In May this year, Prime Minister Gillard announced the $200 million ‘More Support for Students with Disability’ initiative. Based upon the specific and diverse needs of students and schools, support can be negotiated and implemented to ensure greater equity in education.
According to the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR), support will include “the provision of specialised assistive technologies for use in classrooms so that students are better able to learn and engage with their classmates, such as hearing loops or IT equipment”. This assistance will be available to students from early 2012.
Ongoing evaluation as part of the Federal initiative will also “determine which activities have the greatest impact on the education of students with disabilities”. This is a move toward recognising best practice for the diverse range of learners in Australian classrooms.
Media Access Australia’s Education Strategy focuses on improving access to teaching and learning for students who are Deaf or hearing impaired. Our initiatives such as the Classroom Access Project and the upcoming CAP THAT! campaign promote essential access to captioned audiovisual material to accommodate the diverse needs of students.
The Media Access Australia Education team this term made a submission to the review into the Disability Standards for Education (2005) to support greater access for students who are Deaf and hearing impaired.
Education Manager Anne McGrath also presented at the Deaf Australia Conference in Tasmania, and will be presenting at the upcoming Australian and New Zealand Conference for Educators of the Deaf (ANZCED) in July.
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