Archive for the ‘Disability Services info’ Category

Social Anxiety Program Semester 2

Wednesday, July 26th, 2023

Do You Experience Social Anxiety?

  • Do you experience significant fear or anxiety about social situations?
  • Do you worry about being judged or showing signs of anxiety in social situations?
  • Do you avoid social situations?

If so, you may benefit from participating in our Social Anxiety Group Program.

The program is an exciting opportunity for Monash students to learn ways to address their social anxiety and fully engage in life.

The program involves:

  • Seven 2-hour weekly group sessions at Monash University Health Service, Clayton campus from Wednesday 9 August 2023 at 11am-1pm or 2-4pm, facilitated by a clinical psychologist
  • Written education materials and tasks between group sessions
  • Contact: Dr Sophia Gozzi, Clinical Psychologist, sophia.gozzi@monash.edu

Access Hub Site

Tuesday, July 25th, 2023

The New Access Hub Site is Here!

Testing has finished on the Beta version of Access Hub and recently the final website was launched – accesshub.gov.au.

Access Hub provides information about communication options (including the National Relay Service) for people who are d/Deaf, hard of hearing and/or have speech communication difficulty.

On Access Hub you’ll find:

  • information in plain English, Auslan, pictures and videos
  • accessibility features such as high contrast text
  • easy ways to find the information you need
  • They have closed the old Accesshub pages on infrastructure.gov.au, but don’t worry if you’ve saved any of those old pages as favourites – they’ve set up automatic redirects to the same information on accesshub.gov.au.

And if you use the call pages for NRS Chat and NRS Captions – those URLs have stayed the same.

Feedback about Access Hub will always be welcome so the website can be its best. You’ll find the feedback link on the top left-hand side of every Access Hub page.

Vision Australia 2024 Bursary

Tuesday, July 25th, 2023

Vision Australia’s 2024 Bursary Applications Now Open

Each year, Vision Australia awards Further Education Bursaries to a select number of students who are blind or have low vision.

The bursaries provide adaptive technology to help students fully participate and succeed in their chosen studies.

Assistive technology can eliminate barriers to education and enhance access to information. It enables students to read course material, conduct research and improve their student life.

  • For more information and details on how to apply, please visit: www.visionaustralia.org/bursary
  • Applications close strictly on 30 September 2023.

If you have any queries or would like to speak with the bursary co-ordinator, please feel free to make direct contact:

  • Joy King
  • 03 8378 1220
  • bursary@visionaustralia.org

Digital Accessibility in the Workplace

Tuesday, June 27th, 2023

How to Improve Digital Accessibility at Your Workplace

It’s vital to ensure that your organisation’s digital platforms are accessible to everyone.

This can help people with disability who are your employees, customers and external stakeholders.

NDRC Professional Advisor Rob Crestani shares tips on becoming digitally inclusive and accessible.

Here are some do’s and don’ts to follow:

Do’s:

  • Use alt text for images: Screen readers cannot see images. Alt text descriptions help people use screen readers to understand the image’s content.
  • Use captions, transcripts and audio description for videos: making videos accessible to people who are Deaf or hard of hearing, and people who are blind or low vision.
  • Test digital content with assistive technology: This will help you identify any barriers to accessibility and make necessary changes to ensure everyone can access your content.
  • Use simple and clear language: Avoid technical jargon or complex sentence structures that can be difficult for some people to understand.
  • Use responsive design: Ensure digital content is accessible and looks good on all devices, including smartphones and tablets.

Don’ts:

  • Don’t use colour alone to convey information: People with colour vision deficiency may be unable to differentiate between colours, so it’s important to use text or symbols.
  • Don’t use flashing or moving content: This can cause seizures for people with epilepsy or other photosensitive conditions.
  • Don’t use small font sizes: Small font sizes make text difficult to read, especially for people with visual impairments.
  • Don’t use auto-play for videos or audio: This can be disruptive and overwhelming, especially for people with sensory sensitivities.
  • Don’t use inaccessible PDFs: PDFs can be difficult for screen readers to navigate, so it’s essential to provide accessible versions or alternative formats.

Stress Survey

Wednesday, May 31st, 2023

Experiencing Stress During Your Studies?

The University of Queensland seeks your support in understanding student stress during your studies.

Please take a few minutes to complete the stakeholder survey.

Help us understand what contributes to stress for higher education students and the inclusive and accessible ways it can be reduced!

How?

  • Complete an anonymous survey for a chance to win 1 of 10 $25 Gift Cards

Who?

Any higher education student who has or has not experienced disability, impairment, chronic health conditions, mental health conditions, learning difficulties, or challenges during their studies.

Find out more and complete the survey:

Disability Scholarship

Wednesday, March 1st, 2023

The Australian Disability and Indigenous Peoples’ Education Fund Scholarship is Now Open

The Australian Disability and Indigenous Peoples’ Education Fund is now open for applications with the deadline for this round being March 31, 2023.

Closing dates are every six months at the end of March and September annually.

Established by Frank Hall-Bentick AM (and his sisters Lesley and Annette and a group of friends Rae, Lyndall, Cath, Ros and Jody) in 2008, the Australian Disability and Indigenous Peoples’ Education Fund (ADIPEF) was created following Frank’s involvement in disability advocacy over thirty years.

Assisting Indigenous and Non-Indigenous People with Disability

Assisting indigenous and non-indigenous people with disability to participate in both formal and informal education programs through small grants, the fund empowers people with disability through further education and learning (both formal and informal).

Based on the belief that education’s important should not be measured by graduate degrees, diplomas or salaries, but by achievements, contributions, paths taken and careers followed – including cultural, relationship, historical and tolerance learnings.

This education fund assists in this through providing small, six monthly grants of up to $2,500 to assist people with disabilities to continue their learning.

  • People with disabilities of any age living in Australia may apply for any assistance to help with both formal and informal education.

For more information and to apply go to:

http://www.adipef.org.au

 

Merry Christmas from I CAN

Monday, December 19th, 2022

I CAN Network – Empowering Autistic Young People

The I CAN Network is heading into their 10th year, and wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

I CAN appreciate the ongoing support they’ve received to continue empowering Autistic young people through their Autistic-led, evidence-based mentoring programs.

Thanks to donors’ generosity, over the past year alone I CAN have been able to fund scholarships for 100 students with autism to take part in their mentoring programs.

  • If you wish to contribute to the work of the I CAN Network to fund more mentorships for young people with autism, you can donate online here.

I CAN is Hiring!

Looking for an inclusive workplace which offers flexible hours and where you have the option to work from home?

If so, you might be the perfect fit to become an I CAN Mentor.

In I CAN’s School Program they have positions available in Greater Melbourne, Barwon/Geelong and Northern Victoria (Shepparton to Bendigo).

They also have positions available in their I CAN Online program.

Ever wondered what it’s like to work with I CAN? Meet some of their team via their YouTube channel or their website: https://icannetwork.online/work-with-us/

DSE – New Information Resources

Friday, September 16th, 2022

New Information Resources Available on the Disability Standards for Education

The Department of Education (Department) has worked with Children and Young People with Disability Australia (CYDA) and young people with disability and their parents and caregivers to co-design a new range of resources about their rights under the Disability Standards for Education 2005 (Standards).

What are the resources?

There are four new resources:

  • Explaining the Disability Standards for Education – this resource outlines what the Standards are and what they are designed to do.
  • Milestones and Transitions – this resource is to help students and their parents and caregivers make their way through their education journey.
  • Advocating with and for your child: Primary School – this resource is for parents and caregivers of primary school students.
  • Disability Standards for Education in Practice: Action Plan – this resource is for students who are in high school or tertiary education.

Each resource is available in Easy Read format and Auslan and translated into Arabic, Chinese (simplified and traditional), Farsi, Hindi, Khmer, Korean and Vietnamese.

How The Resources were Developed

The content of the new resources was created by students with disability and their parents and caregivers, with help from CYDA.

Development was informed by consultation with a range of disability organisations and with input from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with disability and people with disability from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

Research Opportunities

Thursday, August 18th, 2022

Call for Research Participants and Summer Research Opportunities

Seeking Neuro-divergent Monash Students for a Study on Losing Personal Items

This research project aims to better understand the lived experiences of Neuro-divergent Monash University students who regularly lose their personal items so as to build and improve technologies to help reduce personal item loss.

What is Involved

We are seeking Monash University students aged 18 and above who identify or have been diagnosed as neuro-divergent and tend to lose things regularly to have a discussion with us for about 45 to 60 minutes about:

  • Personal items that you tend to lose on a regular basis
  • Where you tend to lose these items
  • Walk us through memories of losing these items and finding them
  • Join us in exploring potential technologies that might be able to help with reducing the loss of these personal items

Our goal for this exploratory discussion is to help build better cost-effective solutions to reduce personal item loss with your valuable input.

We are also very happy to discuss how the discussion can be tailored to your unique context, so please let us know!

  • Participants will be compensated with a 30-dollar grocery voucher for their time.

Criteria for Participation

  • Aged 18 and over
  • Students from Monash University
  • Identify as/ Diagnosed as Neuro-divergent
  • Lose personal items on a regular basis

Contact Information

  • For more information and how to participate in this study, please contact benjamin.phua@monash.edu.

Summer Researcher Opportunity

Summer researcher opportunity with Monash Inclusive Technologies Lab at the Faculty of IT (Deadline: Friday, 26 August 2022, 5pm).

  • Start date: 21 November 2022 (negotiable) for Eight Weeks
  • Scholarship value: $4,000 ($500 x 8 weeks)

We are seeking students to be co-researchers and co-designers of technologies to help neuro-divergent individuals who tend to lose things to not lose things.

We know it can be annoying to lose our keys, wallets and phones but these issues can be a lot more annoying if you are neuro-divergent (if you know you know!) and by reducing the cognitive load needed to manage these tasks we can then use that energy for more useful, interesting, life-giving activities.

The work will entail:

  • Performing research and literature review
  • Designing, and developing prototypes and
  • Potentially being involved in focus group studies (with neuro-divergent individuals who tend to lose things regularly) regarding those prototypes
  • Students will also be involved in reflective and reflexive exercises about the above activities.

Ideally you will be studying:

  • Design, IT or engineering and have taken FIT3146 – Maker lab
  • Happy to consider students from a wide range of backgrounds!

We welcome and encourage students who are disabled and/ or diagnosed/ self-identify as neuro-divergent and also have a propensity for losing things to apply as you are experts-by-personal experience and are thus extremely well suited to co-design and co-develop these solutions.

We also encourage students who are carers of people with disabilities who tend to lose things to apply for similar reasons.

  • For more details, please kindly get in touch with: benjamin.phua@monash.edu

To apply:

Disability Leadership Program

Thursday, July 7th, 2022

Disability Leadership Program – Apply Now

Australian Network on Disability and the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) are partnering again to further the inclusion of people with disability on boards.

This new initiative will see 85 scholarships awarded to leaders with disability.

The scholarships, funded by the Australian Government Department of Social Services, will support leaders with disability by providing an opportunity to uplift their governance knowledge.

Scholarship recipients will undertake the Company Directors Course or the Foundations of Directorship course at AICD. Courses are likely to start at the end of November 2022 and run into the next calendar year.

In addition to the course, scholarship holders will receive a complimentary one-year:

  • AICD membership
  • Directorship Opportunities subscription, Australia’s foremost listing platform which provides the widest choices for directorship positions

To help maximise board career opportunities, the program will also work with existing directors to build disability confidence through Leader-to-Leader Conversations facilitated by Australian Network on Disability.

To apply for the Disability Leadership Scholarship visit The Australian Scholarship Foundation (ASF) website; the facilitating partner for the application process.

  • Applications are open now until 27 July 2022.