[dbaust] auslan kangan TAFE

  • From: "Trudy Ryall" <trudy.ryall@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <sarujac@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <hjlawson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <dbaust@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 8 Jun 2012 00:42:49 +1000

JUNE 7, 2012 
Cuts will deny deaf a voice
A dire shortage of interpreters is likely if a decision to cut the Auslan 
training course stands, a deaf Seymour woman says. 

By Chalpat Sonti
The Seymour deaf community is warning of the consequences should a course that 
trains sign language interpreters be cut.

Kangan Institute of TAFE has announced it will axe the course due to Victorian 
Government cuts to the TAFE sector.

The course is a two-year full-time diploma, one of just two in Australia, and 
provides interpreters in the Victorian dialect of Auslan.

The Victorian deaf community held a protest at Parliament House last week, and 
among them was Seymour woman Shelley Jensen-Solyon.

''We need interpreters,'' she said.

''If they close this course we can't go anywhere without an interpreter.''

Mrs Jensen-Solyon said there were just a handful of interpreters in North East 
Victoria - none in Seymour - and about 100 in Melbourne servicing deaf people.

The situation was already dire. She has been waiting two weeks for an 
interpreter to be available so she can go to a parent-teacher meeting at her 
child's school.

''If we need to go to hospitals or schools or anything like that we need an 
interpreter,'' she said.

''We have deaf and blind little kids who need them as they grow up. They can't 
go to hospital without one.

''If there's an emergency we need one urgently. How will we call one if we need 
one?''

Mrs Jensen-Solyon was due to attend another protest at parliament yesterday.

The Government further confused the situation last week when Higher Education 
and Skills Minister Peter Hall's office claimed it would offer subsidies to the 
Deaf Society of NSW so that it could offer Auslan training in Victoria.

However the NSW Deaf Society, which conducts Auslan training in that state in a 
dialect with significant differences, said it had never been contacted.

''The only role the Deaf Society of NSW wants to play in the Kangan crisis is 
to support Kangan to continue to provide its Auslan courses,'' it said.

Mr Hall then said he would work with Kangan TAFE and other providers to resolve 
the matter.

From Seymour Telegraph

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