18October2016

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.

Deafness holding indigenous kids back

Boys caught up in the Northern Territory's juvenile justice
system suffer a "disease of disadvantage" that has crippled
almost every aspect of their lives.
A deaf indigenous community consultant has spoken to several
young Aboriginal people with hearing impairments who have
had their faces covered by spit hoods and bound behind bars.
"Taking away another sense from a person who already has a
limited sense is frightening. And that fear stays forever... long
after their sentence".

Australias health 2016

Australian data on hearing disorders are limited.
In
recognition of the importance of early diagnosis and
appropriate intervention for childhood hearing loss, all states
and territories have, or are implementing, infant hearing
screening, with varying levels of coverage.

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.

Deaf lawyer speaks out about discrimination in the

courtroom
By Rachel Carbonell for The Law Report, ABC
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-10-12/deaf-lawyer-says-discrimination-is-common-in-legalsystem/7925026?utm_content=buffer1f686&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

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."

Life as a deaf lawyer

In order to do her job, Ms Saab uses a personal link that relays the sound of the courtroom
directly into her hearing aid.
Even though the system already exists in the courtroom, it needs to be set up for her to use.
"I kept coming up against staff who didn't want to, for one reason or another, give me the
device," she said.
"On one occasion I was forced to appear before the judge without the device.
"I had to explain to the judge in front of a full courtroom, including my client, that I was not able
to hear him because the device hadn't been made available to me.
"By that stage I was fed up with the courtroom knowing my personal business; it's no one's
business that I can't hear as well as everybody else.

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."

Deafness Forum director recognised for service to

Australias not for profit sector
The 2016 Commonwealth Bank Not-for-Profit
Treasurers' Awards has acknowledged Alexander
Phillips for his distinguished service as treasurer for
Deafness Forum of Australia.
Most treasurers are untiring, painstaking, and efficient.
They work long hours without asking for thanks or
recognition. They keep the group afloat, a spokesperson
for the Commonwealth Bank said.
Every community organisation understands how much they
owe to the person who keeps track of the finances. Our
Community and the Commonwealth Bank and their Not-forProfit Sector Banking team believe Australia's treasurers
deserve recognition.
Alex said that being supported by a not-for-profit organisation in his school years gave him a
personal insight into the important role they play in an Australian community life.
He was born profoundly deaf. With little success from powerful hearing aids, he received a
Cochlear Implant at three and a half years of age. The success of his Cochlear Implant enabled
him to attend mainstream schooling and university where he completed a bachelor and masters
degree in Economics, Finance and Accounting. He now works for an accounting firm specialising
in insolvency.
The journey was not without its challenges. He experienced a difficult time with social exclusion
and teachers who lacked understanding of the impact of hearing impairment on access to
education.
It is a pleasure to be able to contribute to a positive impact on the wellbeing of people
represented by Deafness Forum of Australia, Alex said.
It is also a privilege to be supported by my employer, Meertens Chartered Accountants in my
volunteer role."
Alexander is determined to ensure that deaf and hearing impaired people are empowered to
achieve their potential and enjoy the same quality of life afforded to hearing people.

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).

How common are hearing disorders?

Hearing disorders are less common than vision disorders but still affect many Australians. Based
on self-reported data from the ABS 201415 NHS (ABS 2015):
over 3 million Australians (14%) had at least one long-term hearing disorder
the proportion of people with long-term hearing disorders increased with age, from 3% of
children aged 014, to 49% of people aged 75 and over
after adjusting for differences in the age structure of the population, hearing disorders
were more common among males (18%) than females (11%)
the most common long-term hearing disorder in Australia was complete or partial deafness,
which affected 1 in 10 Australians
more than 1.1 million people (4.9%) had other diseases of the ear and mastoid, and
79,000 (0.3%) had otitis media (middle ear infection).
Each year in Australia, more than 500 children are born with moderate to profound permanent
childhood hearing impairment (MSAC 2007).
Vision and hearing disorders among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians experience higher rates of certain vision and
hearing disorders than non-Indigenous Australians. In 201213, Indigenous Australians were
more than twice as likely as non-Indigenous Australians to have partial or complete blindness, and
more than twice as likely to have otitis media (ABS 2013a). Cataract and deafness were also
more common among Indigenous Australians.
While Australia remains the only developed country with endemic trachoma (a bacterial eye
infection that can lead to blindness), the rate of trachoma among 59 year olds in remote
Indigenous communities dropped from an estimated 14% in 2009 to 4.7% in 2014 (Kirby Institute
2015).

What is missing from the picture?

Australia is a signatory to the global initiative Vision 2020the right to sight, which aims to
eliminate preventable and avoidable blindness by 2020. Due to limitations in the availability and
completeness of eye health data, it is not currently possible to measure Australia's progress
towards eliminating preventable and avoidable blindness.
Australian data on hearing disorders are similarly limited. In recognition of the importance of
early diagnosis and appropriate intervention for childhood hearing loss, all states and territories
have, or are implementing, infant hearing screening, with varying levels of coverage.
http://www.aihw.gov.au/australias-health/2016/ill-health/#t16

Hearing services and

Insurance Scheme

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?

DEAF EXPO 2016

Lifestyle And Wellbeing

Venue:
The Expo Hall,
Melbourne Showgrounds
Date:
Saturday,
22 October 2016
Time:
10:00am - 4:00pm

22

OCT

Exhibitors/Demonstrations
Technology
Case management
Early Intervention
Aged care
Auslan

Employment
Interpreting
Education
Deaf Arts

Hearing Loss Prevention

Community Support Groups
Sports for Deaf & hard of hearing
Sevices available

For more information contact Deaf Expo Coordinator

David Peters: dpeters@vicdeaf.com.au

www.deafexpo2016.squarespace.com

Deafness holding NT's indigenous kids back

Lucy Hughes Jones, Australian Associated Press
Many boys caught up in the Northern Territory's juvenile justice system suffer a
"disease of disadvantage" that has crippled almost every aspect of their lives, the
Northern Territory's royal commission into youth detention and protection has heard.
Jody Barney, who works as a deaf indigenous community consultant, told the inquiry she has
spoken to several young Aboriginal people with hearing impairments who have had their faces
covered by spit hoods and bound behind bars.
"Taking away another sense from a person who already has a limited sense is frightening. And
that fear stays forever... long after their sentence," she said.
Footage of boys being tear gassed, shackled and put in spit hoods at Don Dale Youth Detention
Centre was aired on national television in July, sparking the royal commission. Psychologist
Damien Howard told the inquiry a chronic housing shortage is creating an "epidemic" of hearing
loss in indigenous children that leads to learning difficulties, family breakdown and criminal
involvement.
"It's very much a disease of disadvantage," Dr Howard told Darwin's Supreme Court.
Crowded housing overwhelms a child's capacity to maintain hygiene, allows infections to pass
quickly, and increases exposure to cigarette smoke and loud noises, while the poverty limits
nutrition.
On average, non-Aboriginal kids experience middle ear disease for three months of their childhood
while indigenous children can get fluctuating hearing loss for more than two years. This can
result in a permanent condition, which Dr Howard says is a "smoking gun" leading to overrepresentation in the criminal justice system.
A 2011 study found that 94 per cent of inmates in Darwin and Alice Springs prisons suffered
significant hearing loss, a figure Dr Howard says would be similar in youth detention centres. He
advocates more culturally-based communication training in schools, courts, law enforcement and
corrections.
Ms Barney has worked with 15 young offenders with hearing impairments who said Don Dale was
their "worst nightmare."
Some detainees had their hearing aids taken off them or didn't have access to batteries, while
there were no visual alarms for fire safety.

"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

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