From Vision Australia. This is talking vision. And now here's your host Sam Colley.
Hello, everyone. It's great to be here with you. And for the next half hour we talk matters of blindness and low vision.
Most of the feedbacks come from able people are really good to get some targeted feedback from people living with a disability, and in particular people with low vision who can try and assist the Council to improve its urban design principles so that it can enable people with low vision to access both our public realm areas and our open space areas.
Welcome to the program. This week we chat with Councillor Anthony Aitken from the City of Greater Geelong, who's here to chat to me about a series of drop in sessions and a survey which is open until the 12th of May for people to have their say about how to make the streets of Geelong that bit more safe and accessible for people with disabilities. That conversation's coming up
very shortly, so make sure to stick around. And then after my chat with Anthony, I catch up with Sarina Ovens, CEO of Assistive Technology Services Australia, who tells us about a couple of expos that ATS is holding in Perth and Melbourne over the coming weeks. I hope you enjoy this week's episode of Talking Vision. Are you a Geelong resident with lived experience of disability or just an interest in accessibility? Well, the City of Greater Geelong would love
to hear from you. They're currently holding a survey and a number of drop in sessions to help shape their parks, streets and public places to create more accessible spaces for people with disabilities. And to chat with me all about this. It's my great pleasure to welcome City of Greater Geelong councillor Anthony Aitken to Talking Vision. Anthony, welcome to Talking Vision. Thank you very much for your time today.
I'm very pleased to be here and thank you for showing interest in Geelong.
No problem at all. Now firstly, Anthony, we're here to discuss a bit of community engagement that the City of Greater Geelong is seeking from local residents in regards to accessibility. But before we get into the details of the survey and feedback themselves, I'm keen to hear a little bit more about your disability access and inclusion portfolio, as well as the committee that you belong to, the Access and Inclusion Advisory Committee.
Well, Sam, the first thing I'd like to disclose to the listeners is I am an elected official with the City of Greater Geelong, and I've been there since 2017. But I'm also a person living with a disability. I'm actually deaf. And I'm very fortunate that cochlear implants, um, have given me hearing capacity. Um, and that's why I'm able to be able to listen to you today and
also represent my community. And I think that's part of the reason why, um, I'm involved with our access and disability portfolio that we have in the city of Geelong. And I chair the Access and Inclusion Committee. That committee is an advisory committee to council, and it's made up of other members of the community who are living with disabilities. Um, it may be mobility issues, it may be hearing issues, it may be sight side issues. Um, it may be, um,
mental health issues and it may be acquired disabilities. We have had a number of people who have had accidents that have had acquired brain injuries that sit on that committee as well to the whole purpose of the portfolio. And the committee is to elevate advocacy and issues associated
with people living with a disability in the community. And I'm proud to say that I think we've done very well with that community and also with the representation, by giving a stronger voice to people living with a disability.
Fantastic. And that's also what we're, of course, here to chat a bit further about. The City of Greater Geelong is looking for public feedback to help shape your parks, streets and public spaces. And as I understand it, that covers two main projects, namely Public Realm and Open Space. So could you tell us a little bit more about Public realm and open space.
Look, there are two major strategies that the city's announced public engagement in at the present time. Public realm is actually spaces outside of our buildings. And what we're attempting to do there is to identify spaces where people may come and congregate to and actually how we can try and improve them. And public open space is where we
have either organized sports or community activities. So it might be like where there's a local program, where there's a sporting field or where there's just public open space, which is just available for people to come and use at any particular time. The two strategies are separate, and what we're engaging at the present time is the communities to
get feedback about both of them. An example is we've got significant building structures in Geelong, but we've got these public areas outside of them, and we really would like to hear from the community how we could make those spaces better and with our public open space, we really want to try and make them as accessible as possible for all members of the community, that they can feel
safe and access them and enjoy them. But I personally have a very strong commitment to try to make sure that our public spaces, both public realm and open space, do meet accessibility requirements for people living with a disability. Whether it is sight, as most Vision Australia people would be who are listening to the broadcast today. But it also includes people living with hearing loss or mobility issues. And of course, you know those people that need access
to a wheelchair or something for movement. The design and accessibility of our public spaces and public realm is really important. And that includes like having pathways that go towards our buildings, creating opportunities where there is existing tree canopy and mature tree canopy that someone can access the shade under those trees. And in public open spaces. It really is about how we can bring everyone's needs together in the future to make it an enjoyable space for them.
And Anthony, as I understand the public community feedback has been open for just over a month now. What are the sort of things you've already heard from the community, especially in regards to accessibility?
Well, look, the first thing that's come back is people said they want more public open space, and that probably reflects what we all experienced during Covid, where our local park actually became really important during that lockdown period because we needed some space to actually meet and congregate in.
One of the challenges that we've got in Geelong is that over the next 17 years, our population is actually going to grow from 289,000 to an estimated 400,000 people, and it means our public open spaces have become even more important as more and more people are living in our urban areas and high density areas means that they
will need public open space. So what the initial feedback that we received is predominantly been about people saying we actually need more public open space, but there's been some really good feedback as well, too, about what type of design materials we use for our footpaths, whether we should be using concrete because it's much more accessible than gravel, how we transition from grassed areas to public areas as well too. And that discussion has certainly been taken by
the Council to consider it as well too. And what we're also it's not part of this particular strategy, but we are getting feedback as well too, about dogs and animals in public spaces as well too. So we're trying
to channel that engagement. We actually have got a major dog management project that's going on underway as well to at the present time with engagement, but most people are actually being really good to think about ideas about how they can improve the public spaces and even simple things like people saying that they do need water fountains in public open spaces and even going back to that dog issue.
People are saying we do need to have more dog bags for areas that the city is actually creating new public open spaces as well too. The engagement process is actually still open till the 12th of May, and we've actually got a major drop in. People can actually access it now online. And look at the council website and we may talk about that a little bit later as well too.
That's right.
But yeah, we really would encourage more feedback from people living with a disability so that we can try to target towards more accessibility. Most of the feedback has come from able people are really good to get some targeted feedback from people living with a disability, and in particular, people with low vision who can try and assist the Council to improve its urban design principles so that it can enable people with low vision to access both our public realm areas and our open space areas.
As you've mentioned there, the drop in sessions are very quickly upon us. In fact, one of them's already just happened as of this week. It was on the 30th of April for people to head along then, but if people have missed out, there's still time. They can head along to a couple more. So let's get the details about those two sessions on the seventh and 8th of May.
Well, what they are, um, Sam, is we recognize that not everybody can just fill out forms through the online internet. So there were three traditional face to face opportunities for
people to go and be interviewed for public engagement. The second one was to occur at Drysdale, at the library there, at the new library on Wednesday the 7th of May, between 4 and 6 p.m., and the last one is actually scheduled to occur out in North Lane at the new Norlin Arc on Thursday the 8th of May, between 4 and 6 p.m. and we have missed the one that was, of course, on the 30th of April, which was at Wiki Niall, which is the civic administration building in the centre of Geelong.
But that's okay, because as you've said, there's still opportunities for people to have their say either in those drop in sessions or through the survey itself. So let's get the details of that survey in particular.
If people go to Geelong Australia.com. So all one word Geelong Australia.com. There's a section called have Your Say. And there is the opportunity to click on that section to help shape our parks, streets and public spaces. There are some accessibility. So if you need hearing or speech support you can click on that. And it will actually read out what is actually on the page. And there is translation support as well too, if people have non-English speaking background.
but I suspect the hearing and speech support would be really important for people with low vision. That can be accessed through the council's website, and you are encouraged to fill out that survey before the 12th of May at 5 p.m., when it will formally close.
But um, given the timing of everything and people may not be able to get in touch during session one, don't stress because as I understand it, Anthony, there will be a second phase of community engagement happening later on in the year for people around September. October? Isn't that right?
Yeah. Look, the way our engagement processes work is we do our initial community engagement, which is what's occurring at the moment. So that was between the 28th of March and the 12th of May. And that's where we initial get our initial feedback. And then the officers will actually collate that information and collate other data as well to to develop the draft strategies. And because this we have so much public realm and also public open space in Geelong,
it's quite a big task. So that's actually occurring between March and October of this year. And then there will be a draft of each of the strategies will come out and we will re seek public engagement. So you are right for those people who are thinking that they may have missed an opportunity to influence that, the draft strategies will be released and we will seek feedback on
those draft strategies. So if there's some really important things that have been missed that people want to present, they will get that opportunity between October and November of this year.
Okay, wonderful. Well, in that case, Anthony, I think we might get in touch in 4 or 5 months time and let people know about how those phases have gone already, but also, of course, invite people to take part in phase two of the community engagement for open space and public realm, and the strategies the City of Greater Geelong is putting together to make the city more accessible for
all constituents out there. I've been speaking today with the City of Geelong's Disability Access and Inclusion portfolio chair and chair of the Access and Inclusion Advisory Committee, Councillor Anthony Aitken, about the community engagement the City of Greater Geelong is currently undertaking to improve the accessibility of parks, roads and public spaces in the Greater Geelong region. Anthony, thank you so much for your time today. It was a pleasure to catch up with you.
Thanks, Sam, and thank you to all your listeners and I wish everyone a great 2025. And it sounds like we may have the opportunity to speak again towards the end of the year, and I would welcome that opportunity to come back and discuss some of the draft ideas that have come out, and I'm pleased I encourage anybody living with a disability Ability to be an active member of our community and try and make sure that everything
is more accessible. And those people who are making the decisions listen and you are heard and we influence outcomes. So thank you, Sam.
I'm Sam Corley and you're listening to Talking Vision on Vision Australia Radio, Associated Stations of Reading Radio and the Community Radio Network. I hope you enjoyed that conversation there with Anthony Aiken. If you missed any part of that chat with Anthony or you'd love to hear it again. Talking vision is available on the Vision Australia Radio website. Simply head to radio Dot. That's V radio Dot or you can find the program on the podcast app of
your choice or through the Vision Australia library. Our next guest is the CEO of Assistive Technology Services Australia or Atsa for short, which is bringing their expos around the country in particular over the next couple of weeks in Perth and then Melbourne the week later. Her name is Serena Ovens and it's my great pleasure to welcome her right now. Serena, welcome to Talking Vision. Thank you very much for your time.
Thanks for having me, Sam.
We're here to have a bit of a chat about some upcoming expos that Azhar is involved with this month, but before we do that, let's get a bit of an overview of Azza itself and the work they do.
Thanks. So at the peak industry body for the whole of Australia, for all of the organisations, be they manufacturers, distributors, suppliers, retailers of a massively broader range of assistive technology for people with disability and older people. We're also though a
registered charity. So as well as supporting the industry and making sure that they're doing the right thing and selling product accordingly and bringing in things that are legal and fit Australia's standards, we also ensure that they ethically and equitably cater for their end users. The people that use that at and need to have it properly scripted, well looked after, maintained, repaired and supported all the way through their independence journey.
And following on from that, Serena, there's a couple of expos coming up that we'd love to have a chat about. Let's start off with the expo happening in Perth in just over a week's time. That's pretty exciting.
It is fam. It makes for a busy time for us. But we do have the Perth Expo, as you say, on the 14th and 15th of May at the Perth Showgrounds. Grants, and that's the first of 2 in 2 weeks, so
it'll keep us fairly busy. Perth, of course, is a great place for us to be able to bring across the country a lot of both local at suppliers and of course, some of our suppliers come across from the other side of the country to be able to display and exhibit a broad range of assistive technology for people to come and try to view and see what's out in the market, to look at all the new technology also for allied health professionals as well, to be able
to again understand what's out in the market so they can support people with disability in terms of any of the assistive technology that they need. So for, um, your cohort in particular, there will be exhibitors. In fact, Vision Australia themselves will be at I'm not sure if they're at Perth or they're definitely at Melbourne. We've got different organisations that will have things like pens that can read
text on a page. We've got blind spots coming along to show people the different sporting activities that they can do. Things like vision tech that have amazing magnifiers for people with low vision and need different types of equipment to
help them actually read lots of different activities. Our expos are the biggest at expos in Australia, and it's really great to be able to get along and see what's out there, because you would be blown away by the amount of new technology in the market, certainly.
Yeah, those text to speech pens are incredible. I've heard quite a lot about them now. Serena, what else can people in Perth expect if they head along to the Perth Expo? That would be unique perhaps to the Perth event over the Melbourne one.
Are now they would see an adaptive fashion show which will happen on the Thursday afternoon. It's free to attend, and I should say that so that everyone knows that they can walk in the door. And if they pre-register, they'll be entitled to get a free coffee when they come in as well. Not unique, but really good to know because everyone loves the tea or coffee halfway through
the day when they're getting tired and walking around. The other thing I should let you know too, is that I believe there are limited trains to the event as well, so public transport is on hand for you to get there. Unique to Perth will be quite a number of your
local suppliers and supports. So what we try to do with all our expos is, as well as bringing together the industry, is ensure that we can capture as many of the local supports, the local market so that you can link with people that you may not know but are locally on the ground, can support you both at the expo, but of course in your daily needs as well.
Okay, wonderful. Now, Serena, let's have a bit of a chat about the Melbourne Expo, which is taking place the week after the Perth event.
Yep. So Melbourne is happening on the 20th and 21st of May. The Tuesday and Wednesday of the following week. It's also at the Showgrounds, the Flemington Showgrounds in Melbourne. It is our biggest expo of all the expos we do across Australia. It is absolutely massive and we sell out really quickly. We keep taking more and more space and more and more exhibitors want space and it just
keeps getting bigger and bigger. So in Melbourne you can expect to see the broadest range of equipment, home modifications online, it um, automated information, pretty much anything and everything that our industry provides.
And I suppose similar to the Perth event, there's quite a few unique businesses and organisations specific to Melbourne and Victoria that will be appearing at the Melbourne Expo, but what else can people expect if they head along?
Yeah, there's a really big sports area in Melbourne, so what they can see, there is a massive range of different options for people that want to try out different sporting events and activities. So things like pickleball, which has become really popular again, I believe we'll have blind spots on hand as well. I know that some of our expos, and I have to be honest, I'm not 100% sure of absolutely every different sporting event or group that will
be there. But we've seen things from basketball to rock climbing to sailing to give people just the broadest range of come and try events. So it's not only just come and watch, but it's actually get in and give things a go yourself as well.
And Serena, I understand both expos will be featuring a seminar program to educate the wider public about the various assistive technologies that are available.
Absolutely, Sam. Across all our expos, we run seminars throughout both days at set times. Some of them are quite focused for allied health and other professionals, but broadly, there'd be quite a bit of interest for people to attend
any of those seminars. They're welcome to do so. Again, they are also free, and you can find out what's on by looking at either the programme on the day when you get there, or by checking out the information on the website that'll tell you about the different sessions when they're running, where to find them, and decide whether it's something you're interested in getting some understanding about.
Just to wrap up, if people would like to find out a bit more about assistive technology suppliers Australia, or perhaps sign up to or register or pick up a ticket to head along to these expos. What's the best way for them to do that?
Absolutely. So they can either go directly to our website which is at dot org and that's at org, and you can from there get into the ASA Independent Living Expos via the events tab. And that will allow you to jump on and register your attendance at any of the events that we have. That registration, as I said, is free for anybody to attend any of our expos. And if you pre-register, gives you that free coffee or tea. So recommend people doing that. Again our website is a.
Perfect. I've been speaking today with Serena Ovens, CEO of Assistive Technology Suppliers Australia. Here to chat to me about the upcoming expos that will be involved with over the month of May. Serena, thank you so much for your time today. It was a pleasure to catch up with you and chat about the Expos.
Thanks, Sam. Really appreciate it and look forward to seeing yourself and your Vision Australia members there.
And now here's Frances Kalen with a radar recommended.
Thank you Sam. Today's reader recommended is about a city. It's a love song to a city and a memoir. It's called Perth and it's by David Whish-wilson. David Whish-wilson. Perth is a place of surprising beauty, of sand swept peace and brilliant light, yet a place where the deeper
historical currents are never too far beneath the surface. Like the Swan River that flows in two directions at once at certain times, with the fresh water flowing seawards above the salty water flowing in beneath it, Perth strikes perfect harmony with the city's contradictions and eccentricities. We look beyond the shiny glass facades, the boosterish talk of mining booms to the richness of the natural world and the trailblazers, the rebels, the occasional ghost and the ordinary people that
bring Australia's remotest city to life. Let's hear a sample of David Whish-wilson book, Perth.
Twice a Day. The skin of the Swan River rises in a small ripple as the tidal surge makes its way from the river mouth at Fremantle, through Perth Water, and up into the higher reaches of the river near the fast growing suburb of Ellenbrook. Just over 20km northeast of Perth in winter, when a layer of brackish water runs off the scarp towards the ocean, the river flows in two directions, with the freshwater flowing seawards above the saline water flowing in beneath it. Today, the diurnal bulge
of water that reveals the incoming tide is invisible. It's a Sunday morning, and I'm out on the river in an open kayak with my Uncle Scott. My father's youngest brother, Scott, moved from Tasmania to Perth as a teenager in the 1970s. Like so many others, he stayed for the climate and the lifestyle and the opportunity to work.
So that was Perth by David Whish-wilson. There was a series of books by writers that wrote about the city that they grew up in, and so there's ones for all of the capital cities around Australia. If you would like that book, or if you would like to find out more about how the Vision Australia Library can work for you. If you have a print disability, give the library a call on 130654656. That's 1300 654 656. Or you can email library at Vision Australia. Org. That's library at Vision Australia.
And that's all the time we have for today. You've been listening to Talking Vision. Talking vision is a Vision Australia radio production. Thanks to all involved with putting the show together every week. And remember, we love hearing from you. So please get in touch anytime on our email at Talking Vision at Vision Australia. That's talking vision all. One word at Vision Australia dot. But until next week it's Sam Corley saying bye for now.
You can contact Vision Australia by phoning us anytime during business hours on one 384 746. That's one 384 74 six or by visiting Vision Australia. That's Vision Australia.