Steven Hellier is a Deafblind man who lives in Adelaide. He visited Melbourne and told us how things are for Deafblind people in South Australia, including working at the Royal Society for the Blind. His video is in Auslan, and a transcript of it is below.
“Hi, my name is Steven Hellier.
I’m from Adelaide. I’m visiting on holiday in Melbourne, to catch up with friends that I haven’t seen for such a long time – about five and a half years. I think last time I came was the deafblind camp at Philip Island. I haven’t seen any one since then. Five or six years is a really long time! It’s great to be catching up with everyone.
There used to be a deafblind group in South Australia, but it fell apart.
It was developed by Alicia Hill from Adelaide. She passed away 5 years ago from NF2 [neurofibromatosis type 2]. She declined in health. She had been the person responsible for establishing things for the deafblind community in Adelaide, so the group disappeared.
Since then, deafblind people don’t get together as much. For our monthly social lunch, it became difficult for people to travel, and the lunch was expensive. We couldn’t afford it! So the numbers declined. Who knows if something will be set up again in the future.
I work at the Royal Society for the Blind, in the factory there.
There are three of us deafblind men that work there. One has Usher Syndrome type one. He grew up using speech to communicate and can sign a little bit. There’s another guy from South America who has Usher Syndrome type two. He communicates using speech. And then there’s me.
There are two permanent employees. The first guy I mentioned is full time, and the second is casual. He hasn’t become permanent yet; he’s still new. He lost PC [?] and started working [with us].
I’ve been a permanent employee for six years. I work four days a week; 28 hours. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. I have Wednesdays off.
We do industrial processing: packing things in bags and sealing them, counting them. For testing truck oil, lube. We put paper into jars and bottles and screw them shut. There are different sizes. There are two types. There’s the Western PCA for trucks and there’s the Cowell ones for cars, small vans, motorbikes, and boats. We package those things up.”
DBV Connect is supported by the Australian Government Department of Social Services. Go to www.dss.gov.au for more information.