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Advocacy

Hearing Link Tasmania and Tasdeaf are committed to advocating on behalf of Deaf and Hard of Hearing people to the community, all levels of government and the business community across a range of issues.

If you have any difficulties created by your hearing loss you would like support for contact us.

Smoke Alarms

Hearing Link Tasmania and the Tasmanian Deaf Society believe that Deaf and Hard of Hearing Tasmanians should have access to subsidised visual smoke alarms in order to ensure they remain safe in their homes in the unfortunate event of a house fire.

Since 2000, Tasdeaf has been lobbying the government for subsidised Smoke Alarms as specialist smoke alarms were deemed too expensive for a number of Deaf and Hard of Hearing people in Tasmania. Tasdeaf in partnership with Tasmania Fire Services and the Department of Health and Human Services formed a working group which presented a report to Minister Thorp in late 2009.

In December 2009, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that funding would be available to subsidise the specialist smoke alarms for people who have a hearing loss. 

Tasdeaf has been appointed to administer the program and will be working with the Disability Services and Tasmanian Fire Services to distribute the smoke alarms.  The cost of the Bellman Visit Smoke alarm package is normally $400.00, but due to the subsidy it is available for $50.00 for those who qualify.

Please click on this PDF file to apply for a subsidised visual smoke alarm

Further information:

Captioning

You can participate in the campaign to lobby cinema owners to provide captioning for movies. Drop in and pick up a postcard from our offices to send off or visit the Media Access Australia website (external link).

Captions are available on all TV programs shown between 6.00-10.30pm on all free-to-air networks and on many DVDs and videos.

Captions differ from foreign language subtitles as they are coloured and positioned to indicate who is speaking, and provide information on music and sound effects which may be crucial to understanding the program. Subtitles are simply a translation of a foreign language into English which appears on the bottom of the screen

Why caption?

Captioning ensures that every member of every viewing audience has the ability to access broadcast messages through TV, video, DVD, webstreaming and even live events.

Who uses captions?

Deaf and hard of hearing people

People who are deaf rely on captions to follow the soundtrack on television or videos.

People who have some degree of hearing loss use captions to help them understand the soundtrack. (There are around 3.5 million hearing impaired people in Australia.)

People learning English

Many language schools use captioned videos and television to help teach people spoken English. It is easier to follow a soundtrack reading the captions and listening to the pronunciation of words.

People viewing in noisy areas

Captions can be used by anyone who is trying to watch a television program or DVD in a noisy environment or where the volume cannot be adjusted, such as shopping centres, airports, gyms, shows, banks, pubs and clubs.

To find out more about captioning:

 Access to public spaces and facilities

Deafness Forum Australia has a number of positon papers on access for Deaf and Hard of Hearing people to public spaces.