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Attitude problem
"I keep getting told as a lawyer, 'good on you for becoming a
solicitor even though you're deaf.'
"The problem isn't that I'm deaf the problem never has
been that I'm deaf.
The problem is that our society is not built to accommodate
people with disabilities.
Weacknowledgethetraditionalcustodiansoftheland,community,sea,andwaterswhereweliveandwork. Wepayour
respects to elders past, present and future and value the contributions Indigenous Australians make in our society. We
acknowledgethechallengeforIndigenousleadersandfamiliestoovercometheunacceptablyhighlevelsofearhealthissues
amongfirstAustralians.
Rania Saab, a Sydney lawyer who works in the Family Court, was born with hearing loss. She
believes discrimination against hard of hearing people is rife in the legal system.
In one example, which she has never spoken about publicly before, Ms Saab, then eight months
pregnant, appeared in front of a judge who knew she was deaf.
She was representing a hard of hearing client in a custody battle.
"The judge continually expressed a concern about my client's hearing impairment," Ms Saab said.
"His only concern throughout the hearing was how could my client parent this child on his own
given that he had a hearing impairment.
"It was a slap in the face for me because there I was about to become a first-time mother.
"It devastated me. I cried for weeks about it, I really really took it personally. Basically the
message I was getting is that deaf people can't parent their children properly."
Systematic discrimination
According to Ms Saab, that incident and the recent High Court ruling against a deaf woman who
wanted to serve on a jury reflect a much wider problem in the court system.
"I think it just confirms Australia's position with respect to people with disability," said Ms Saab.
"The exclusion of people with disability from jury service means that juries are not being
comprised of the full diversity of our community.
"The message that the Australian court and the government is sending to the Australian people is
that we decide on what terms you participate in our society if you have a disability."
Attitude problem
Ms Saab told The Law Report it is other people's attitudes, rather than her hearing loss, that have
caused her the most problems in life.
"I keep getting told as a lawyer, 'good on you for becoming a solicitor even though you're deaf.'
"The problem isn't that I'm deaf the problem never has been that I'm deaf.
The problem is that our society is not built to accommodate people with disabilities.
"It's not that I overcame my disability; it's that I overcame the prejudices and the non-willingness
to enable me to participate equally to get the education same as my non-hearing impaired peers."
www.breakthesoundbarrier.org.au
Australia has one of the highest life expectancies in the world and the majority of
Australians consider themselves to be in good health. But while death rates continue to
decline and the burden of disease in the population has improved (including both fatal and nonfatal impacts), not all Australians are as healthy as they could be.
The Australian Burden of Disease Study recently undertaken by the Australian Institute of Health
and Welfare (AIHW) provides information on the burden of disease for the whole population, as
well as for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population. The study builds on the AIHW's
previous burden of disease studies and disease monitoring work and provides Australian-specific
burden of disease estimates for 200 diseases and injuries, grouped into 17 disease groups, and
for 29 risk factors, for 2003 and 2011.
What is burden of disease and why is it useful?
Burden of disease analysis quantifies the gap between a population's actual health and an ideal
level of health in a given yearthat is, every individual living in full health to the theoretical
maximum life spanfor all diseases at the same time. It does this by measuring both the burden
of living with ill health as well as the burden of dying prematurely. It also quantifies the
contribution of various risk factors to this burden. Because the same methods are used for all
diseases, it means that the health impacts of different diseases and injuries can be validly
compared, which is valuable for informing health policy and service planning.
Vision and hearing disorders
Vision disorders can be present from birth, result from an acute illness or injury, or develop over
time because of chronic eye diseases and ageing (WHO 2015a). Hearing disorders can also be
present from birth or develop because of an inherited condition, problems during pregnancy and
delivery, infectious diseases, neurological disorders, injury or excessive noise, or develop over
time with age (WHO 2015b). There is considerable variety in the types, causes and level of
impairment of vision and hearing disorders.
Health service use for vision and hearing disorders
In 2012, 1 in 2 Australians (50%) wore glasses or contact lenses and 1 in 7 (15%) wore a
hearing aid (ABS 2013b).
In 201415, more than 364,000 hearing devices were issued under the Hearing Services
Program (Office of Hearing Services 2015).
In 201314, there were 8.9 hospitalisations for cataract extraction per 1,000 Australians, and
97% were performed on a same-day basis.
In 201415, there were almost 564,000 Medicare claims for diagnostic audiology services (DHS
2015).
the
National
Disability
Deafness Forum of Australia leads a consortium of member organisations that provides advice to
the Government and National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) which administers the Scheme
in preparation for transferring hearing services for vulnerable groups from the current Hearing
Services Program to the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
The members of the advisory group are SHHH, Aussie Deaf Children, Parents of Deaf Children,
Deafness Council Western Australia, Deaf Australia.
The group has raised three key issues of concern with the Agency:
1. The Office of Hearing Services released a bulletin for services providers on 28 June
2016 which stated that operational guidelines on hearing levels to access the NDIS
were not finalised but in the interim it was expected that at least:
individuals who have profound hearing loss in the better ear or hearing loss and severe
communication impairment are likely to qualify for the NDIS and
children under 7 years of age with permanent hearing loss are likely to qualify for the NDIS
under early childhood intervention arrangements.
Question to the NDIA: What are the eligibility criteria for the NDIS for people with hearing loss?
Although hearing services for children will not become contestable until 2019, families need
information on eligibility now in order to make informed decisions about their child's future.
2. The NDIA formed an expert reference group which included parent groups and early
intervention agencies to help develop the referral pathways for children diagnosed
with hearing loss.
Question to the NDIA: What are the planned referral pathways for children with hearing loss?
What service options will there be for those children with hearing loss who do not meet the
eligibility criteria for the NDIS?
3. Families in rollout areas are experiencing significant delays in accessing an NDIS
planner to formulate a plan, have it approved and for funding to be made available.
Payments to providers cannot be made retrospectively, therefore early intervention services are
left in a position of having to provide services for free, or advising parents that they cannot
provide a service until their NDIS plan is approved. Any delays in accessing early intervention
could have a detrimental effect on a child's outcomes.
Question to the NDIA: What action will the NDIA take to address these delays so that early
intervention services can provide timely services and receive payment for those services?
22
OCT
Exhibitors/Demonstrations
Technology
Case management
Early Intervention
Aged care
Auslan
Employment
Interpreting
Education
Deaf Arts
www.deafexpo2016.squarespace.com
"This young boy was flogged, beaten, pinned up to the wall," she said.
"He went from a cheeky young fella to a young man who has been released, isolated, doesn't
leave his home, has suicidal thoughts."
Muriel Bamblett, who co-wrote the 2010 Growing them Strong, Together report on the NT's child
protection system, also gave evidence on Thursday. She said she had discovered a "tsunami of
need" in Aboriginal communities where 20-30 people lived under the same roof and kids slept on
the floor. "It's conditions no child should live in," she said.
Ms Bamblett described housing as the single highest priority for a child's social and emotional
wellbeing and said the NT should offer priority homes for Aboriginal families in crisis and kids
leaving foster care. Ms Bamblett wants a complete overhaul of the "imploding" NT child
protection system, calling it a "vehicle for trauma rather than protection."
She called for a separate Aboriginal children's commissioner, and a dedicated Aboriginal child care
agency.
Compounding all of this is the prevalence of foetal alcohol spectrum disorder in indigenous
children, which carries immense lifelong financial and social costs, paediatrician John Boulton
says.
Both are highly linked with depression, suicide, drug addiction, mental illness and antisocial
criminal behaviour, he said.
http://www.news.com.au/national/breaking-news/overcrowded-housing-hurts-aboriginal-kids/newsstory/5299451484898af8e93dcc6425a161ce