Speech: Turia - Hearing Association
te-pati-maori
Fri May 20 2011 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)
Speech: Turia - Hearing Association
Friday, 20 May 2011, 11:04 pm
Speech: The Maori Party
Hon Tariana Turia
Minister of Disability Issues
20 May 2011 7pm
Hearing Association of New Zealand
National Conference
Kingsgate Hote, Whanganui
Speech
[Delivered by Linda Farley on her behalf]
The Mayor, Annette Main; the President, John Harwood and members of the Hearing Association of New Zealand and other distinguished guests.
I am delighted to be able to spend some time with you tonight, and to personally congratulate you for the eight decades of advocacy and commitment this Association has delivered.
Right from your earliest days in 1932 when the League for the Hard of Hearing was born, the Association has shown an impressive commitment towards ensuring that hearing impaired people participate on an equal basis with others.
One of my greatest privileges as the Minister of Disability Issues has been to come into contact with some amazing people who have done so much to advance attitudes and advocate on behalf of disabled persons and their families.
One of the issues that Deaf people often share with me is their frustration at the pathological constructions of deafness which represent their interests in terms of a deficit. The writer, Harlan Lane, in his book, The Mask of Benevolence, describes this well,
“In the hearing stereotype, deafness is the lack of something, not the presence of anything. Silence Is emptiness”.
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And of course all of us will acknowledge that hearing loss affects education, socialisation, employment and general well-being, and can lead to frustration, anger, social withdrawal and isolation.
But the hearing loss itself, should not define the person.
As a consequence of such a view, deafness is singularly considered within a medical mindset rather than encouraging our communities and families to look at how the wider needs of hearing impaired people can be met.
And so I really want to acknowledge the efforts of an organisation such as yours, in creating a new consciousness about the language of the Deaf, the values and beliefs of the Deaf, and the common goals that you share with each other around enabling full participation and communication in a hearing world.
The history of this Association in providing practical help, advocating, informing and educating, is a vital part of Deaf history in Aotearoa.
• You have been an impressive driving force for the inclusion and participation of people with a hearing disability in schools, work and in their families and communities.
• As I looked over your website, and through your newsletters I was struck by the recent report from the Hamilton branch of your association.
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• Three years ago they lobbied the Hamilton City Council for the city’s new multi-million dollar Events Centre to be fitted with a loop system. Last month they saw the results, including a 5000-person capacity auditorium, fully installed with loops.
• You can be very proud of this. You have successfully advocated for the needs of hearing-impaired people who will enjoy events at this centre for decades to come. It is indeed a legacy to your collective efforts.
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• I was also struck by another item in that newsletter – the Dangerous Decibels workshops which some of your members have been training in. They aim to change the knowledge, attitudes and behaviour of our young people and prevent them from doing things that will damage their hearing.
I am really interested in this focus on our rangatahi, our young people.
• You may be aware of information from the 2006 Disability Survey which revealed that hearing loss is one of the most frequent types of impairment for Māori, and that Māori children are twice as likely as others to experience hearing loss.
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• One of the things that I am really concerned about is ensuring that hearing loss does not prevent children from having a good education and being able later to get work.
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• We are told that there is at least one child in every classroom in New Zealand struggling with auditory processing difficulties.
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• The tragedy for me is that so many teachers and parents are simply not aware of the serious consequences this could have for a child’s learning.
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• These children may hear what the teachers or their friends are saying but not necessarily understand what is meant. By the time they’ve deciphered the sense amongst the noise, the discussion has moved on and the child struggles to keep up.
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• I think it is really important that we talk more about this phenomenon. For too long children who appear to have poor classroom listening skills have been misdiagnosed as a little 'slow'. The often hidden learning disability can be overlooked as a learning or a behaviour problem.
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• The implications of such another condition can lead directly to under-achievement – and the opportunity for effective interventions missed.
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• International research has revealed that children with mild hearing loss have twelve times the risk of educational failure than their normal hearing peers.
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• And yet, what we also know is that there is a robust body of knowledge now on a range of effective supports including hearing training; wearing a personal FM listening device in the classroom to transmit the voice of the teacher clearly, specialised testing and individually tailored remediation programmes.
And of course for all classrooms, there can be strategies enacted to provide for good listening conditions. For this to happen school planners and architects must consider classroom acoustics as part of good universal design.
• It is just so important, that in every aspect of our lives, we can ensure all people live life to its full potential, not cut off from that potential by a disability. To do that, we need a society that is both enabling and inclusive.
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• Changing the way people think and behave towards disabled people is one of the best ways to help ensure disabled people can live a life on an equal basis with others.
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• In Budget 2010 the Government funded $3 million over three years for a social change programme to address attitudes and behaviours towards disabled people. This includes working alongside communities who know best what change is needed and how to do that.
• It is also about making partnerships with organisations to develop and implement projects that will increase access to employment, education and goods and services.
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• There is also the “Making a Difference Fund”, which is to support local, community-based initiatives to bring about local change. One of its recipients is the Palmerston North Voice Thru Your Hands Trust. This is to facilitate fifty-two workshops to raise awareness of the value and importance of New Zealand Sign Language for children with communication difficulties.
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• Communication is vital for people to be able to live a full life Earlier this month, we launched the DVD of the national anthem in New Zealand’s three official languages – Maori, English and Sign Language. It is just one more step towards raising awareness of hearing impairment and making sure that New Zealand is an inclusive society for Deaf and hearing impaired people.
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• I talked before about the FM listening device that some of our Deaf children are using.
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• In March 2010, Government introduced fairer, simpler eligibility criteria for the funding of hearing aids under the Ministry of Health disability support services programme. Hearing aids are now fully funded for people in school or tertiary education; for people who have complex needs; and for some who need a hearing aid to work or study.
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• But one thing I have been told recently is that while the Ministry of Health funds hearing aids for children in school, the Ministry of Education funds the receiver to create a supportive hearing environment – and sometimes, unfortunately, one might not know what the other is doing.
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I am absolutely determined that we address such gaps and work to ensure collaboration and coordination across all of Government so that slippage doesn’t occur.
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• As a government, we need to hear your issues. And government agencies need to work together so that there is a whole of government plan about disability issues.
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• To advance this, we’ve set up the Ministerial Committee on Disability Issues, which I chair. We want our Ministers with portfolio responsibilities that involve disabled people to work closely together – and across their portfolios – on a single action plan. This means government agencies need to better focus their activity and policy development on what makes a real difference in disabled people’s lives.
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• There are so many other initiatives that I could share with you:
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• For example, the New Zealand Relay service enables people who are hearing impaired, Deaf or speech impaired to make telephone calls.
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• Or the impact of the interpreters and the value of television captioning during the Canterbury earthquake, particularly around bringing vital safety information to hearing impaired people. Having the interpreters on our television screens every night has increased awareness of Deaf people amongst the general public, to a point where Deaf people in Christchurch have said they feel people are now more willing to approach them. In fact so popular were the interpreters, Jeremy and Evelyn that they started attracting their own fan base.
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• But at the end of the day, the face of hearing impairment – as represented in this year’s Hearing Week 2011 – is your face, and your story.
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• I am really keen to hear from you what are the most important things we can do to get it right.
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• I thank you for the opportunity to speak with you and I wish you all a stimulating and productive conference.
ends
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