Deafblind Australia Annual General Meeting

By Annmaree Watharow and Skye Wallace We have travelled to Perth to do a number of multi-purpose activities: Interviews Skye and I spent time with amazing consumers to get their insights on what deafblind or dual sensory impaired people and their families need and want. This information is then used to inform our partnerships, research programs and awareness raising and …

Save Sight Institute Family Day – Part 3: Social-Haptic Communication Workshop Notes

Annmaree Watharow and Susannah McNally People have been using on-body touch signals for centuries. Most people use touch and gestures, for example, to signify support (patting on the back), and love (holding hands, kissing). People with disability and their families have sometimes created individual systems when sight, hearing or speaking senses are not working well enough for them to ‘know …

Save Sight Institute Family Day – Part 1: Transitions and Super Teams

Annmaree Watharow and Susannah McNally We are here at the Save Sight Institute Family Day as part of our mission with the Dual Sensory Impairment Project to consolidate partnerships and raise awareness of the issues impacting people and families living with sensory impairments. Our brief today is twofold: a presentation of managing transitions from children’s health care services to adult …

A Report from Spain

I am in Spain in a town by the Balearic Sea. Not for recreation but for intense work on a new core set for deafblindness in the International Classification of Function (ICF). There’s a beach outside, a waterslide too, and even a roller coaster. But we are inside focused on deciding and debating what features of deafblindness or dual sensory …

Local Book Launch

Moira (left) and Annmaree (right) smiling and enjoying book launch

Annmaree and Moira’s new book, Dual Sensory Impairment and the Older Person: An Invisible Epidemic, was launched locally at Sydney University. The book will be launched by the publisher formally early October. Links to books: An invisible epidemic?: https://livedplacespublishing.com/book/isbn/9781915734365 Knowing what is going on: https://livedplacespublishing.com/book/isbn/9781915271433