Deafness Forum presentation to Princess Alexandra Hospital
Disability Rights
Deafness Forum presentation to Princess Alexandra Hospital
|
Russel Strong Auditorium 20 March Graeme Innes |
 |
Introduction
I'd like to start by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet.
I was particularly pleased to receive the invitation from Deafness Forum to participate in this event to recognise the access initiatives developed by Princess Alexandra Hospital .
Far too often in my role as Commissioner responsible for Disability Discrimination I have to urge, cajole or bully people and organisations into fulfilling their legal responsibilities to not discriminate.
It is indeed a pleasure to simply celebrate the initiative of an organisation that has recognised its responsibilities, both legal and professional, and committed itself to ensuring a high quality of care and safety to all who use its services.
While today's event is about recognising the achievements of this hospital I would like to take the opportunity to briefly mention the Commissions work in the area of communication and information access, particularly as it relates to people who are Deaf or who have a hearing impairment.
Media access
Most of you will be aware that the Commission has worked closely with community organisations like the Deafness Forum and AAD and the television and film industries to make captions more available.
In the area of TV formal arrangements are in place which progressively requires increases in the percentage of programs providing closed captions. The formal arrangement ends in 2008, but there is a requirement that broadcasters undertake a review in consultation with deafness representative organisations of possibilities for further increases in captioning at the expiry of the arrangement.
I look forward to those consultations over the next few months.
In the area of access to first release films in cinemas a program of open captioned sessions in a number of cinemas throughout Australia has been operating for more than five years. This program was developed following a DDA complaint as a voluntary agreement between some of the major cinema chains and distributors and disability groups such as Deafness Forum and AAD.
While the program has undergone some changes and developments I am aware that the disability community is not satisfied that this voluntary agreement has progressed as expected and that proposals have been put forward to review the agreement. Again I look forward to any discussions in this area and would offer any assistance I can in future negotiations.
A new and exciting area of development is work we have begun in the area of access to DVDs. I recently convened a Roundtable on DVD access which was well attended by representatives from the DVD industry and the disability community representing people with hearing and vision impairments.
DVDs have had a massive growth over the past few years and while many do provide some access features, such as captions, in general there is a long way to go to achieve broad accessibility.
The Roundtable was a valuable beginning to what I hope will be a productive partnership between industry and the disability sector to address these access problems.
I must add that in all these areas of work we have benefited from the contribution made by Media Access Australia who have provided valuable technical and internationally relevant policy advice to us, the disability sector and service providers.
Health Access Forum
Closer to home access to health care services has been one of the areas the Commission has focussed on over the past three years.
In 2004 we organised a national Forum on Health Access which was attended by medical practitioners, government, professional associations such as the RACGP and AMA and representatives from a range of disability advocacy groups whose members had reported problems in accessing health care services.
The Forum provided an opportunity for participants to clarify legal responsibilities under the DDA, including the requirements for non-discriminatory access to buildings and all the facilities; access to information, such as guides to better health, in alternative formats; access to interpreter services and the delivery of services in a non-discriminatory way.
More importantly, however, it opened up discussions on the very personal and important consequences of patients with disabilities not having equitable access to health care. These included the very real physical problems of not being able to access the equipment used for testing or screening; not being able to check on vital information on medications and not being able to describe symptoms and experiences to staff.
Each of these barriers can result in reductions in the quality of health care service offered to patients with disabilities.
Participants in the Forum agreed to establish co-operative approaches to some of the problems identified rather than trying to address them through using the complaints mechanisms of the DDA.
Some progress has been achieved, most notably changes to the Medicare payment scheme to allow for annual comprehensive health assessments for people with an intellectual disability. We are also confident of developments in the area of the availability of height adjustable examination beds.
A number of communication guides aimed at health care staff have been developed with more to come.
Over the next year I intend to continue to work closely with the disability sector, government and the health care sector to identify new projects that will address some of the barriers to access that continue affect people with disabilities.
One initiative I would like to note is a series of publications developed by the UK Department of Health titled 'You can make a difference: Improving hospital services for disabled people'. My presentation today will be on the Commission's website and I have arranged for a link to these publications to be included.
Princess Alexandra Hospital success
Let me conclude by coming back to the reason we are hear today.
During the Health Access Forum in 2004 the Deafness Forum in its opening statement said:
"All people who are Deaf or have a hearing impairment have the same right to access facilities as do people with hearing. Therefore, all medical service facilities for the benefit of patients or staff must be accessible to all patients and staff, not just to those with normal hearing. Failure to provide equitable access to such facilities means the person who is Deaf or has a hearing impairment is discriminated against.
It is possible to provide communication access through the provision of the right equipment. For example, it is possible to purchase simple portable communication devices to facilitate communication with people with hearing impairments who are users of medical services. It is possible to purchase telephones with volume control to ensure that staff with hearing impairments can communicate effectively with patients seeking to make appointments. It is possible to purchase smoke alarms and a range of other devices that attract attention via flashing lights or vibrations rather than via sounds, so that deaf patients and staff will not be at greater risk in emergency situations. It is possible to purchase Teletext-enabled TV sets so that captions may be displayed on TV sets in the waiting rooms of medical services for the benefit of deaf patients. A range of affordable solutions exists to communication access issues".
It does not surprise me to find that all of the issues raised as examples by Deafness Forum, and more, have been implemented by Princess Alexandra Hospital .
This includes visual fire safety alarms; hearing assistance systems at the Inquiry desk and auditoriums; information on interpreter access; TVs with caption capabilities; patient and payphone telephone typewriters; personal listening devices for loan; captioned education videos; staff awareness training and attention to design features to reduce background noise.
Implementing these access features does not happen overnight or without the support and enthusiasm of many.
I congratulate Deafness Forum and its local member organisations for working in partnership with the hospital to achieve this outcome and I congratulate Media Access Australia for providing technical support and assistance.
Most of all, however, I congratulate the Management and staff of Princess Alexandra Hospital .
While it is true to say that these initiatives merely reflect existing responsibilities of service providers few will actually work pro-actively to meet those responsibilities, often because of competing demands for limited resources.
The actions of this Hospital say to me that the driving force in creating change is not the management of risk, but rather a fundamental recognition of the need to ensure that no Australian receives a second class service because of a disability.
Currently one in six Australians has some form of hearing impairment, and this is projected to increase to one in four by 2050. With this in mind I challenge other health care service providers to follow this example and ensure that access to health includes access for all.