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Hearing Awareness Week 2011

Deafness Forum's Hearing Awareness Week theme for 2011 was “I'm ready for anything! Is anything ready for me?”.

The 3.55 million Australians with hearing loss know that there are more possibilities than ever before to be able to be included in all aspects of community life, and they are ready!

What is needed now is for the rest of the community to catch up and take the opportunity to give people with a hearing loss a fair go.

Improvements in technology have minimised the barriers to communication. Technology is also making huge inroads into improving the quality of educational access.

Employers have more support than ever to make their workplace inclusive and accessible for Australians with a hearing loss.

Australians with a hearing loss are ready and willing - the challenge is to the community to be inclusive.

Hearing Awareness Week aims to:

• raise awareness of hearing loss (or deafness) and chronic ear disorders, so that those who are affected experience greater acceptance and better accommodation.

• assist affected people to:
  - feel better about themselves
  - be less likely to retreat from the world, hide their disability or pretend it doesn't exist.

• reach out to affected people to tell them about the availability of goods and services that would assist them.
• demonstrate what affected people have the ability to do.

• educate the general public about:
  - the ways of reducing the incidence of hearing loss or chronic ear disorders
  - measures that can be taken to improve the quality of life for those affected.