22July2015

Future of Hearing Services in Australia

A Senate Select Committee on Health heard views on topics
such as the potential sale of Australian Hearing.

Deaf Centre innovation

Vicdeaf and Deaf Children Australia will establish a Deaf
Centre to better serve the needs of their communities in
Victoria.

Kiwi kids denied right to hear and learn

Before Sophie was diagnosed we had been noticing small
things. At birthday parties she would sometimes put her
hands over her ears and ask to go home early.

Coming next month

We acknowledge the traditional owners of country throughout Australia, and their

continuing connection to land, sea and community. We pay our respects to them
and their cultures, and to elders both past and present. We acknowledge the
challenge that faces Indigenous leaders and families to overcome the high levels of
ear health issues among Australias first people.

Future of Hearing Services in Australia

A Senate Select Committee on Health held hearings in Sydney recently to receive evidence
from stakeholders from throughout the sector.
The hearing heard the views of consumers, service providers and government
representatives. Presentations were given by Deafness Forum of Australia, Australian
Hearing and National Acoustic Laboratories, Parents of Deaf Children, Royal Institute for
Deaf and Blind Children, Deaf Australia Inc., The HEARing CRC & HearWorks,
Independent Audiologists Australia, Deaf Society of NSW, The Shepherd Centre, Better
Hearing Australia; and by representatives from the departments of Health, Finance and
Human Services.
Read the submissions at
http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Health/Health/Submissions

We wish to put on record our appreciation for the knowledge and interest shown by the
Committee by its chairperson Senator Deborah O'Neill and members Senator Jenny
McAllister and Senator Jan McLucas.
Deafness Forum spoke about the case for making hearing a national health priority. It said
that due to the high social and financial costs that hearing loss has on Australian society, a
coordinated strategy that encompasses prevention, treatment and management would
achieve improved health outcomes for the large proportion of the Australian population that
is affected by hearing loss. Deafness Forum believes that this would be best achieved by
making hearing health a National Health Priority.
Deafness Forum then spoke about the governments plan to transition some client groups
from the Australian Government Hearing Services Program to the National Disability
Insurance Scheme (NDIS). This will happen regardless of the outcome of investigations

into the potential sale of Australian Hearing. The group most affected by this change is
Deaf and hearing impaired children and their families. Australian Hearing is currently the
sole provider of services to these clients.
The transfer of client groups from the Hearing Services Program to the NDIS would not be
a problem if it was just a change in Program responsibility and Australian Hearing, which
has an international reputation for delivering a high quality paediatric program, remained as
the sole provider of services to children. However, the change will see the introduction of
contestability.
This is concerning as the private market is untested in the delivery of services to this client
group. The introduction of contestability introduces significant risks in terms of access,
expertise, quality and standards.
Additionally, the Government is still to make a decision regarding the sale of Australian
Hearing. If the sale proceeds and the new owner decides to withdraw from providing
services to the more costly and challenging client groups, then the safety net of the
Government Provider will be lost.
Deafness Forum of Australia has developed a paper outlining the issues that need to be
addressed. Read and download Transition of the Australian Government Hearing Services
CSO Program to NDIS at http://www.deafnessforum.org.au/index.php/issues/112uncategorised/245-submissions

Finding quality support NDIS' biggest challenge

By GABRIEL WINGATE-PEARSE, Newcastle Herald
Ensuring the availability of high-quality supports through the National Disability Insurance
Scheme is described as the schemes biggest challenge.
The issue has been raised repeatedly in a wide range of forums, including in feedback from
the Hunter NSW trial site.
The supply side of the equation is where the schemes most serious risks exist, according
to Dr Eric Windholz, a Monash University lecturer and Associate with the Monash Centre
for Commercial Law and Regulatory Studies.
The injection of new funding into the sector was likely to have a honey pot effect, he has
warned, attracting the competent and the not-so-competent.
Those committed to improving the life of people with disabilities and those committed to
improving their own lives possibly at the expense of those with a disability, he said.

This honey pot effect, coupled with the fact that in many instances funding will now be
controlled by some of the more vulnerable members of our community, makes quality
assurance and provider oversight critically important. However, it is here where the NDIS is
potentially most at risk.
Dr Windholz pointed to the home Insulation Package as evidence of what can happen with
a scheme that does not adequately regulate the provider market.
The Australian Psychological Society also fears the impact of a marketplace culture and
its ability to ensure quality services.
... there will be considerable pressure on agencies to recruit a cheaper workforce with
inadequate knowledge, skills and experience to undertake the more high level services that
might be required by a person with a disability, it said.

Let's talk about mental health and deaf people

Deaf Victoria is hosting a Deaf & Hard of Hearing Mental Health Conference in November
at the Deakin University (Burwood Campus) Conference Facility.
The aim of the conference is to explore a community-based response to mental health
crisis for Deaf, hard of hearing, deaf/blind people, with the voice of the community at the
forefront of the discussion.
The conference moves away from the traditional style of conference based on formal
presentations, and aims to have facilitated discussions with the audience on topics such as:

Mental health and youth; seniors; interpreting, Deaf indigenous Australians

Looking after your Mental Health in the workplace
Deafness and suicide prevention
Deafness, mental health and substance abuses
Parenting Deaf Children with mental health issues

The outcomes of the conference will inform advocacy activities in the mental health space
for Deaf Victoria.
Auslan Connections and Vicdeaf are supporters of this conference.
http://www.vicdeaf.com.au/files/editor_upload/File/Events/Expression%20of%20Interest%20%20Deaf%20Mental%20Health.pdf

Taxi of Tomorrow has hearing induction loops

NEW YORK, July 13, 2015 Hearing Access & Innovations Inc. today announced that the
NYC Taxis have begun to roll out hearing induction loop signage to indicate the presence of
the loop in the Taxi of Tomorrow. This moment in history coincides with the 25th
Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Hearing aids and cochlear implants deliver all sounds including those in the background.
To ensure customers who wear them can easily and clearly interact with each other,
hearing induction loops are present in the Taxi of Tomorrow. A driver and/or a passenger
who wears hearing aid(s)/cochlear implant(s) can now hear each other by switching the
hearing aid or cochlear implant to the T-setting (telecoil) and block background noise. In
the US, 48 million people have some form of hearing loss.
Passengers and drivers with hearing loss can hear where they are heading said Janice
Schacter Lintz, CEO of Hearing Access & Innovations.
No one should have to ask permission to hear.

Professor Christie Yoshinaga Itano from the Institute of Cognitive Science, University of
Colorado Boulder, USA gave the 2015 Libby Harricks Memorial Oration.
The Oration was a key-note address in Sydney Australia at the recent Australasian
Newborn Hearing Screening Conference.
Professor Yoshinaga-Itanos research was the first to demonstrate that when infants with
hearing loss are identified in the first few months of life and provided with appropriate
intervention services, that 80% these infants/children with significant hearing loss and no
additional disabilities are able to maintain age-appropriate language development and
intelligible speech in the first five years of life. As a result of this research, universal
newborn hearing screening programs were implemented in the United States.

The series was founded in 1999 to honour the first President of Deafness
Forum of Australia. For her work on behalf of hearing impaired people
Libby Harricks was made a Member of the Order of Australia. She was
appointed by the Government to the Board of Australian Hearing
Services and was asked to represent the needs of hearing impaired on
the Olympic Access Committee.

OBTAIN an electronic version of a monograph

Review the Oration series topics at
http://www.deafnessforum.org.au/index.php/events/libby-harricks-memorial-oration
Copies are free to members of Deafness Forum of Australia.

Contribute to a national inquiry into education

for students with disability
A Senate Inquiry will examine current levels of access and attainment for students with
disability in the school system, and the impact on students and families associated with
inadequate levels of support.
Deafness Forum supports a call by the not for profit community based organisation,
Children With Disability Australia, for students with disability and their families to contribute
to the Senate Inquiry. It is vital that a strong and large representation is made to this
Inquiry which clearly illustrates the range of issues students with disability and families
contend with.
Children With Disability Australia (CDA) is the national peak body which represents children
and young people (aged 0-25) with disability.
A submission can be of any length. Often a paragraph or two which describes an event or
circumstance can be very powerful. Others may wish to make lengthier submissions which
would be well received.
CDA will also be providing an organisational submission to this important Inquiry. CDA is
also keen to obtain feedback from students and families about what issues should be
included in its submission. You may also wish to provide details of your direct experience
for consideration in CDAs submission which can be presented anonymously if preferred.
SENATE INQUIRY TERMS OF REFERENCE
a) current levels of access and attainment for students with disability in the school system,
and the impact on students and families associated with inadequate levels of support;
b) the social, economic and personal benefits of improving outcomes for students with
disability at school and in further education and employment;
c) the impact on policies and the education practice of individual education sectors as a
result of the More Support for Students with Disabilities program, and the impact of the
cessation of this program in 2014 on schools and students;
d) the future impact on students with disability as a result of the Governments decision to
index funding for schools at the consumer price index after 2017;
e) the progress of the implementation of the needs-based funding system as stated in the
Australian Education Act;

f) the progress of the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with
Disability and the findings, recommendations and outcomes from this process, and how this
data will, or should, be used to develop a needs-based funding system for students with
disability;
g) how possible changes as a result of the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on
School Students with Disability will be informed by evidence-based best practice of
inclusion of students with disability;
h) what should be done to better support students with disability in our schools;
i) the early education of children with disability; and
j) any other related matters.
HOW TO MAKE A SUBMISSION
Assistance can be provided by CDA to make an individual submission.
info@cda.org.au or by phone on 1800 222 660.

Email

Submissions can be lodged directly to the Senate online by selecting upload submission at
http://goo.gl/y8S9BK

Deaf Centre to be established in Victoria

Vicdeaf and Deaf Children Australia have announced plans to co-locate in the near future to
establish a Deaf Centre to better serve the needs of their communities in Victoria.
Vicdeaf and Deaf Children Australia will work together to achieve the best outcomes for
those who are Deaf and hard of hearing at every stage of their lives by joining forces
around a Deaf Centre said Paul Richardson, Deaf Children Australia chairman.
The initiative creates a model that other state and territory-based Deaf societies might
replicate, ultimately leading to a national network of Deaf Centres that focus on health and
wellbeing, provide supports to Deaf consumers and families, and be centres of research,
education and training.
While the concept of a national Deaf Centre located in a single city has been around for
some time, the merit in the Victorian initiative - if it expands to other constituencies - is it
can build on a network of existing and successful Deaf services organisations that are
located in every part of Australia.

Our rights, Our stories, Our business

Conference - Panthers Penrith: Jamison Room, 123 Mulgoa Road, Penrith NSW
Special keynote speakers include:

Damian Griffis, Chief Executive Officer, First Peoples

with Disability Network Australia

Richard Peri Maori Development Officer, NZ

Michael Wi Maori Sign Language Teacher, NZ

Dr John Gilroy Disability studies researcher

Presenters from services providers across Australia

in the deaf, disability and Aboriginal sectors.

Live captioning and Interpreters provided

Deaf & hard of hearing Aboriginal participants

Dates: 29 September 1 October 2015
Time: 10.00 am 4.00 pm
Registration: Free
Limited supported places available covering
transport and accommodation.
To be sent an expression of interest form,
email deadlydeafmob@gmail.com
by 31 July 2015.

Service providers
Dates: 30 September 1 October 2015
Time: 10.00 am 4.00 pm
Registration: 3 options
Option 1:
$450 single room
$490 shared room
(inclusive of 1 night accommodation on 30 September)

Option 2: $350 (without accommodation)

Option 3: Attend one day only $200
To be sent a registration form, email
deadlydeafmob@gmail.com
by 31 July 2015.

Entertainment at the conference dinner on 30 September 2015

will be performances by Deaf Aboriginal artists

For more information contact:

Deadly Deaf Mob Project Manager
Joanna Agius: deadlydeafmob@gmail.com
Aboriginal Disability Network NSW Manager
Dianne Brookes: phone 02 8399 0881

ABN 70 535 341 554

Sponsored by My Choice Matters & Aboriginal Disability Network NSW

Hearing impairment and hearing disability

Towards a Paradigm Change in Hearing Services
This newly published book will challenge people service providers, people with a hearing
disability and those who advocate for them, to reconsider the way western society thinks
about hearing disability and the way it seeks to 'include them.
It highlights the concern that the design of hearing services is so historically marinated in
ableist culture that service users often do not realise they may be participating in their own
oppression within a phono-centric society.
With stigma and marginalisation being the two most critical issues impacting on people with
hearing disability, the authors Hogan and Phillips document both the collective and
personal impacts of such marginality. In so doing, the book brings forward an argument for
a paradigm shift in hearing services. Drawing upon the latest research and policy work, the
book opens up a conceptual framework for a new approach to hearing services and looks
at the kinds of personal and systemic changes a paradigm shift would entail.
In addition to the hard cover edition, there will also be a lower cost e-version available next
month.
http://ashgate.com/default.aspx?page=637&title_id=1219171298&edition_id=1219186588&
calcTitle=1

Neuroaudiology articles recently published

Correlations between word intelligibility under reverberation and speech auditory

brainstem responses in elderly listeners

Sustained selective attention to competing amplitude-modulations in human auditory

cortex

Age related changes in auditory processes in children aged 6 to 10 years

Age-Related Effects of Dichotic Attentional Mode on Interaural Asymmetry: An AERP

Study with Independent Component Analysis

Failing to get the gist of whats being said: background noise impairs higher-order
cognitive processing

Hearing Health Matters: http://hearinghealthmatters.org/pathways/

Kiwi kids denied the right to hear and learn

Before *Sophie was diagnosed with Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) we had been
noticing small things. Small, but significant. For example, she would become anxious
when in a noisy crowd. At birthday parties she would sometime put her hands over her
ears and ask to go home early.
It was also difficult to distract her when she watched TV. We would have to say her name,
make eye contact and repeat the instruction before she would respond. She was also tired
a lot of the time and often appeared worried, saying I lost my words mid conversation.
She would fall asleep in the car on the way home from school. On several occasions she
became teary before school as she worried about what was expected of her in class. I also
noticed when I visited the school that she played by herself - happily enough - but
regardless, on her own. She was also having a lot of trouble with reading and writing and
spelling. We thought this was a phase and that maybe we were expecting too much of her.
We were so very lucky to have a teacher that picked up her APD.
Once the hearing aids were in place and we had the system working properly, Sophie
began immediately to flourish. My initial fears of her feeling different' due to wearing the
hearing aids, and issues with self managing the devices were completely unfounded, much
to our relief.
Within 2 weeks we noticed that she was using more complex language and also, that she
was articulating clearly and accurately. Each day brought a surprise in some shape or
form, with language, or reading a road sign, and we were also delighted when her
confidence began to build. Two months into the APD treatments she began to spell. That
was a huge moment and I remember it very clearly; I had never been so proud of her.
Sophie is now nine months into her APD treatment and is still going from strength to
strength. She raises her hand to answer questions while in class and doesn't need to look
around to try and figure out what the rules are any more. She has become a leader.

She is a popular girl in her class now and often leads the play. And no more falling asleep
on the way home anymore either.
The National Foundation for the Deaf in New Zealand is conducting fundraising to
support 50 kids like Sophie who come from families that cannot afford to buy the hearing
equipment they desperately need to lead a happy life. Children must have diagnosed
Auditory Processing Disorder and be in genuine need.
The National Foundation for the Deaf, which has strong links with Deafness Forum of
Australia, promotes the rights, interests and welfare of the one in six New Zealanders with
hearing loss. It offers people support to communicate effectively, live positively and
achieve to their potential. It does this by collaborating with people who are deaf or hard of
hearing, and with professionals in our sector to address issues affecting human rights and
quality of life. The Foundation also works to address noise-induced hearing loss, and to
promote prevention.
*Real Case: name changed to protect privacy

Evolution of web accessibility laws and

standards in Australia and New Zealand
Web and video accessibility are still developing in Australia and New Zealand, the demand
for closed captioning is growing rapidly. Approximately 1 in 6 people in Australia and New
Zealand are deaf or hard of hearing, and closed captions provide equivalent access to
television, films, and web video.
Download a briefing document to learn about:
Broadcasting Services Act and ACMA guidelines for captioning broadcast media
Disability Discrimination Act establishing accessible video as a civil right
Landmark web accessibility case Maguire v. SOCOG
The federal government's National Transition Strategy to make websites accessible
Accessible video in Australian schools and universities
NZ government Web Accessibility Standard, which outlines phased compliance
NZ On Air and Able's advances in closed captions for broadcasting
The Human Rights Act Amendment and UN Convention
NZ Disability Strategy
The Captioning Working Group
http://info.3playmedia.com/wp-australia-newzealand.html?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRoiv6vMZKXonjHpfsXw7%2B4uT%2Frn28M3109ad%2BrmPBy82I
ECWp8na%2BqWCgseOrQ8l1gMV9WxU80Wo6I%3D

The original Winnie the Pooh and Christopher Robin circa 1927

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