Some of Our Parts

Monash Alumni and all-round superstar Chris Varney and Monash Student, James Ong are planning to run a camp for young people and young adults on the Autism Spectrum in February 2014. The camp/s will be targeted to 15 – 24 year olds, and they are looking for your contribution to the content, messaging, facilitation and promotion of this camp.

They are putting together some planning workshops for any young person on the spectrum or any person supporting young people to come along and make a contribution. Any piece of advice – however big or small – would be GREATLY appreciated.

The purpose of the camp is to bring together young people and young adults on the spectrum and engage in personal development. It’s going to be fun, and encourage you to push yourself to be bold, share talents, quirks, positive messages, coping strategies and develop a sense of community. This will be a positive experience for young people that grows everyone’s confidence!

They are seeking your input, and there are two workshops to cater to everyone’s different geography.

City Planning Workshop: Wednesday 9 October, 5.30pm – 7.30pm (CBD, Venue TBC)

Eastern Planning Workshop: Saturday 12 October, 2pm – 4pm (Venue TBC)

This is a Save the Date until venue are secured. Light refreshments will be provided during each workshop. Please spread the word far and wide.

Please RSVP to chris.r.varney@gmail.com

The annual R U OK Day is again this year on September 12th. Monash will be hosting a range of activities to promoting open and supportive conversations to let those who are feeling vulnerable that there are people out there that they can talk to.

Events (including an all-campus cake competition!) will be run at Berwick, Caulfield and Clayton – you can check out the calender here.

Make sure you check out the R U OK? Day website as well, where you’ll find a bunch of vital information about how you can contribute to someone else’s well-being, just by asking “are you ok?”.

Enabling Women is a 4-day Leadership Program for women with disabilities. It will be offered in the Gippsland area in August/September this year.

The program aims to deepen women’s understanding of issues affecting women with disabilities, to empower women to lead and advocate in their own community, and to empower women to advocate as members of Women with Disabilities Victoria.

Information sessions on the program will be held:

Date: Monday July 15th
Time: 2.00pm – 3.00pm
Location: Bairnsdale

Date: Tuesday July 16th
Time: 11.00am – 12.00 midday
Location: Traralgon

Date: Tuesday July 16th
Time: 3.00pm – 4.00pm
Location: South Gippsland

The Enabling Women Program is made up of eight two hour modules.

Two modules will be combined to offer 4 one day sessions spread over a month.

Modules include:

• Getting to know you
• Social model of disability
• Self-Identity
• Human rights
• Communication (Speaking Up and Speaking Out)
• Advocacy
• Leadership Evolution.

As part of the Enabling Women program, it is hoped that participants will gain a greater understanding of the social models of disability and gender, as well as a broader appreciation of a more accessible society, with  rights based the definition of disability changes. Further, participants are hoped to learn to appreciate how self-image and self-identity is shaped by society and recognize that we can build positively on our self-image.

For further information or to RSVP contact Jane.Oldfield@wdv.org.au or Phone: 9286-7802

Or visit the Women with Disabilities Victoria website.

Just in case you haven’t had enough of politics this week, Blind Citizens Australia, Vision Australia, Australian Blindness Forum and the Australian Human Rights Commission have been working with the Australian Electoral Commission to ensure that as many people who are blind or vision impaired as possible find out about telephone assisted voting at this year’s election and how it works.

Create Democracy by Xavier Barrade

There will be lots of information coming out in the next month so keep an ear out! This includes work by Vision Australia and the Australian Blindness Forum (which acts as a peak for blindness service providers) to spread the word to clients of their services.

To help spread the word about telephone assisted voting, Blind Citizens Australia has organised a number of teleconferences on behalf of the AEC.

These will be short 30-45 minute teleconference style information sessions hosted by an AEC representatvie which will begin with a short presentation of what to expect if you choose to cast your vote by telephone, followed by time for questions.

There are a number of dates in July 2013 in both business and after hours.

The first three conferences will be held on:

• Wednesday 3 July at 5.00pm
• Thursday 4 July at 7.00pm
• Wednesday 17 July at 10.00am

Other teleconference dates will also be released based on interest.

To register for a teleconference, please call the National Office on 1800 033 660 or email bca@bca.org.au with the subject line “Accessible voting teleconference”.

Please include your full name, contact phone number with area code, state and which teleconference you would like to join. You will then receive a confirmation email with the teleconference dial in details.

`Enabling Women’ is a 4 day leadership program for women wanting to take the lead in their communities. Covering:

• Getting to know you
• The Social Model of Disability Self-Identity
• Human Rights
• Communication
• Advocacy Parts 1 and 2
• Leadership Evolution

Eligibility: A commitment to being a voice for women with a disability.

Where: Women’s Health Victoria Inc. Level 8, 255 Bourke St Melbourne

When: Thursday 4th, 11th, 18th & 25th July 2013.

Applications close on Monday 24th June.

Cost: Gold coin donation per session

Visit Women with Disabilities Victoria for more details and registration information

The Banyule City Council will be holding an Inclusive Arts Forum, next week on the 20th June from 10am-2pm.

Featured forums include:

• Marketing and promotion

• Industry mentor options

• Pathways and training

• Finance and administration

• Art law

• Presentations from local artists

• Hands-on workshops

To register contact Colleen Burke on 9457 9930 colleen.burke@banyule.vic.gov.au or Sherridan Bourne on 9457 9940 sherridan.bourne@banyule.vic.gov.au

If someone chose to confide in you about their suicidal thoughts, could you help?

Would you feel prepared to have a conversation?

Do have knowledge of the services available?

No? You’re not the only one- safeTALK training is for you!

SafeTALK is an internationally recognised program to increase suicide alertness, and help you become active in preventing suicide.

Most people with thoughts of suicide invite help, either directly or indirectly. This program helps you identify and work with these opportunities. SafeTALK stresses safety while challenging beliefs that inhibit open talk about suicide.

The training runs for 3.5 hours and you will learn how to:

• notice and respond to situations where thoughts of suicide may be present
• provide practical help by using the TALK steps (Tell, Ask, Listen and Keep safe)
• act quickly to connect the person with someone trained in suicide intervention
• contribute to building a safer community.

Date: Thursday 19 September

Time: 9:30am – 1:00pm

Campus: Clayton

BOOK HERE

Over 300 staff and students have attended this session since the beginning of last year, and the feedback is glowing!

“Very good introduction to raising awareness to engage in assisting someone who may have thought of suicide”

“Openness of information was good I think having different scenarios was good to show different contexts in dealing with suicidal thoughts including cultural diversity”

“It is okay to ask the question – even to a complete stranger”

More mental health programs for consideration;

Mental Health First Aid Training,

Mindfulness for Academic Success

SMART – Motivation, stress and time management

Mood Surfing

On May 9, we invite you to participate in Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD). The purpose of the day is to get people talking, thinking and learning about digital (web, software, mobile, etc.) accessibility and users with different disabilities.

While the target audience of GAAD is primarily the design, development, usability and related communities, the event is open to anybody who may be interested in the topic of making technology accessible and usable by persons with disabilities.

We’ve got presentations from:

Dey Alexander – Making Accessibility Accessible
Kim Chatterjee
Adam Kendall & Chris McLay – Good design is accessible
iOS Accessibility Demo – Vision Australia

We’ve secured RMIT’s building 80 (The Swanston Academic Building) located at 445 Swanston Street as a venue, which not only looks cool but should also be sufficiently accessible.

Venue details:

The Cinema
Swanston Academic Building
Bld 80, level 1, room 2
Swanston Street

RMIT City campus map: http://www.rmit.edu.au/maps/city
Swanston Academic Building info: http://www.rmit.edu.au/bus/sab

Please confirm your attendance by RSVP’ing Yes via this page

Here we have another exciting event planned for Diversity and Inclusion Week.

Dr Cagatay Goncu and Professor Kim Marriott demonstrate their new device ‘GraVVITAS’, which works on an iPad, and uses vibration and sounds to guide the visually impaired users around a diagram.

It is designed to enable the user to build a picture of the entire graphic in their mind.

Dr Cagatay Goncu and Professor Kim Marriott, along with Associate Professor John Hurst of the Faculty of Information Technology recently received an Honourable Mention in the 2012 Touch of Genius awards, organised by the National Braille Press (NBP) in the US for their submission of the Graphics Viewer using Vibration, Interactive Touch, Audio and Speech (GraVVITAS).

Presenters

Dr Cagatay Goncu, Research Fellow, Faculty of Information Technology

Professor Kim Marriott, Faculty of Information Technology

Register here, as places may be limited.

For Diversity and Inclusion Week the Disability Liaison Unit and Employment and Career Development are launching a new virtual space providing exclusive careers resources for students with disabilities.

Jam packed with resources, the unit gives you access to handouts, career seminar presentations, videos, document samples and external links to internship and mentoring opportunities.