Utilities and deafblind customers
Deafblind people in Victoria pay for gas, water and electricity like everyone else. However, when there is a problem with our utilities, many companies are not accessible to us. Even reading and paying bills can be difficult. Deafblind Victoria encourages all utility companies to provide Deafblind Awareness training to their staff, just like Greater Western Water did recently, when they booked a Deafblind World workshop. DBV staff visited their office in Footscray to deliver the training on-site on 28th March 2023.
Greater Western Water provides water and sewerage services to almost 1.3 million residential and business customers, from Melbourne’s city centre all the way to Lancefield. This company also employs people with disability, including two totally blind employees who attended the workshop, along with 20 other staff members.
One participant said “Thank you for including me! This has helped me to appreciate the perspective of a deafblind person and will help my goal of hiring more people with disabilities into GWW. I say this because I work in the recruitment team.”
We want to thank Greater Western Water for having us along and learning more about how services can be accessible to deafblind customers, and how to include deafblind people at work and in the community. Thanks to all the participants, and in particular to Diversity & Inclusion Consultant Missy Brown for arranging to have us. We look forward to another workshop with your company in the future!
Deafblind Victoria 