Denise West - Scope

Barbara Sullivan 0:02

With information on the latest developments in assistive technology and initiatives from the studios of two RPh in Sydney and around the country on the radio reading network of Australia, we bring you ablequest. Hello. I'm Barbara Sullivan, one in seven Australians will experience a communication difficulty at some point in their lives. Some may be unable to read. Others have a problem with speaking, and it can be difficult to be understood and respected. If you have a communication difficulty through brain injury, stroke or any other problem, there is still a barrier to engaging with businesses and community services, everyday activities, shopping, banking, all becomes harder. So while we have an internationally recognized symbol for people with a physical disability to get to the front door of a business, it's only recently that there's been a focus on providing excellent customer service to all customers, including those with communication difficulties. In other words, communication accessible. Our guest today is Denise West, General Manager of scopes, communication and inclusion Resource Center in Victoria. Denise is a speech pathologist with more than 25 years working with adolescents and adults who have complex communication needs, she and her team have developed picture boards and spelling boards, as well as the communication access symbol. This blue and white symbol shows the outline of two faces looking at each other with a two way arrow, depicting communication when publicly displayed, the symbol enables people to know an organization meets high standards in customer service, signage and easy to understand information. Elaine Wziontek talks to Denise about communication access and the importance of everyone being able to get their message across no matter how they communicate.

Elaine Wziontek 2:09

Welcome to ablequest. Denise, so before I ask you to explain communication access and why it's so important, can we begin by my asking you what made you get interested in speech pathology and communication?

Denise West 2:26

Yeah, thank you for having me. As a young child or and a teenage teenager, I learned keyword sign or sign language because I had a cousin who was born profoundly deaf, so I was really very interested in learning about alternative ways of communicating, which led me to a path of speech pathology. And I was fortunate enough to have a one of my first student placements with what was then the spastic society and is now scope Australia, working with children in a special school who had communication difficulties and learning how to support them to effectively communicate.

Elaine Wziontek 3:07

And then you worked in disability?

Denise West 3:10

Yeah, I continued once I graduated to work for the spastic society in a range of services, and have worked with scope, which was then the spastic society for over 30 years in a range of positions, really focusing on ensuring people who have communication difficulties are heard and have a way of communicating, but also ensuring that our communities and Our mainstream services are accessible know how to communicate respectfully and efficiently with people who have got disabilities.

Elaine Wziontek 3:48

So you... became interested in the systemic changes in the system, as well as helping individuals.

Denise West 3:55

Yeah, my first 20 years or 15 years were about providing individual speech therapy, but a communication disability doesn't just belong to the individual, it belongs to the whole environment. And really wanted to focus on building the capacity of services, initially in Victoria and more recently nationally, to ensure that they're accessible for people who have got communication difficulties. So it's important

Elaine Wziontek 4:24

that people with a disability should be able to access the service just like anybody else.

Denise West 4:29

Absolutely. I mean, you know, we've got the UN Convention of rights. We've got also the Victorian and the Australian state disability plans that are all aspired to ensure that people with disabilities have the same choices in life as you and I have the same rights to access services and to have their voices heard.

Elaine Wziontek 4:51

So I understand that you and your team won an Innovation Award for developing a national symbol for businesses to display to promote community. Communication access. So congratulations for that. It's good to know when people businesses have the knowledge and the skills and the confidence to communicate with people with disabilities, isn't it?

Denise West 5:12

Yeah. Look, that was a real highlight. The award we employ over 20 people with communication difficulties and a lived experience disability. To lead this work, we launched the symbol in 2011 so it seems like a lifetime of work, but even leading up to the development the symbol, we heard from many people with disabilities who were brave enough to share their experience around the barriers they faced, communicating out in the community.

Elaine Wziontek 5:45

Can you give an example of one of those experiences?

Denise West 5:48

Sure, on our team at the time, there was a young woman who talked about going into a shop who uses a speech generating device, or a Talking Machine, as many people might know it by she uses an electric wheelchair. She works independently and lives independently in her townhouse, and went into a shoe shop to buy some shoes because and she was ignored by the shop assistants and eventually asked to leave the shop.

Elaine Wziontek 6:20

Oh, dear. So she got access into the building, but she didn't get access to the services.

Denise West 6:26

No, no, so at all, and it's... not enough to be able to physically access buildings once you get in there, you've got to be able to communicate effectively.

Elaine Wziontek 6:40

So there are benefits to businesses and benefits to consumers to have this access symbol and this training. You know, it's all very well to have the symbol on your shop, but you need to have training for it.

Denise West 6:52

Absolutely. And it's not just for the disability community, the whole of community approach Elaine, and it's for tourists. People who've got English as a second language, to have staff that are welcoming and friendly and talk directly to you, and then also to have, whether it be a photo board or some communication tools, you know, pen and paper, even to be able to communicate successfully and recognize when somebody needs some support to communicate. So we make a lot of communication boards for shops, for services, for hospitals, for libraries, for councils, where they can have a picture or a photo based communication board at the at the reception, at the first point of contact, to enable people, irrespective of how they communicate and what language they speak, to be able to get their message across.

Elaine Wziontek 7:46

I know when you're a tourist in another country, it's often good in restaurants to be able to point it to what you think you might eat.

Denise West 7:53

Absolutely - and look, I think some restaurants are really leading the way just by having photo based menus for international tourists, and that really benefits people with disabilities as well.

Elaine Wziontek 8:06

So a lot of your work has been in Victoria I understand, yeah, the trams and the police and voting. I don't know where else...

Denise West 8:13

Yeah, Victorian Electoral Commission, Parliament of Victoria, we recently worked with also a lot of local councils at their customer service centers, swimming pools, community health centers, art galleries. The symbol that we launched in 2011 is a national symbol. We've recently done a significant amount of work in South Australia with a partner in South Australia who's worked with transport providers in South Australia as well. We've got services about to have one in WA be awarded for the work that they're doing to meet the minimum standards, to indicate that they are communication friendly and communication accessible for people who have got communication difficulties. So anywhere across Australia can be awarded the symbol.

Elaine Wziontek 9:01

So how can businesses get accredited? Is there a course that they can do online, or does someone come around? What happens if you so running, running a business, if you're running a Westfield shopping centre or one of those shops?

Denise West 9:13

Yeah, look, I think, certainly contacting Scope for initial inquiry. We then talk to you about understanding the size of your business, the nature of your business, any training that your staff might have previously had, whether you have a diversity and access and inclusion plan. And so we really look at the background and the past experience of the business with customers, we look at whether they've had complaints from customers. We try to understand what kind of is their reason and what they hope to gain. But the end of the day, if they're not really sure, we also have mystery customer assessments, where people with communication difficulties will go out and. And use that service and then come back and write a report about their experience and including what worked well and what were some of the challenges, which will then inform the business as to the next steps. But generally speaking, we would recommend probably some staff training or an information session for staff to give them some tips around how to communicate respectfully and efficiently and effectively. We might then look at whether they need a communication tool or a communication board at the point of their reception or the point of contact customers have. We'll look at whether Australians contact them by phone, by email, by face to face. So all of that's kind of worked through what we call the discovery phase, to then customise a plan for them to move forward.

Elaine Wziontek 10:54

So it's tailored for that business, that special business.

Denise West 10:57

Yes, it is.

Elaine Wziontek 10:58

So can you give us any tips on helping people with communication difficulties when we... meet somebody on the bus or on a holiday?

Denise West 11:07

Look, I think we've spoken to a lot of people with communication difficulties, and there's a couple things that really resonate, that they frequently see. One is speak directly to me, not to a support worker or a carer or a family member who might be traveling with me. If you don't understand me, don't pretend that you've understood me. Let me know that you haven't understood me. I'm not not embarrassed by that. If you ask me to repeat what I'm saying, if I've got speech and that's difficult to understand. If you've asked me to repeat my message and you still can't understand what I'm saying, Ask me if there's another way they can show me, ask how to communicate. They're probably the three main ones. Also see me as a person, don't see my disability and really ask me how I communicate yes and no. That can be a really helpful tip, so that then, if you can't understand or work out what someone's saying, you can ask yes no question, and most people can communicate how they can say yes or no.

Elaine Wziontek 12:22

Supposed I'd worked with children too. Wouldn't that children who haven't got the vocabulary can say something in a different way or point or gesture?

Denise West 12:30

Yes. Be brave and reach out and ask us how we can support you to actually be more inclusive and accessible for people with disabilities and our tourists who don't have a good command of English.

Elaine Wziontek 12:45

So can you give us the website details or any other phone numbers to find out more about the access symbol and how businesses can learn about this?

Denise West 12:53

Sure, best website is www.scopeaust.org.au, and then in terms of a phone number, it's 1 300 SCOPE. One, three hundred, SCOPE.

Elaine Wziontek 13:08

And the website, again, just as Austin, is it WWW-dot-scope...

Denise West 13:14

A, U S T, yeah. So it's w, w, w, dot S C, O, P, E, A, U, S, T dot org dot A, U.

Elaine Wziontek 13:24

Thank you very much, Denise.

Denise West 13:27

You're welcome. Thank you. Thanks for your time.

Elaine Wziontek 13:30

And I've just been speaking to Denise West. She's General Manager in national services at the communication and inclusion resource centre, Scope Victoria. And if you'd like to know more about how you can be more inclusive in your business with people with communication needs, the website is www, dot, scope, A, U, S, t, dot org dot A,U.

Barbara Sullivan 14:04

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