Department of Premier and Cabinet€¦ · Web viewThe national intergovernmental Statistics...

DISABILITY FRAMEWORK FOR ACTION 2005-2010

Annual Report to the

Premier’s Disability Advisory Council (PDAC)

September 2013

Department of Economic Development, Tourism and the Arts

Disability Framework for Action 2005-2010Department of Economic Development, Tourism and the Arts

Annual Report to PDAC

Secretary’s Introduction

I am pleased to present the report of the Department of Economic Development, Tourism and the Arts (the department) to the Premier’s Disability Advisory Council (the council) for the period 1 July 2012 to 30 June 2013.

In June 2013 I made a presentation to the Premier’s Disability Advisory Council and Heads of Agency, in relation to the learning and challenges from the work this agency has undertaken in supporting the State Government’s Disability Awareness Framework.

Our initiatives in this area are as varied as the business units that make up our diverse agency. From disability arts grants to sport and recreation participation initiatives, we are committed to ensuring increased access to all the cultural resources our state has to offer Tasmanians and visitors alike.

The department has been actively involved with the development of the new Tasmanian Government Disability Framework for Action 2013-2017 which was approved by Cabinet in December 2012.

We have commenced preliminary work towards a new Agency Action Plan which will be developed by our agency working group with representation from all divisions and key business units. The working group is keen to work with members of the council in the development of the plan.

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1. Access to Services and Programs

Arts Tasmania

Actions/initiatives

The National Arts and Disability Strategy and Arts Tasmania’s Operational Plan are the most significant policy documents that guide Arts Tasmania’s Arts and Disability Program.

Arts Tasmania continues to employ two regionally based Disability and the Arts Program Officers, part-time.

Universal accessible formatting has been adopted by Arts Tasmania in an effort to break down barriers for improved participation, particularly people living with vision impairment or low level literacy capacities. All toolkits are offered in a variety of formats for accessibility purposes.

Programs / activities we conducted in the 2012-13 year include:

POLICY AND WORKING GROUPS

Disability and Arts Program Officers participate on the department’s Disability Working Group to facilitate the Premier’s Disability Framework for Action agenda. They also provide policy advice and information to the National Arts and Disability Strategy Intergovernmental Working Group, Arts Access Australia National Policy Working Group, and the National Arts and Health Intergovernmental Working Group.

The national intergovernmental Statistics Working Group has included a number or arts and disability focussed questions in national surveys. This has resulted in the Culture Report which identifies jurisdictional statistics of inclusion and participation in cultural activities.

ARTS AND DISABILITY GRANT PROGRAM

Arts Tasmania’s Arts and Disability Grant Program aims to break down the social barriers to enable emerging and established artists with disability reach their full potential.

Further, Arts Tasmania appreciates ‘disability arts’ as a specific genre of work that explores and communicates lived experiences of disability. People living with disability have rich and diverse views of the world because of their experiences. The program supports the Tasmanian Government’s Disability Framework for Action and also Tasmania’s response to the National Arts and Disability Strategy.

OPEN CAPTIONS FOR PERFORMING ARTS INITIATIVE

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Open Captions are like subtitles for theatre. The captions are depicted on a large screen which is located in the auditorium and the actors’ dialogue is converted to words live, via broadband technology.

Tasmania has a higher number of people who identify as Deaf or hard of hearing than the national average. There are approximately 1 in 6 people who are hard of hearing and 400 Tasmanians who use Auslan (Australian Sign Language) as their first language.

Arts Tasmania, through its Arts and Disability Program funded an initiative in 2012-13 that enabled theatre performances to be captioned live via internet technology. The aim of the initiative was to research ways to improve access to the performing arts for Deaf and hard of hearing. The long-term objective of the project was to investigate the feasibility of captioning for theatres/venues to increase their accessibility and thus increase their audience potential.

The initiative met a number of strategic goals: Arts Tasmania’s Strategic Goal 3 to increase accessibility, engagement and participation in arts and cultural activities; Goal 1 of the Tasmanian Government’s Framework for Action to foster human rights; and Focus Area 1, Goals 1 and 3 of the National Arts and Disability Strategy to improve physical access to arts and cultural facilities for people with disability, and people living with disability to have access to quality arts and cultural experiences.

Arts Tasmania engaged 5 venues (Burnie Arts and Function Centre, Theatre North, Theatre Royal, Deloraine Arts Society, Huonville Town Hall) and two arts organisations (Terrapin Puppet Theatre, Ten Days on the Island) during the 2012-13 financial year.

ACCESS TO DISABILITY FORUM

Arts Tasmania and the Australian Business Arts Foundation (AbaF) hosted an event at Arts 146, Arts Tasmania’s gallery space in Hobart. to inspire and inform the arts industry about working with artists with disability. The term “access to the arts” conjures up notions of infrastructure, time and money. But making services and work more accessible can open the doors to new audiences or visitors. Finding a more inclusive way to work can open up opportunities for collaboration with the disability sector and create some great results. The event aimed to turn this notion around – instead of accessing the arts, we asked the arts industry to access and engage with disability.

The group of presenters included Alan Young, a Tasmanian visual artist with disability; Duncan Meerding, a Tasmanian designer with disability; Finegan Kruckemeyer, founder of Tasmania’s mixed-ability Second Echo Ensemble; and Jami Bladel, CEO of Kickstart Arts.

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The event was used to promote Arts Tasmania’s 2013 Arts and Disability Grant Round and AbaF’s Arts Access Award.

ARTS AND DISABILITY CONNECT FORUM

As part of Ten Days on the Island’s Beyond Ten Days Program, Arts Tasmania hosted a forum in Launceston that aimed to connect professional artists with and without disability, disability-arts organisations, and service providers together. The Forum featured Emma Bennison, CEO of Arts Access Australia and artists from the United Kingdom’s Turtle Key Arts and Ockham’s Razor (recognised leaders in the field of arts and disability). The international artists were brought to Tasmania as part of Ten Days on the Island and Arts Tasmania took advantage of them being in the state.

ARTS ACCESS AUSTRALIA’S 2013 MEETING PLACE

In response to the need identified by participants from the Arts and Disability Connect Forum, Arts Tasmania funded 9 people from the North and North-West to attend Arts Access Australia’s national conference, Arts Access Australia’s Meeting Place. All 9 people that attended were grateful of the experience and excited about the potential to develop work and connect with other national artists with disability. This event was utilised to promote the 2014 Arts and Disability grant round.

The most significant change

ARTS AND DISABILITY GRANT PROGRAM.

This program provides direct outcomes in terms of funding arts and disability projects that break down the social barriers preventing artists with disability to reach their full potential.

OPEN CAPTIONS FOR PERFORMING ARTS INITIATIVE.

This initiative provided the impetus for arts venues and arts organisations to see how they could make their services accessible for people who are Deaf and hard of hearing. It was a hands-on project that influenced management, board members, staff, technicians, and performing artists.

ACCESS TO DISABILITY FORUM.

The two presenters with disability from this event came away with a direct benefit - work opportunities with the professional arts sector. Alan Young was asked to work with Kickstart Arts as a tutor, and Duncan Meerding collaborated with performing artist Jane Longhurst on a HyPe project run through the Salamanca Arts Centre.


28 people attended the Forum, the majority of who were from the disability sector. 90% of the participants said that the Forum was useful with 70% indicating that they

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had made contacts with people they may work with in the future. Issues of vulnerability, trust and reliance were discussed and participants showed a desire to have more opportunities to network with one another.

Why significant?


This program enables artists with disability to pursue their arts career, enables arts organisations and service organisations to provide high quality artistic experiences for people with disability, and provides vital funding for key arts and disability organisations that support individuals with disability across the state. The program breaks down the social barriers that exist for people with disability, directly funding them to reach their full potential. It allows individuals to apply for things that they wouldn’t otherwise be in a position to apply for under Arts Tasmania’s Individual Artists grant program. For example, one recipient requested funds to contract someone to convert his designs into CAD drawings to enable him to take his work to market. The reason he couldn’t convert his designs into CAD drawings himself was because CAD software is not accessible and this particular artist is vision impaired.


Access to the performing arts for Tasmanians who are Deaf or hard of hearing is extremely limited. This initiative improved access to the performing arts for Deaf and hard of hearing and encouraged theatres and venues to adopt captioning technology and thus increase audience potential.

“Wow! Totally great! I have never been to the theatre before because I thought there was no point. But wow! This means I can go…I think I will be talking about this for weeks! What an incredible performer! He should learn Auslan – his facial expressions are GREAT! – Deaf patron, As We Forgive, Huonville


Artists with disability seldom have opportunities to share and work with other artists without disability. The arts sector has very little contact with the disability sector. The purpose of this event was to welcome the arts industry to access and engage with disability. Arts Tasmania wants to encourage more artists and arts organisations to engage directly with artists with disability, so that opportunities for people with disability to participate in the arts increases.


Arts Tasmania undertook a major consultation with the disability community in 2011 and results showed that artists with disability wanted opportunities to meet with one another and network with one another. This Forum was run in response to these

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results. It directly provided the opportunity for people to connect with one another and be inspired by leading arts and disability practitioners worldwide.

Evidence of the change


The 2012-13 financial year saw the results of the Arts and Disability 2013 Grant Round announced, of which $179,104 in funds were distributed to support 12 projects across Tasmania. 6 organisations and 6 individual artists were supported under the program.

Arts Tasmania’s 146 Arts gallery space and 146 ArtStudios are open to artists with disability and Alan Young, a visual artist with disability, exhibited ‘Upbeat’ in November 2012 and resided in the studios during the 2012-13 year. Alan Young is an exciting Tasmanian artist who has developed his practice over a number of years and who has work scattered throughout Australia.

“I was supported by money and a great mentor through Arts Tasmania’s Arts and Disability Grant Program, but there was another factor. In the last year, I have been here upstairs, in winter, in a warm affordable studio with other friendly artists and that in itself made life so much easier. I think that all these positive factors are reflected in this exhibition ‘Upbeat’. I think that this is a reflection of my increasing confidence, and self-belief, which has come from having a year, in which, I have been supported, understood and above all respected” - Alan Young, speaking at an Access to Disability Forum hosted by Arts Tasmania at Arts 146 during his exhibition ‘Upbeat’.


“It is the first time I have been able to go with my parents so that was nice” – child of Deaf parents

The initiative proved extremely positive amongst the Tasmanian Deaf and hard of hearing community. Hard of hearing patrons clearly indicated that they rarely see themselves as “hearing impaired” and would prefer to see the captioned performances advertised in the same manner as the cinema with subtitles. The presence of captioning to the wider public was also received positively, with the majority indicating that the captions enhanced their overall experience of the theatre.

Technically, the captions are easy to install through utilising The Captioning Studio in Adelaide via high speed internet. Producing organisations can easily offer captions as they have a direct relationship between their audiences and access to the script. Venue-based organisations and Festivals, however, can have difficulty obtaining permission to have scripts captioned. However, a number of Australian venues that

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offer captioning regularly inform producers upon purchase that they will be captioning the show for their patrons and do not make it negotiable.


As outlined above the most significant outcome from this Forum was the genuine interest from the arts sector to work with Duncan Meerding and Alan Young.


Two individual artists with disability are in the process of working together on a joint arts project as a direct result of meeting one another at the Arts and Disability Connect Forum. In addition Interweave Arts has commenced conversations with Turtle Key Arts and Ockham’s Razor (international presenters at the Forum).

Emerging issues/challenges?

OPEN CAPTIONS FOR PERFORMING ARTS

Would Tasmanian venues consider captioning in the future?

Feedback from all 5 venues indicated that they would only offer captioning if they could predict the number of tickets sold to Deaf and hard of hearing patrons, thus justifying the cost of the captions. However, it is impossible to predict the number of tickets to an audience that has primarily been denied access in the past. In addition, the feedback received from our initiative clearly shows that many people who are hard of hearing do not “flag” their hearing loss, and may well go to the theatre and not hear all the dialogue. In time, this eventually deters them from going to the theatre as frequently as they once had.

Our data clearly showed that captioning enhances experiences of the theatre for people regardless of their hearing ability. So perhaps the question venues should be posing is not how will the cost of captions outweigh the number of ticket sales, but how captioning is a value-add service for existing patrons as well as providing the potential to grow audiences.

Sport and Recreation Tasmania

Actions/initiatives

Sport and Recreation Tasmania (SRT) has undertaken a number of activities/initiatives during the reporting period:

REVIEW OF TASMANIAN SPORT AND RECREATION FRAMEWORK FOR PEOPLE WITH A DISABILITY

A project plan for the review of the framework was developed and research undertaken in preparation for the review of the framework in 2012, including an in-

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depth assessment of the disability demographic in Tasmania, a literature review encompassing a wide range of reports and a review of existing framework documentation.

The review of the framework was put on hold until 2013 to ensure that it was informed by the review of the Disability Framework for Action (completed in December 2012).

The review commenced in February 2013 with the research phase and stakeholder consultation completed. The review process is anticipated to be completed by August 2013.

DISABILITY SPORT AND RECREATION FORUMS

Disability Sport and Recreation Network Forums are attended by state sporting organisations (SSOs) and disability service providers (DSPs) to provide a platform for the two sectors to engage and discuss how they can work together. The ultimate aims of the forums are to encourage greater participation of people with disability in sport and active recreation. The outcomes of these workshops assist SRT to guide the sport and disability sectors to develop new partnerships and collaborate further.

In 2012-13, two forums were held, including the first forum in the north of the state, held in September 2012 at the Silverdome. The forum provided an opportunity for the disability, sport, education, local government and active recreation sectors to network, interact, discuss and plan how to work together to encourage greater participation of people with disability in sport, active recreation and physical activity. The focus of the forum was working together to get things done.

Forty five participants and four officers from SRT took part in the forum. Twenty eight organisations were represented including 10 state sporting organisations, 14 disability service providers, two education providers and one local government.

The most recent forum was held in Hobart in April 2013. Thirty eight people attended, representing 13 sports, 11 disability service providers and others including the Department of Education and local government. Forum participants explored what is stopping people with disability from engaging in sport and how to overcome these barriers. The forum also featured a presentation from Tim Matthews from the Australian Paralympic Committee (APC) outlining the role of the APC and the various programs and resources they have available.

EXPLORE THEIR SPORTING POTENTIAL DAYS

Discussions had during the inaugural disability sport and recreation network forum identified that there was a need for collaboration between organisations to develop and promote opportunities for children and young people with disability to participate in sport and active recreation.

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As a result of relationships developed at this forum, a collaborative partnership was formed between organisations to develop a pilot program to provide children and young people with an opportunity to try sport and recreation activities. The organisations involved were Paraquad, Cerebral Palsy, St Giles, Special Olympics, and the Association for Children with a Disability.

The partner organisations received funding from the Tasmanian Community Fund to conduct three Explore Their Sporting Potential days in 2012-13. The focus of these days was to get parents and carers to link their child into a sporting club. Sporting organisations and clubs were involved in these events, providing activities and engaging with parents.

The first day was held at the Moonah Sports Stadium on Saturday, 24 November 2012. The event was well organised with nine sports attending. However, attendance of children with disability was very low. A review was conducted by the steering committee, resulting in improved strategies for improving attendance.

The second event was held at the Kingborough Sports Centre on Saturday, 23 February 2013 and the strategies coming out of the review saw a substantial increase in participant numbers. The event was attended by 40 children with disability and their families and friends. Nine sports ran activities for the children and provided information to parents about linking their child with disability into sport.

A third event was scheduled to be held on Saturday, 18 May at Lauderdale Primary School. Unfortunately this event had to be cancelled due to low registration numbers. The partner organisations believe this was due to a range of factors. St Giles will explore whether there is an opportunity to extend the funding period and run an event in the north of the state where several requests for such an event have been received by the various partner organisations.

It has also been agreed that a follow-up will be undertaken with participants to ascertain how many have joined a sporting activity, whether there is any further assistance they need to make those connections and whether there are any improvements that can be made to the event.

An additional outcome has been the selection of two of the children who attended the first event for a National Boccia camp to be held in Sydney in February 2013.

FOOTBALL FEDERATION TASMANIA

With the assistance of SRT, FFT developed links with SO to provide a program to children with a disability in schools. The program included both skill development and competition components. FFT is now one of the partners for Special Olympics Sports Link Program.

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In late 2012, FFT conducted a training session at Claremont College. FFT’s development officer, provided activities for students at the college, whilst sharing training ideas with staff from the college.

BOWLS TASMANIA

SRT fostered links between Bowls Tasmania and DSPs to promote new and existing pathways for people with disability within the sport. DSPs targeted include Paraquad, Cerebral Palsy Tasmania, Royal Guide Dogs and TasDeaf.

SRT is currently working with Bowls Tasmania to facilitate links with people with vision impairment, which is another target group for Bowls Tasmania.

Bowls Tasmania is focussing on further involvement of people with a disability. It is adopting the four focus areas of Bowls Australia in aiming to increase the involvement of people with an intellectual disability, vision impairment, hearing impairment and deafness, and physical disability. Bowls Tasmania has significant involvement of people with intellectual disability and is focussing on developing opportunities for bowlers with vision impairment.

In June 2012, SRT facilitated a trial for Bowls Tasmania to gain more skills in the area of Blind Bowls. A player who is blind who was involved in the trial has since continued playing bowls.

Royal Guide Dogs in collaboration with Bowls Tasmania held a come and try day for players with vision impairment at the Buckingham Bowls Club in September 2012. Five families attended the event and Royal Guide Dogs reported that everyone appeared to have a great time. Bowls Tasmania provided information to the families to encourage their continued participation in the sport.

LANGFORD SUPPORT SERVICES PILOT WILDERNESS CAMP

The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Southern Disability Services team approached Sport and Recreation Tasmania’s (SRT) Wilderness Program in 2009 with a proposal to develop a wilderness course. The concept was to expose people living with an intellectual disability or with a mental illness to experiences beyond those available through the supported care framework. A pilot course was negotiated and delivered in 2010 through a partnership between the Wilderness Program and DHHS. This pilot course included people receiving care services from Langford Support Services (Langford), anon-government provider of disability and mental health services.

Langford subsequently identified the value their clients received from attending the pilot DHHS course and pursued funding to establish a sustainable partnership directly with the Wilderness Program.

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Langford made several unsuccessful funding applications to various programs to obtain the funding required to run a specialist wilderness course. In late 2012, SRT provided the minimal financial support necessary to enable Langford to trial a specialist wilderness course in 2013.

The pilot Langford – Wilderness Course proved beneficial for participants and represented value for all organisations involved. The unique opportunities provided to the target group through a camp experience realised the identified aims and established a pathway for translation of personal growth into the participants’ normal living arrangements.

The three organisations directly involved in the 2013 course have indicated their strong desire to continue this collaboration and to secure a sustainable basis for these courses to continue in 2014 and beyond.


The most significant change was the delivery of a Wilderness Program course for people with intellectual disability or mental illness to expose them to experiences beyond those available through the supported care framework.

After identifying the value to clients that participated in a 2010 pilot Wilderness Program course, Langford Services (a non-government provider of disability and mental health services) entered a partnership directly with the Wilderness Program to deliver a full course (run over five days, with four nights camping).

The program evolved with some further financial support from Sport and Recreation Tasmania and the inclusion of Department of Health and Human Services clinical staff to guide post-course follow-up with the participants and to support and evaluate the course benefits for future consideration.

Why significant?

The project involved six participants and two support staff undertaking a five day course coordinated by the Wilderness Program. A range of activities including kayaking, camping, caving and problem solving, were undertaken during the five days aiming to:

• foster a sense of personal achievement

• build the capacity of individuals to support others and work in a team

• highlight the value of individual skills and roles

• engender an ‘I can do it’ attitude that holds potential to transfer beyond the wilderness course experience

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• enhance participants’ capacity to initiate self-advocacy and problem solving.

The course experience demonstrated to participants that they were able to do more than they previously thought they could. At the completion of the course they individually indicated a new resolve to carry on living out their course gains back in their normal living situation.

It was observed that the course experiences resulted in the participants having increased confidence and abilities, participants developed supportive relationships with each other and also demonstrated increased independent motivation which continued post-course.


The following is a brief snapshot of anecdotal evidence collected by Langford Client Services several months after the camp:

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A support worker reported about one participant; ‘there has been a complete shift in behaviour both at home and whilst with support workers. Since the camp it has been observed that his confidence has skyrocketed.He has to do everything for himself, which has been a turning point for him and his family, as it has demonstrated that he can do many things for himself, rather than things being done for him. Since the camp someone has been observed volunteering to do extra tasks and responsibilities around the home.

Someone said they felt liberated

One person now wears just bathers when swimming at the pool, would never before, always wore a t-shirt to cover up.

One person is now observed to be calmer, less stressed, had a positive experience they really enjoyed. Now has an extra level of confidence.

‘When they returned home, their mood and willingness to get up and do things increased and they were more positive. Also enjoyed doing more things for themselves, for example, cooking etc’.

Had a great time and wants to do it again, feels different when she’s away

While on the camp, a support worker noticed that two participants sharing a tent relied on each other and looked out for each other. ‘The camp was fantastic for both of them; they said they enjoyed being away from their residence for a whole week.’

During the camp a new friendship was established. Since the camp, this has been supported and has grown into a genuine, new, strong friendship.

Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery

Actions/initiatives

TMAG opened the redeveloped museum in March 2013. The redevelopment opened up major Tasmanian historical buildings to all visitors for the first time in the buildings’ history. The redevelopment took account of the needs of people with disability and work has also now been completed to ensure equitable access to all other areas of TMAG as well.

In addition to improving TMAG’s building accessibility, TMAG also offer public programs tailored to the particular needs of various visitor groups. TMAG regularly caters for students with disabilities within its regular integrated schools program of activities, including students with mobility issues, autism and downs syndrome.

TMAG also delivers to special needs groups on a request basis and has offered tailored programs to visitors with a full range of disabilities. Programs

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such as Drawing on the collection and Discover your museum are particularly suitable to tailoring for special needs groups.

TMAG is in the early stages of development of an online resource associated with the Shaping Tasmania: a journey in 100 objects initiative for the deaf and hearing impaired community.

TMAG launched the iRemember program for people with dementia to coincide with the museum reopening earlier in 2013:

o This program included a research component in partnership with the UTAS Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre on the efficacy of memory boxes

o Development of a loan service for nursing homes and carers of people with dementia

o Delivered as an in-gallery guided program in conjunction with Alzheimer’s Tasmania for people with dementia


The provision of equitable access for all visitors across TMAG’s site, in particular wheelchair access to all four levels of the historic Bond Store has been the most significant outcome for people with disability over the past year.

Since reopening, the museum has also introduced new in-gallery resources such as the Museum Backpacks and Toolkits that are sensory rich as well as the specially commissioned Museum cart (designed by Patrick Hall) that includes smell, touch and sound objects that enrich the museum experience for special needs visitors.

Why significant?

The improvement of TMAG’s building accessibility has not only expanded the access to TMAG’s collection and buildings, including the Bond Store, for all visitors but has also enabled TMAG to broaden the scope of its integrated public programs, especially for special needs groups.


The new in-gallery resources and use of hands-on material in all of TMAG’s education and public TMAG’s programs has reduced the reliance on text for interpretative outcomes – this means that TMAG is better placed to meet the requirements of special needs groups.

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TMAG continues its tradition of strong best practice in this area and the new exhibitions opened as part of the redevelopment, in particular multimedia and atmospheric exhibitions such as Parrawa, parrawa! Go away! on level 2 of the Bond Store are proving particularly popular with visitors from all areas of the community.

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Designing specific programs for special needs visitors and people with disability requires significant resources that are not currently available in the Department – both in terms of staffing and capital costs. Despite this, TMAG is committed to working in this area and is continuing to plan new initiatives.

2. Access to Employment Opportunities, Career Development, Retention and Recruitment

Actions/Initiatives

The department has been unable to progress any new initiatives in this area over the past twelve months due to whole-of-government resource constraints.

3. Access to Buildings, Facilities, Venues and Off-Premises Events

Actions/Initiatives

Automatic sliding foyer entry doors have been added to four floors of the ANZ Centre. This now means that all foyer doors within DEDTA occupied of the ANZ Centre will have the same level of accessibility, where previously heavy glass doors served as a physical barrier to entry for people with disability.

Plans have been developed for the installation of toilets and showers for people with disability in DEDTA leased office accommodation where they do not exist. Installation will then occur based on demand and budget priorities. The department will engage with landlords to deliver in theory a mutual benefit from this.

An Asset Management Plan is being developed for the Launceston Silverdome and a key component will be identifying current and future access priorities for people with disability.


The redevelopment of the TMAG city site has allowed increased public access for those with a disability.

The installation of two new elevators as part of the redevelopment has given access to those with mobility problems to every part of the museum including the Bond Store an almost completely intact 1820’s Georgian Warehouse. Additionally accessible toilets have been installed in all areas, sliding doors into all major entrances and tactile indicators on all changes of elevation has ensured TMAG is a fully compliant space.

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Why significant?

Beyond the obvious increased accessibility to the site, areas such as the Bond Store could never have been seriously contemplated as being a gallery space given it access limitations which have now been fully addressed.


The evidence is anecdotal however the level of complains in regards to accessibility has bee and well beyond anything we have seen before. The Bond Store now attracts 5 000 – 10 000 visitors a week.


The ability to receive funding for building improvements opposed to other competing priorities from property and departmental wide perspective.

4. Access to Information (printed materials, websites, audio and video).

Actions/initiatives

All department documents are provided on the internet as an alternative to printed publications.

The use of web text instead of PDFs is actively encouraged.

Advice is provided to business units regarding graphic design and layout of documents and online content to ensure accessible style and format. For example ensuring that symbol size and colour contrast on all maps is suitably clear for people who are sight impaired.

The use of images in the Regional Economic Development Plans showing people with disability as ordinary members of the community.

Ongoing distribution of the tip sheet Appropriate use of language with regard to disability and an Accessibility of Information Guide with advice including the use of plain language, and providing information in an alternative format.

Disability awareness initiatives have been promoted and recognised through internal communications channels such as the intranet and staff newsletter. For example Art’s Tasmania’s 10 Days on the Island captioning initiative and the 26Ten literacy initiative.

Closed captions are included in all DVD material in order to make it as accessible as possible to the wider community.

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Captions also included in all online YouTube and Vimeo clips showing departmental initiatives. For example the 13 Tasmania Business in Action stories and the Invest Tasmania series.

Within Tourism Tasmania the Digital Strategy which is developing a new website with greater connectivity capacity, will be developed to ensure it will incorporate Level A of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines with planning incorporate in achieving Level AA by the end of 2014.


The Corporate Communications team’s ongoing advocacy for disability awareness internally and externally continues to deliver a collective focus on the above areas.

Why significant?

Our example and leadership in this area has the potential to make a difference for people with disability through the ongoing education of colleagues and through a public demonstration of the department’s commitment to ensuring its resources are accessible to the wider community.


Greater adherence to best practice.

Increased understanding of and respect for the communications needs of different audiences.

Higher quality products because they are more inclusive.


As with all communications outputs an ongoing issue is encouraging people to think in the broadest possible terms about who their audience is.

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