Brett Casey - Deaf Connect

Barbara Sullivan 0:01

With information on the latest developments in assistive technology and initiatives from the studios of 2RPH in Sydney and around the country on the radio reading network of Australia, we bring you Ablequest. Hello. I'm Barbara Sullivan in the recent NDIS National Disability Awards, the winner for excellence in service quality was deaf. Connect. They are Australia's largest provider of Auslan, the Australian Sign Language. They also provide interpreting classes and qualification courses. Auslan is its own language, not just for Deaf Australians, but the hearing children of deaf adults, parents of deaf children and their families and friends. Deaf connect aims to ensure an accessible and inclusive society for all, and is the largest employer of deaf people in Australia. Our interview today is with the CEO of defconnect, Brett Casey. Marni Roper spoke to Brett via his Auslan interpreter, Duke Moolenaar. I should add that this was a first for Ablequest 2RPH, and a wonderful experience. As usual, the interview was done by phone, this time on a three way connection. Due to time constraints, we have edited out the breaks when Duke was signing the questions.

Marni Roper 1:25

Welcome Brett - and your interpreter, Duke, to Ablequest. First, may I congratulate you on your recent award for excellence in service quality at the annual National Disability Awards at the end of last year. Now to get a little background on Deaf Connect, I understand there was a merger of two entities. Can you just tell us about that?

Brett Casey 1:48

So in 2020 the [?defect of Queensland] time, this New South Wales Deaf Society [?brew] conversations [?down] synergies between the two organisations. And with the advent of NDIS and pressures on the community sector, the start of that we'll both fit to merge, to become one organisation, to become one of the largest organisations that service the deaf and hard of hearing community. The Royal South Australian DeafSociety approached us to take on their services, assets and staff of their organisation. So from the initial merge, we've been to death connect, and then last year, we welcomed access past the WA Deaf Society. And from those activities, we've become a national service provider, providing services from birth rights or death all across Australia. And we are proud to be able to continue provide different services to our community, and the award itself is in recognition and demonstrates our focus on engaging with our community and providing a quality, excellent service. The whole sector also provides quality services.

Marni Roper 2:55

You've got a long history of providing Auslan classes. Can you just explain exactly what Auslan is?

Brett Casey 3:02

Auslan is short for Australian Sign Language. Aus is Australia and Lan is sign language and is the language of the Australian deaf community. It is a visual language with its own grammar, FinTech, linguistic structure that is distinct English - incorporates handshape, facial expressions and movement.

Marni Roper 3:26

And you even have your own way of telling stories.

Brett Casey 3:29

Yeah, being a visual language, people find it quite expressive, expressive and pathetic. Looking at facial expressions, if you're angry, you can't find angry with the smile on your face. It doesn't really work, does it? So you've got a really good train that angry feature as you're finding or signing the word, it adds a bit more character than just as to what you're signing. And so the visual element is quite engaging, especially when it comes to storytelling.

Marni Roper 3:57

Yes, and we've seen that in recent years with more Auslan interpreters on television and stages. And why is this important for the deaf community?

Brett Casey 4:08

When you see interpreters on TV that links into accessibility will be for our deaf community members. Over 2011 clubs in Brisbane, there was a lot of information being disseminated out to the community. They had captions on TV, but the captions weren't at the best quality. Person captioning in Sydney didn't know how to spell towns in Queensland, the information wasn't clear. We advocated the current government at that time to have an interpreter on TV, and it's set the precedence what we've seen through recent years. And as I was mentioning, with Auslan itself being a visual language with its own grammar and syntax, it's important to provide that access in people's first language, which is Auslan, whether it's flooding, fires or cyclones. You have seen as a common feature of our TVs during disaster, unfortunately, the only time that you see interpreters present on TV is through those disasters, and people were now seeing interpreters linked into bad news, that interpreting present is that bad must be happening, which is unfortunate, because we would love to see great news, such as the 2032 Olympics in Brisbane have been provided with interpreters.

Marni Roper 5:26

Yes, but this might change soon, because in September 2024 in conjunction with SBS, you launched Auslan 90. Tell us about that.

Brett 5:36

We did. It's Auslan 90 is a key feature for Deaf Connect. Now we received an ILC information capacity building garage in the Department of Social Services, and we are providing information that is translated into videos, key information, so the deaf community can access that news in their own language. And as I mentioned before, captions are a solution for everyone, and we want, and we want to demonstrate something differently. And so that's why we've learned about setting up that 90 program. 90 years is 90 seconds, and sometimes we go over that 90 seconds, but it's just a brief of the day. We've used to the deaf community, so then we're seeing what's happening. It's become very popular and also appreciated by Deaf community that finally have access to what's happening in the world and in Australia in their own language, and it releases every day at 1pm and on the weekend that we have an opportunity to dive into deeper on specific topics.

Marni Roper 6:33

Fantastic service. It was hard to know where to start with all the wonderful services you do supply? Do you provide Auslan classes for all levels and all ages.

Brett Casey 6:45

Auslan classes are one part of what we do here at Deaf connect, but we do provide opportunities for students to learn our language, and that hopefully removes the communication barrier between the Deaf community and management community. We offer short courses in the take zone for learning language, and then you can progress on to certified courses through our RTO starting at two right through this deployment of Auslan, our RTO rich training organization primarily focused on adult learning, but we do have Auslan in the home program. So for those families that have NDIS same or parents of deaf children, where we will enter the home and teach the whole family sign language, we definitely have unaccredited and accredited programs. Sometimes we have Auslan every weekend. Was part of that where you attend a camp over a weekend, your test in not speaking that whole weekend with your voice and only communicating through Auslan.

Marni Roper 7:52

And there's also qualifications courses, presumably you teach people Auslan. What do these entail?

Brett Casey 8:00

So it's on the certificate to get three, to get four, and Diploma of Auslan, an Auslan pathway. And some of our students, after completing their diploma of Auslan, are able to move on to the diploma of Auslan interpreting, creating a clear pathway for students to acquire the language, to be involved with the language in the deaf community. And then, in turn, we have an Auslan workforce that we can tap into, whether it's interpreters or other parts of the deaf community. Some some people want to take those courses because they have a friend they want to communicate with, or family member they want to communicate with. But we do offer that clear pathway as a resource for anyone in the nation to learn our language, and I feel our Aussie and classes important. You could just be one person in the workplace who was deaf, and the only avenue of connection they have is for you saying when they're that much like it should be lovely to see more connection happening in the community.

Marni Roper 8:57

And one of the services as well is interpreting. Do you do this face to face or by video? Or how do you do it?

Brett Casey 9:04

Primarily interpreting is face to face with a professional level of work for us, or our interpreters here are qualified to not only regulating authority, they sign off as a certified provisional interpreter, and they can move up through their certification levels and primarily work out the community, whether it's a doctor's appointment or meeting with a bank manager to address a mortgage or to visit a workplace or workplace training or workplace meetings, you find interpreting across all aspects of life, even if it's performance management in the workplace, that all aspects of life you'll find that in Sherpa will be provided. We also do provide video remote, and she calls VRI, and that can be through a virtual name. So in Sherpa is that the same room, but they are online through zoom, Google, meet face time, and that's great for those, for people that breathe in a remote location. Question,

Marni Roper 10:00

What about in an emergency? Can you use it?

Brett Casey 10:03

Then, yes, we do have an after hours emergency service where we will organize and interpret to meet those urgent a lot of video, remote interpreting is utilized for that space, again, finding assistance location and

Marni Roper 10:18

you also provide translations. Is that right, correct

Brett Casey 10:22

translation is different to interpreting they may translate English documents or brochure into our visual language, or it could be videos. And

Marni Roper 10:35

defconnect is a registered NDIS provider. What do you offer? A whole

Brett Casey 10:39

range of services within the NDIS early intervention, starting with early intervention, we do provide opportunities for younger deaf children from zero to six years of age. So that's sign language acquisition, speech therapy, development, ot Visio psychology and EF support. We also have one on one support so deaf adults with positional disabilities or additional support needs to maintain their independence at home, where we have support workers that provide that service, we have support coordination. There's people receiving NDIS plans.

Marni Roper 11:16

And what about for the over 65 so you have a special aged care service for them.

Brett Casey 11:21

We do outside of the realms of NDIS. We are a registered aged care provider in the Commonwealth Government. We provide home care packages, support for Deaf community members that are over 65 that are registered with by aged care who research connects to provide them services directly in their language. They're independent. We did that deliberately because we could see that a lot of Deaf people weren't really great access to services by other providers, mainly because the communication, and that's our point of difference, is we provide support for services directly in the language of ours, and share and acknowledging that not everyone can sign. You can imagine having a support mechanism they can't communicate within that may be. So that's one aspect of our aged care services. We also have over 65 interpretive service, where the government has invested money to ensure seniors that over 65 that don't have access to as are still able to have access to their interpreting needs, whether it could be a senior tour or bus route somewhere or to meet their bank, wedding, funerals, etc, it's a brilliant program. Moving from 64 to 65 doesn't mean you need to change substantially.

Marni Roper 12:38

And as a not for profit, I believe you rely on the death lottery. How does this work?

Brett Casey 12:44

Death lottery is a fundraising arm of death connect that provides additional revenue into the organization for us to reinvest into communities. It's very common in Queensland and the death lottery, where you can buy tickets across a period of time, where we draw prize every six to seven weeks. So that's the commercial part of our work as an NSP, but that provides us funding to fund from the activities that we don't receive government support from. We had a lot of supportive within our debt boxer that continued to purchase tickets. It's a lovely way to connect.

Marni Roper 13:19

Absolutely. Thank you, Brett and Duke. If any listener would like further information about defconnect, please check out their comprehensive website, defconnect.org.au, I've been speaking with Brett Casey, CEO of defconnect, with the help of his Auslan interpreter, Duke Moolenaar.

Barbara Sullivan 13:49

You have just been listening to Ablequest, a program that looks at developments in assistive technology and initiatives. From Barbara Sullivan and Marni Roper, Thank you for listening and goodbye till next program.