Olitta Faapusa

00:15

S1 (Speaker 1)

On Vision Australia Radio, this is Vision Extra with Peter Greco.

S2

I'm absolutely delighted to welcome the program Olitta Fapuso, who is the project officer for DeafBlind Information Australia. It's lovely to meet you. First time we spoke and say thank you so much for your time.

S3

Peter, thank you so much for having me.

S2

Yeah, you've been doing some really interesting research. We actually spoke about this when it first started, a research into technology that people are deaf-blind using. Do you want to give us a bit of background as to how all this has come about? And then we can talk about some early findings?

S3

Yes. So deaf blindness is a unique disability. It's a combination of the vision loss and hearing loss. For people, there are different levels of hearing loss and vision loss and the combination of this presents challenges relating to communications, access to information, orientation, mobility and awareness of your environment. So with the Technology Project, it was launched in February 2020 so that Australia and our research team from university can help the blind community to look at some technology that could help to assist them with their everyday activities. Prior to this, there was a technology hub that was up and running and Flinders Lane in Melbourne City and that was called Able Link run by Australia and that was a centre where people could drop in and try different bits of technology whenever they were in the area or whenever they could plan to get there. But with the services moving to NDIS, that particular service was discontinued. So we tried to launch the technology project to maintain the support, to reach out to the community and see what the technology needs are and how we could assist to support them in the areas that are already mentioned of communications information and access to support.

S2

I mean, that's such important things aren't that communication, access to information, orientation and mobility. It's all about quality of life. It's all about independence. So were you pleased with the response? Because I guess you can have these really good ideas and then it's up to the community. If you'd like to kind of respond to a survey or research like this where you pleased with the response?

S3

Yes. So the project was open to all people with deaf blindness over the age of 18. So all the participants that we had a residents of four of our homes here in Melbourne, so we had participants from four of those houses as well as those some people who resided in the community. And there was always an opportunity for them to accept or to leave at any time. And people were happy to participate and provide information to the project so that we could also support them.

S2

So when you talk about technology, what sort of technology specifically are we talking about? I guess, you know, as you said, you know, deaf blindness, hearing and vision impairment, it can vary so much from person to person. I guess also the technology they use can vary as well.

S3

Yeah, definitely. So we have people that use Braille and they were looking at purple displays to pair with things like iPads and iPhones. We also had people who use magnification and had goals around, you know, access to printed or digital print. So those are people that looked at CCTVs. And what.

S2

About, as I said, it's in the early stages of, I guess, findings. Is there a common theme that's coming up or what what are you gaining from the information that people have responded with?

S3

So the early findings are that we discovered that the questions that we use, the tools that we used for for the assessments sometimes had to. Modified so that there could be a better suited to the community. Sometimes would be the sorts of tools that have repetitive questions, maybe suitable in some situations, but for the different community, the experience a lot of some people experience a lot of fatigue if you think about how they communicate with the signing. So we wanted to simplify the surveys and make it more accessible and more enjoyable for them. Also, we found that a lot of people were already using mainstream technology and a lot of cases, and we also found that it wasn't just simple to just give someone technology. They had to be the background support to it. They had to be people there to help the participants with the ongoing support. 

So we have a client who the behavioral support specialists help to recommend apps for the clients, use on her iPad, and that enables her to recognise colors and, you know, trace colors like she could trace a color on its own, like she could recognise green, she could even trace it in a pattern or such as a rainbow. And that would give her good quality time with staff members. And staff members have to be trained in order to support the participants to make the most of the technology that is given to them. So those are early things that we discovered early on.

05:49

S2

That is such a great point you make about the training because you can have the greatest technology out there, but if either the individual or, as you say, staff aren't trained in the area to work to get the best out of it, that can kind of be that can be a bit challenging, can it?

S3

Yeah. And our participants are people that require a lot of supports. And because the project started in February 2020, there was a big delay when Covid happened because you just can't interview people over the phone or over Zoom. They need their support there. They need, you know, interpreters or their guides. So com guides are basically support workers who have extra training to be supportive to people with deaf blindness. So they give them information about their environment and their surroundings and who's in the room, that sort of thing. So that's just supporting that access to information and technology and also their surroundings. 

So we can't just operate a a research project during Covid. And this, there was a lot of delays there. But also in providing the technology, we need the support of our behavior support specialists, speech pathologists and occupational therapists and other professionals to be able to provide the right support to ensure that the people have the right supports behind them and that they have the right apps. And yeah, to be able to operate the technology that they have.

S2

It's a bit like the old thing about you don't know what you don't know. And sometimes if people can point you in the right direction, they can make a lot of difference. What about from here or later? What happens from here? These are some of the early findings. What's kind of the next step from here?

S3

So the project is in that's wrap-up stage now. So the we don't have the final data. So later on we'd be happy to come back and share the final results with you. But for now, all the participants receive a report or recommendations that they can use to obtain the required mainstream technology that they need. The research findings will also assist us to lobby the NDIS and any other appropriate service for better supports for people with deaf blindness, not just better access to technology, but also better access to the human supports like we spoke about. So they have that assistance to be able to make the most of technology and to improve the quality of life and access to information and and communications. But it could also support any other future research.

S2

That is such a great point about kind of then representing it or presenting it to the NDIS because the NDIS for a lot of people is a great thing. It works really, really well. But if they can, as in the NDIS, can be aware of information like this, people in the future are going to get even more from the NDIS plan if they can have this as a reference point as well. So this is going to be quite a powerful tool and quite a powerful thing for people to be using it, not just now but in the future as well for people or deafblind in well years to come.

S3

It's so important because with the NDIS is always a they seem to want to avoid technology. I see is, you know, everyday equipment, like, for example, a TV with a large screen. They wouldn't see that as a disability aid, but that hinders a person to access subtitles, which hinders their access to information, communications and all of that. So that sort of thing we're really including in this research, it's a human right to be able to access information and to understand what's happening in the world where you in in your surroundings.

S2

That is a brilliant point because, you know, someone might like it because, you know, they've got their sight, they've got their hearing and they like the big screen to show off to their mates or, you know, sit around watching sport. But that is such a wonderful example that you've given there of the fact that the captioning can come up and people can get much better use from it. So we're congratulations on, on on this initiative. So the research, if you like, was from people in Melbourne. So would there be perhaps, you know, opportunities in the future for other people or deafblind outside Melbourne? Do you think there may be opportunities in the future?

10:24

S3

I guess once we wrap up this research and we have the final information and then I guess we'll know what you know, we will head on from there. Yeah, but it's been a great project apart from the interviews, because our research team, when we're in university, they travel out to the client's homes or in a, you know, a familiar place where they meet them with their communication supports and and go through their technology that they're using and how they could what other technology could support them. We also ran a couple of commentary days. We had several pieces of equipment there that people could come and try. Our last one, which was held in February, we had six different providers there, so I was representing Australia and we also had an Oti. 

We had human wear displaying and medication and we also had new eyes. And that was amazing because one of our clients who was looking at magnification and in particular looking at the new eyes glasses, to be able to, you know, go to the footage like everybody else and be able to see from afar and not have to hold binoculars to his eyes and, you know, have that fatigue of so the new eyes glasses where he could just have it sitting on his head and adjusting the magnification. So he was able to come to the commentary day in February and and try that in person. And that was amazing. 

And we had the actual people from the organizations or from the manufacturing services there. So we had a guy from New York and he could actually explain and assist and show that piece of equipment in detail. And we had the interpreters and supports there to be able to communicate that well with our clients. So that was a very successful day. We also had two people from Virgin Australia. We had someone from the government services as well as an OEM instructor and he was very popular on the day because he was he was displaying, you know, these smart phones with the technology, the haptics. So that was very popular on the day he was helping people to navigate around the the building with their eyes closed and just relying on the the haptic signals in the phone. So that was amazing day. Yeah.

S2

You made some very, very powerful points in the last 10 or 12 minutes. It's been really wonderful to speak to you. Thank you for joining us. And as you said, when you get the final results from this, you'd love to report back and we'd love to have you back, because this has been most, most interesting. And as I mentioned with, of course, Helen Keller Week and DeafBlind Awareness Week coming up as well. But it's a topic that is relevant to 24 over seven, particularly obviously for people who are deafblind. Thank you again so much for spending a bit of time loose and continue. Good work. We look forward to speaking to you again in the future.

S3

Thank you, Peter. Thank you very much.

13:26

S2

That was fascinating. That's all Olitta Faapuso there who is a project officer for DeafBlind Information Australia. That is it for the program. If you've missed some of them, if you'd like to hear it again, you can search for an extra on the iTunes store on Spotify or your favorite podcast service.