Early in my advocacy work, I supported a woman in her early 30s to access the NDIS. We booked a medical appointment with a GP to complete her access request form. As an independent woman, we approached the clinic reception desk.
She was standing right there.
Her hands moved as she told the receptionist exactly what she needed.
The receptionist turned to me, her advocate, and asked,
“What’s she after?”
I have thought about that moment for years.
Not because it was cruel. The receptionist wasn’t cruel. She was just built, like most of our systems, to hear a voice and nothing else. When a language arrived that she couldn’t process, she reached past the person using it and looked for someone more convenient to talk to.
Another man I supported was unaware that he had a hearing impairment until it was too late. His employer took his lack of communication as arrogance and disengagement, and he was laid off. It wasn’t until months later that he found out that his hearing loss was so significant that he required aids, which we then had to fight for from the NDIS.
He learned to adapt, but not enough to pick up the nuances of communication, small talk, and banter he needed to keep his job.
That is the whole problem in one gesture.
And it is why 23 September matters.
The United Nations marks the International Day of Sign Languages every year on that date. The General Assembly established it by resolution in 2017, proposed by the World Federation of the Deaf, and 2026 carries weight the earlier years didn’t. This year the Federation turns 75. It is also 20 years since the world adopted the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
This year’s theme is:
Declaring Deaf People’s Human Rights. No Human Rights Without Sign Language Rights.
FACT: There are more than 300 different sign languages in use around the world. They are full languages, with their own grammar, their own regions and their own jokes that don’t translate cleanly, the same way ours don’t. Auslan is not signed English. It is its own thing, carried by its own community, and it deserves the same respect we hand a spoken language.
Over 70 million people are Deaf worldwide, with more than 80 per cent residing in developing nations. In these countries, having access to an interpreter in court or classroom is often a matter of chance rather than a right. Think about what that means for a medical appointment where the diagnosis lands second-hand. A parent-teacher night the parent can only partly follow. An NDIS tribunal where your future is discussed in a language nobody has bothered to translate into yours.
As having worked in the disability sector, we were very good at writing “inclusion” into our values statements and very slow to book the interpreter. Often, it was challenging to find one available when we needed it most. Access that depends on someone being available or someone remembering to arrange it is not access.
The fix is not that complicated, which is the frustrating thing. We need to recognise sign languages properly in law and in funding. Fund interpreters as infrastructure, the way we fund ramps and lifts, rather than as an optional extra someone has to fight for. Teach sign language early, to Deaf children and to the hearing world around them. Hire Deaf people to design the services meant for Deaf people.
On the human level, learn a little.
You do not need to be fluent to change a room.
A greeting in someone’s own language is never a small thing. It says I see you standing there, and I am talking to you, not about you or around you.
Which brings me back to the front desk. I have imagined that scene ending differently more times than I can count. The receptionist looks up, meets the woman’s eyes, and finds a way. It could be an interpreter on a screen, a notepad, a few learned signs, anything that says you are the person I am speaking with. It costs almost nothing. It changes almost everything.
The NGO Training Centre offers an exceptional course on Communication. If you’d like to learn to:
- Define and explain effective communication
- Describe the best practices for effective written and verbal communication
- Understand how a person’s body language influences communication
- Recognise some of the different Communication aids you will come across in your role.
You’ll get clear on what effective communication actually is, and pick up the practices that make your written and verbal messages land the way you meant them. You’ll learn to read the part of the conversation nobody says out loud, the body language that’s often telling you more than the words.
You will also get to know the range of communication aids you’ll meet in your role, so that when the usual channels don’t fit a person, you’ve got others ready.
Because good communication isn’t just a trait humans are born with. It’s a skill. And like any skill, it gets sharper the moment you decide to work on it.
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Author: Amanda Robinson (She/Her) BA, MMHealthPrac.
Dja Dja Wurrung and Taungurung Country
Amanda, Head of Learning and Development and an experienced specialist in NDIS and Aged Care, promotes capability and sustainability within the disability and health sectors. With over 15 years of experience, a Master’s in Mental Health Leadership and Management, and an MBA underway, she offers extensive expertise and personal insight as someone with lived experience of disability. A military veteran and dedicated carer of a veteran, Amanda advocates for Human Rights, striving to reduce stigma and eliminate barriers for those with disability and mental health challenges. She is enthusiastic about fostering strong stakeholder relationships through her advocacy, communication, strategic thinking, and analytical abilities.
