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Purple background with a thin white border framing the page. In the top right corner is an outline of Australia with the words National Week of Deaf People on the West Australia side of the outline. In the middle at the top is the date 22 SEPT 2022. On the left is an abstract rectangular design. In the middle of this page is typed in capitalised letters: NATIONAL WEEK OF DEAF PEOPLE and at bottom is the subheading SAFEGUARDING DEAF PEOPLE IN TIMES OF CRISIS. In the bottom right is the page number 1.
White background with a thin purple border framing the page. In the middle are two people standing on a bridge made of puzzle pieces, with more to go to complete the bridge. The man is holding a puzzle piece to give to the woman who is already putting down a yellow puzzle piece. Halo, the green-blue paper plane with a smiley face is flying from the left where a stack of puzzle pieces is to the right, watching the two people build the bridge. On the bottom left of the bridge is an arrow pointing to the left with the label underneath ‘Deaf community.’ On the bottom right of the bridge is an arrow pointing to the right with the label underneath ‘Emergency services and governments.’
In the bottom right is the page number 2.
White background with a thin purple border framing the page. In the middle is a table with puzzle pieces stacked and Halo, the green-blue paper plane with a smiley face flying to the right of the table.
In the bottom right is the page number 3.
The world is not a utopia (paradise) or a smooth running operation and has never been thus. Natural disasters, spread of disease, conflict and war, drought, starvation, economic crises are a part of human history. People have faced numerous challenges and yet there’s been support provided to get through these challenges. Yet Deaf people face these challenges with added layers, such as language delays: how do they get past these challenges?
You know how we live in a technological world. Technology is remarkable. Considering how it’s improved so many lives it’s amazing. Yet. Still there are gaps especially with disasters and crises across the world such as what’s happening in Africa with conflict in certain parts of the continent, Ukraine, the floods in Pakistan. The spotlight on Ukraine means that other crises that’s happening across the world are neglected in comparison and Deaf people living these crises are neglected too.
Deaf people are neglected in times of crises because of a lack of support in place, lack of governmental systems and understanding of the needs of Deaf people. In Australia we still encounter barriers as well with lack of information access and support during the natural disasters we’ve had recently, with the Lismore floods and the Black Saturday fires. There is no bridge of understanding between the emergency services and the Deaf community.
We need to build a bridge between the two and that’s where you come in. The UN’s CRPD outlines how we have the right to have access to information regardless of whether it’s a crisis or not. The emergency services need to recognise that and you can do your part by educating your local services on how to be more open to communicating in different ways when a natural disaster occurs or when a crisis occurs. Being a bystander assumes thinking that there’s always someone else who will do it – when it’s very likely that won’t happen.
