Greer
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Greer is in her 40s and Deaf.
‘My entire family are Deaf and they all went to Deaf school,’ Greer told the Royal Commission.
She and her siblings used Auslan at home, and were the first in generations to go to a mainstream school where they had to sign in English, ‘which was a new language I had to learn’.
‘I'm not talking about the dark ages, this is very recent … and because we didn’t access our education through Auslan we had sub-adequate education. None of the teachers understood me.'
The teachers also insisted she wear a hearing aid even though it didn’t help her.
‘If you didn’t have your hearing aid on you were forced to sit down at lunchtime and not go out and play with other students.’
Greer said because she was Deaf, teachers put her in a class below her skill level.
‘Some of the other students who were Deaf needed a lot more support, and that work was appropriate for them. But I was never challenged and never given anything that was age appropriate … That’s why as an adult my education level is much behind the general public and my English is not so good.’
Greer said things haven’t improved much since she went to school.
‘I see [children] having qualified interpreters within the school, but, you know, the interpreters are usually lower-level interpreters because the school pay is not as good as freelance interpreting … I see them and they are still going through the same issues that I'd experienced. The same barriers they're facing.’
Greer said the Deaf community often isn’t considered in emergencies.
For example, one time she was in a public library when a staff member yelled at her to move.
‘She had gone bright red. I didn’t know if it was about the fact I'd booked a table or I hadn’t booked a table, so anyway I took my time. I closed down the laptop and then this staff member lost it. She grabbed me … I typed on my phone and showed another staff member … “What’s going on?” and she replied, “It’s a fire alarm.”’
‘I could be sitting on a train and suddenly the train will stop and I've got to change trains and there’s only been an auditory announcement, there’s no scrolling message, so I just have to follow [everyone else].’
‘It’s things that just keep happening again and again and again. And we’re all burnt out from living in these hearing worlds.’
Disclaimer: This is the story of a person who shared their personal experience with the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability through a submission or private session. The names in this story are pseudonyms. The person who shared this experience was not a witness and their account is not evidence. They did not take an oath or affirmation before providing the story. Nothing in this story constitutes a finding of the Royal Commission. Any views expressed are those of the person who shared their experience, not of the Royal Commission.