Milo

Milo told the Royal Commission he has severe to profound hearing loss. He uses hearing aids to listen, but prefers to communicate with Auslan. He is active in the deafblind sector.

In his submission, Milo said little progress has been made for deaf and deafblind children in educational settings since he was a student.

‘We still see deaf, deaf with additional disabilities and deafblind children and adults being denied the right support they need to get ahead in life, to even get a good life.’

Milo said he experienced and witnessed abuse and discrimination at school. As a student he was profoundly deaf but could speak clearly. The teachers would sometimes single him out as an example to others in the class. ‘The teacher would exploit my ability and would say to my peers that they failed.’ This embarrassed and traumatised him.

On one occasion Milo tried to explain to the teacher the effect this was having on his friends. ‘Of course I was using gesture, pointing and illustrating what I was saying.’ This earned Milo a slap across the face. He was forced to hold his hands behind his back and repeat everything, speaking without using his hands.

‘In the school system,’ Milo said, ‘we were clearly denied access to a visual language.’ The discrimination and limits on language were isolating. He said, ‘the sheer isolation was a big factor that caused most of us to develop mental health issues, depression and anxiety’. He noted, ‘When you limit a person’s range of communication abilities and confine it to speech only, you run the risk of increasing the level of violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation’.

There was also a lot of physical and psychological abuse, but it was always covered up. Milo says he didn’t know how to communicate these things. ‘We never had that support during our formative years, we did not even understand we had rights and that we could complain.’

Milo was thinking about becoming a teacher of deaf people and he was aware of a university course that would provide support with note-takers, interpreters and tutors. However, he said often when deaf people begin to practise teaching ‘they are treated badly by teachers and bullied by professionals’. ‘It is also really disturbing to see the treatment of deaf children in primary and high school.’

Milo believes the education system continues to marginalise deaf and hard of hearing children by not encouraging sign language usage. Also, it won’t encourage deaf adults to have contact with deaf children in integrated settings. If the children had that type of contact, they might see how other deaf people have succeeded in life. ‘No access to live role models increases isolation,’ Milo said.

Milo is also upset about the lack of skilled deafblind specialists available to work with deafblind people or provide training to service providers to deafblind people. Without training, he said, services provided to deafblind people are ‘dumbed down’, increasing their sense of anxiety and lack of self-esteem. Milo told us the problem extends to group homes and day programs, which don’t have the resources to provide appropriate and trained people to work with deafblind people.

Milo thinks there needs to be greater awareness around violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation of deaf, deafblind and deaf people with additional disabilities. He would like to see training, information and support made available to them in their preferred mode of communication.