “Standing up for our rights – how do we do it?” |
| Establishment of the Australian Federation of Disability Organisations. Deaf Australia is a founding member. |
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2003 Achievements
| Deaf Australia, along with two other community representative organisations accepted a proposal from the free-to-air TV stations to increase captioning to 70% of programs between 6.00am and 12 midnight by 2007. |
| Deaf TV/Film nights showing programs/films made by or about Deaf people held in each state capital. |
| Four youth representatives sent to the 3rd WFD Youth Camp in Canada. |
| Two representatives sent to the XIV WFD World Congress and General Assembly in Montreal, Canada. |
| Submission sent to the Productivity Commission Inquiry into the Disability Discrimination Act. |
| Commencement of the "Networking Australia's Deaf Youth" project. First youth leadership training camp for the project held in September 2003. |
| After a year of lobbying, the Commonwealth government provides funding for a study into the supply and demand for Auslan interpreting. |
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2002 Achievements
| Input into the Australian Bankers Association industry standards on telephone banking. |
| Worked with Australian Federation of the Deaf Societies (AFDS) and Australian Sign Language Interpreters Association (ASLIA), and with the Office of Disability and HREOC to advocate for a research project into interpreting issues, and more funding for Deaf Societies for Interpreting services. |
| Obtained $48,000 grant over 2 years from the Telstra Foundation for a new Youth Project, commencing in March 2003. |
| Provided support for two families in a complaint to HREOC against the Queensland Education Department, and to a family lobbying the same department for improved education access. |
| Deaf Australia's President visited every state during National Week of Deaf People in October. In each state he attended Deaf Community events and, with a representative from the state branch of Deaf Australia, met with the State Minister responsible for disability issues to discuss issues of concern to Deaf people. |
| Funding received to continue the DTAN project for another 12 months. |
| Represented Deaf people's interests at meetings of 18 committees and forums. |
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2001 Achievements
| Commencement of the Deaf Telecommunication Access and Networking Project. This project is supported by the Commonwealth through the Grants to Fund Telecommunications Consumer Representation program of the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts. |
| Deaf Australia represents a Deaf person in a complaint to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) on provision of captioning on Pay TV. HREOC sets up a working party on this issue. |
| Deaf community identity John Lovett, nominated by Deaf Australia, is represented in the Peoplescape - a national project to mark the end of the Centenary of Federation celebrations. Deaf Australia's founding president, Dorothy Shaw, is also represented. |
| Regular screening of open captioned movies commence in CBD cinemas in capital cities. Deaf Australia joins a working party with representatives from the cinema and film distribution industry, to oversee further progress in movie captioning. |
| All news, current affairs and prime time television programs captioned on free-to-air television. |
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2000 Achievements
| Cross carrier access for SMS (short message service) on mobile phones. |
| Three month trial of open captioned movies in cinemas in Sydney and Melbourne. |
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1998 Achievement
| Visit to Australia by the World Federation of the Deaf President, Liisa Kauppinen and World Federation of the Deaf General Secretary, Carol-lee Aquiline. |
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1997 Achievements
| Establishment of the first national Legal Defence Fund for Deaf People. |
| Establishment of the Deaf Australia / WFD Cochlear Implant Fund. |
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1996 Achievement
| Successfully lobbying for the live captioning of national news services (evening news on television). |
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1995 Achievements
| Winning the bid to host the XIII World Congress of the World Federation of the Deaf, held in Brisbane in July 1999. |
| Complaint to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (Scott v Telstra/People with Disabilities v Telstra/Deaf Australia v Telstra) together with insistent lobbying result in the establishment of TTY distribution programs. |
| The establishment of the National Relay Service. |
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1994 Achievements
| $26.1 million dollars allocated by the Federal Government to establish a National Relay Service - a direct result of consistent and continued lobbying since 1986 by Deaf Australia. |
| National Deaf Youth Camp in Sydney. |
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1993 Achievement
| TTY Research project. |
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1992 Achievements
| National "TTY-In" - members of the Deaf Community ring and fax Parliamentary Ministers and Senators resulting in the dropping of a three year moratorium for the provision of general telecommunications access, retaining it only for the provision of payphone services. The "TTY-In" also persuaded government to conduct a "Pilot TTY relay Feasibility Study". |
| Launch of the National Advocacy Service for Deaf people who use Auslan; funded by the Commonwealth Department of Health and Family Services (now the Commonwealth Department of Family and Community Services). |
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1990 Achievements
| Establishment of the Australian Sign Language Advisory Body. |
| National Deaf Youth Camp in Canberra. |
| AIDS Education Campaign. |
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1989 Achievement
| Founding President Dorothy Shaw awarded the Order of Australia Medal. |
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1988 Achievement
| Deaf Australia hosted the WFD Regional Secretariat Asia Pacific Congress in Melbourne. |
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1987 Achievement
| Incorporated in South Australia. |
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