Hi,
I am Heather Lawson and I am a member of the DeafBlind Victorians Self advocacy group in Victoria.
Together with some of my friends I have been actively involved in making change happen for the Deaf Blind Community for over 30 years.
My roles have included sitting on various DeafBlind Committees, self-advocacy, and educating the community and government.
We have run education workshops with various organisation and government, such as Melbourne City Council and also with interpreters on how to work with the Deaf Blind Community.
The Deaf Blind Victoria self advocacy group produced the communication book which is on this website and we are in the Talk by Touch video which was part of Dangerous Deeds.
We have, as a group, facilitated and run many DeafBlind World workshops which gives participants an interactive understanding of what it is like to live in a DeafBlind world and an education of what the barriers and our needs may be.
As a spokesperson for the DeafBlind community, I would like to say that it is really important to break through feelings of isolation and have Deaf Blind people talking to each other and communicating better with the wider community.
It is also important that the DeafBlind community have an understanding of their rights and have peer support to talk through issues concerning them.
On this website there are many resources including videos that can help the DeafBlind community to connect, know more about their rights, learn how to set up new self-advocacy groups around Australia and create ways that DeafBlind people can support each other.
It is important to create more awareness of our community, whether you are DeafBlind yourself or a support person, interpreter, relative or friend.
Please have a look at the resources on this website and learn more about the Deaf Blind community.
