Please find the newsletter for the month of May
1. I spent the whole day with a senior academic in Journalism from SA
Uni who is writing a paper on the life of a person who has vision impairment
- whole of journey approach - planning, getting ready, access to public
transport, navigation, people's attitudes, locating specified locations,
design issues, & the return trip. One interesting aspect was the McDonald
shop in Citi Centre - hard to hear counter staff member, lack of good
customer service, given a ticket but no explanation, when requested where I
wait I was told to look at the screen & approach when I saw my number. I
explained I am categorized as legally blind to which she said that's the way
they do things & called the next person. I took this up with the manager &
received a personal apology & assurance that staff would be educated to be
more sensitive to people with a disability. If you have any ongoing issues
with the new approach by McDonalds please let me know.
2. On the 17th May I was privileged to be the guest speaker at the SA
Water annual managerial staff conference on the topic of people with a
disability & what the managers need to understand within the environment.
This stemmed from a recent complain involving truck signage over footpaths,
footpaths dug up, trucks parking on footpaths, lack of gates, bunting & red
plastic bollards to prevent entering the work site & a 4m deep & 10m wide
excavation hole (I almost fell down this due to poor lighting from an
overcast day). A complaint led to a 20min later reply & an 8am site visit
with me the following day. This led to being invited to address the annual
conference as to disability generically & for which the conference organizer
gave feedback as to the positive impact of the presentation. Despite the
adverse publicity Water SA gets by the media I have always found their
customer service to complaints respectful & efficient.
3. Dennis Hood also got back to me as to the Bill he put together to
give Guide Dogs the same rights as Police dogs & horses is soon to be tabled
in parliament. Dennis & I have worked collaboratively for over a year on
amending the Act as a non-accidental injury to an Assistance or Guide Dog
has significant impact on the owner.
4. Department of Education & Child Development (ECD) advertised a job
- form stated "Do you suffer from any disability" for which we had a
complaint over language & legality. This was taken up at the Premiers Access
& Social Inclusion Plan committee as archaic language & potentially
discriminatory which was agreed & will be actioned.
5. On the 26th May I was invited to attend Parliament House
Legislative Council where MP David Pisoni tabled 2 potential amendments -
not to be debated until Sept 2016. There was also an interview by Ch 9.
* Amend the Motor Vehicular Act 1959 to safeguard pedestrians
* Amend the Traffic Act 1961 to limit cyclists speed to 10kph (as was
also recommended by the citizens Jury but never implemented), & to give
councils the ability to restrict using pedestrian pathways.
I have been lobbying for over a year both pre introduction & post regulatory
change within the media & to parliamentarians. Despite my opinion that
things need to be changed soon the amendments will not be debated until
September this year.
6. I always wanted to be a center fold & have now achieved this - not
for athleticism but for the issue of risks on the pedestrian footpaths due
to foliage, rubbish bins, cars parking, surface irregularities et cetera.
Marion Council did a story on this & it was printed in their 3 monthly City
Limits - if anyone wants a copy please request.
7. Dignity for Disability MLC, Hon Kelly Vincent has recently had a
Bill drafted to improve captions and audio description standards in South
Australian cinemas. Ms Vincent has created a survey to seek feedback on her
draft Bill and to gather ideas to ensure cinemas can be made accessible for
everyone in our community.
The survey questions are mostly for Deaf people, and people who are blind or
have low vision, but if you have another kind of disability and need a
different kind of help to go to the cinema you can complete the survey too.
The survey can be completed by individuals as well as on behalf of
organisations. It takes approximately 15 minutes to complete.
If you would like to complete the survey it can be accessed online by
following the link below. A downloadable Word document is also available
here too. If you have any questions about the survey, or if you need it set
up differently to answer, such as a hard copy or over the phone, please
contact Kelly Vincent's office on 08 8237 9543 or
vincent.office@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:vincent.office@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> .
It would be appreciated if you could also forward this survey on to any
relevant contacts who might be interested.
Link to the survey: http://www.kellyvincentmlc.com/cinema-access-survey/
8. from my role on the National Policy & advisory committee I have
been lobbying for the following - National advocacy officers have taken
these issues up
* Information for the vision impaired / blind person as to the Census
for this year
* Arrangements for voting at the Federal election
* Issues with Aust Post delays & hence its impact on meeting
Centrelink time frames for reports & correspondence especially when medical
appointments need to occur in the production of a report
9. Re the federal election & how to vote
Please refer to the following web site for more information
http://www.aec.gov.au/voting/ways_to_vote/
For those who cannot access this site I summarize below
Telephone voting for the 2016 federal election is not yet open. This page
will be updated with further details as they become available.
Voters who are blind or have low vision will be able to cast a vote in
secret by telephone from any location, including their own homes.
Register - Voters must first register to cast their vote by telephone.
Registration will be available from 8.30am Monday 13 June and closes at 12pm
(noon) Saturday 2 July. When a voter calls to register, they will be asked
questions to enable a check of the electoral roll, and will also be asked to
choose a PIN. Once registered, they will be sent a registration number by
email, SMS, postal mail, or through a phone call.
Call to vote -Telephone voting will be available from 8.30am Tuesday 14 June
and closes at 6pm Saturday 2 July. When voting, electors will not need to
give their name. Their registration number and PIN will be used to mark
their name off the electoral roll while protecting their privacy. It is
important that voters do not forget their registration details.
Vote - A call centre voting assistant will record the voter's preferences on
the ballot papers. The vote will be secret and a second voting assistant
will ensure the vote is recorded according to the voter's intention.
The vote remains secret because the call centre voting assistants will not
know the voter's name and address. Once the vote is complete, the voting
assistant will place the ballot papers in secure ballot boxes.
10. The Adelaide Branch committee are still working towards a Sept / Oct
forum or convention where the topics that seem to have membership interest
are the NDIS & MAC process & Centrelink My Gov issues.
All the best & I hope these issues are of interest
Dr David Squirrell Retired Medical Consultant
* Blind Citizens Australia (Adelaide Branch) President
* Access & Social Inclusion Plan (SA Govt) Committee
* BCA National Policy Development Committee
* Able Australia (Deaf Blind) Let's Connect Project South Australian
Representative
