19 Feb 2025

On FOCAL POINT:

Dr Chrissy Antonopoulos, sharing some of the findings from her PHD - Implicit bias toward people with disability: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Rachel, from Beyond Blindness, with updates of events and activities, in particular a disability and aging Expo and Information Day at the Wulanda Recreation and Convention Centre Mt. Gambier. 

Julee-Anne Bell, inviting you to "Perfectly Imperfect Songs and Stories of Life, Love and Laughter" Julee-Anne will be performing, with pianist Melissa Buchholz, at the Garage International @ Adelaide Town Hall as well as a Sacred Show Sunday morning at the Lutheran Church Hahndorf.

Ray Younan, breaking the news that the 2027 Deaf Football World Cup will be hosted in Australia, Parramatta City, NSW, including matches at Commbank Stadium.

Resources:

Dalexpo: https://dalexpo.com.au/ 

Beyond Blindness:http://www.beyondblindness.org.au

Perfectly Imperfect: https://adelaidefringe.com.au/fringetix/perfectly-imperfect-af2025 

Deaf Football Australia: https://www.deaffootballaustralia.com.au/ 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

S1 (00:15):
Good evening and welcome to Focal Point here on Australia
Radio 1190 7 a.m. in Adelaide, online at Via radio
via radio two in Adelaide and Darwin to your favourite
podcast or streaming service, as well as the Community Radio
Plus app. Peter Greco saying wonderful to be here. Thank
you for your company. On behalf of Philip Napier and

(00:37):
a big shout out to Wendy McDougall listening in this program,
coming to you from Ghana and coming to you very shortly.
We'll catch up with Doctor Chris Antonopoulos, who will share
the research that Chris had done for her PhD, the
implicit bias against people with disabilities. We'll also catch up
with Rachael from Beyond Blindness. Julianne Bell will join us.

(00:59):
Singer and comedian Julianne, along with her partner Melissa, is
coming to Adelaide for the fringe and also doing a
show on Sunday at the Hahndorf Free Church for people
who have a faith. So look forward to hearing more
from Julianne and then we'll be joined by Ray Younan.
Ray is from Deaf Football Australia. Australia has won the

(01:21):
rights to host the 2027 Deaf Football World Cup big event.
Will find out more about it if you're listening through
1197 here in Adelaide at 8:00. Listen, Sam here with
Studio one just before we hear what's on their program,
another reminder from Kerry Skipworth from Blind Australia, the SA branch,

(01:42):
their catch up this coming Sunday afternoon, 1230 the 22nd
of February at 22 Jetty Road, Glenelg. The green Tea House.
If you want to book please be quick. One 800
0360 1800036 zero. Let's find out what's on Studio Alpha tonight.

S2 (02:08):
We talked to an Instagrammer who's made it her mission
to highlight accessible brands in Canada. And Mok is our guest.

S3 (02:15):
So join us at eight for Studio One.

S1 (02:19):
If you're a regular for the program, we certainly hope
you are. Last year, we caught up with Kristy Antonopoulos,
who is doing a PhD with a very interesting title.
Kristy has now become a doctor. Doctor Kristy Antonopoulos, welcome
and thank you for your time.

S4 (02:34):
Thank you for having me back again.

S1 (02:35):
Now, last time you told us how and why you
did it. Now, this time, we're actually going to talk
about the findings. And, uh, you'll remind us what the
title was.

S4 (02:45):
Yes. So, um, my research was implicit bias, personal values
and employment of people with disability. So it looked at
implicit or unconscious bias and other factors that are contributing
to all the issues that we that we have with
finding employment now.

S1 (03:03):
I guess when you go into something like this, you've
got to go in with an open mind. That's a question. Uh, so.
So did you have some sort of preconceived ideas and
maybe kind of have to put them to the side
while you're doing your research?

S4 (03:16):
Yeah. Look, I had I guess you come into research,
and the great thing about it is you can come
in with your idea from what you've observed or what
you've experienced, and then you look up the research and
see what there is already, and then you find the gap.
And the gap for my research was that one, we
didn't know what degree of implicit bias we had in Australia.

(03:39):
It's never been researched before and we didn't know. I
guess from a psychology perspective, what factors might be influencing
the employment rate. It's not something that's been focused on
as much and if at all, in Australia. So yes,
I had my ideas of what was going to come up,

(04:00):
but there was also lots of things that came up
that were unexpected.

S1 (04:04):
And you had your ideas through sort of lived experience.

S4 (04:07):
Yeah. Like I think just to being disabled. And I've
spoken to a lot of people in the community when
I've shared their my findings, they're like, of course that's
what you found. But then if you speak to someone
that's not disabled, they're shocked and they can't believe the findings.
So you've kind of got both sides of the experience.

S1 (04:26):
And it's that kind of, um, you know, in a sense,
the the thrust of what you're wanting to get out
there after the research is that, you know, this is
out there. And I guess, you know, people who are
employing the able bodied of the world, if I can
put it that way, they've kind of got to change
their change their attitudes.

S4 (04:43):
Yeah. And I think that's the the important part of
it was that I think a lot of us have
said there's implicit bias. There's all this other stuff happening.
And often it's like, no, no, we're not like, we've
done so much work. And yes, attitudes need to change,
but we didn't really know to what extent and how.
So it's good to have as much as we should

(05:05):
value lived experience more. It's great to have some data,
because there's always going to be those data people that
are like, well, where's the evidence? And now we have evidence.
So we've got numbers, we've got proof if you want
to call it that, to kind of back up what,
what we experience. Not that we should have to, but yes.

S1 (05:24):
Yeah. So with your psychological background and or a background
in psychology, why why is it so? Is it is
it because it's people with disabilities are perceived to be different?

S4 (05:35):
Yeah. So the what I found was there's two types of,
I guess, attitudes and stereotypes. We can have explicit which
means we're aware of them. So we know that we
might perceive people in a certain way. And then the
other side is implicit or unconscious. And that's what I
focused on. So the implicit is when we're not aware
of biases that we have and we're not We're not

(05:57):
aware of the way we might feel or perceive other people.
So what I found is that I look specifically at stereotypes.
So I looked at, um, there's a theory about stereotypes,
which I won't go into because it's not super interesting,
but it kind of is. But anyway, it's probably we
don't have enough time for that. But what it looks

(06:18):
at is how we perceive people as either competent or incompetent,
and then how we perceive people as either warm or cold.
So whether they're like a cold type of person or
a friendly, kind type of person. And what we found
was that implicitly so people aren't aware of it, but
they 80% of people implicitly stereotyped people with disability as incompetent,

(06:42):
and 75% of people implicitly stereotyped people with disability as cold.
So we're not just incompetent, we're cold as well. And
what that is in this theory of stereotypes is we
call it the it the contempt stereotype. So basically, we're
like the worst people in the community and in the world,

(07:02):
and we mooch off other people. And that's kind of
what this stereotype theory says about that, that that specific
combination of competent and and warmth, coldness. So that was
a bit of a shock. Like I knew we were
going to be perceived as incompetent, but I wasn't sure
about warm or cold, because a lot of times we

(07:24):
think that people perceive disabled people as warm but incompetent,
which is like more of a pity. But it was
actually that kind of contempt, which was upsetting, I guess.
But then when you think about it, it kind of
makes sense and you unpack it more.

S1 (07:41):
They're pretty staggering figures. I mean, it's not like, you know, 51%
or no, you know, 60%. I mean, 80%. That's an
overwhelming majority.

S4 (07:48):
That's pretty much everybody. And it includes, well, not everybody.
There's still 20% at Daria, but it even includes people
who are disabled. So people who were disabled had slightly
lower bias, but they still had negative bias. And that
goes and I guess the way that I talked about
it when I wrote about it was that even we

(08:11):
feel bias towards being disabled to ourselves and other people,
and it probably comes from that societal pressure and those
ideas around disability.

S1 (08:20):
Do we feel both about ourselves, though?

S4 (08:22):
I think it's probably internalized ableism. Um, I think that
we can have or we and probably also a little
bit of complicated feelings about our experiences. And I think
that can differ between people. So there's probably more to
unpacking that that future research could look at. But it's yeah,

(08:42):
it's kind of saying that the bias is really widespread,
and there wasn't really a clear finding on what was
separating the people who were biased and who weren't biased.

S1 (08:54):
This might be a silly question, but do you think
people were being honest with their responses?

S4 (08:59):
Wow. This is the fun thing about it. People don't
know what it's measuring and it doesn't weigh. Yeah. Yeah.
So so they don't. And they didn't know what they
were doing. So to measure this, what it does is
it's called the implicit Association test. It's like a social
psychology test that we use. And it's it's quite complicated
to set up. But what it is basically is you associate,

(09:22):
you link words and you do it as quickly as possible.
So there's different combinations of words to represent like disabled
or non-disabled and then competent and incompetent. And then there's
this fancy algorithm and we calculate the time taken between
the two. And then that gives us the bias or
the preference. So people the the idea is that people

(09:44):
will associate words that they're more comfortable with quicker and
then words that they're less comfortable with slower. So people
associate like able bodied words and competent words quicker, and
then it's harder to associate competent words with disabled words
or things that represent disability.

S1 (10:04):
It's not me thinking you probably just asked them a
straight question.

S4 (10:09):
Oh, no. Do you think they had no idea?

S1 (10:12):
I know.

S4 (10:14):
No, they didn't know what we were measuring, which is
the point of it. We told them after, like we
mentioned it after, but, um, yeah, it's it's this cool
little psychology test that that can be that can be done.
That's been around for over 20 years now. And it
started in, in research to do with racial discrimination. So yeah.

S1 (10:32):
Yeah I can imagine that could be sort of, uh,
transposed if you like, into other areas of, uh, bias. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I've interviewed a few people over the years who have
done research that look, I'm looking for, uh, for subjects
or people to take part, and if they want afterwards, I'll, um,
release the the the findings of what I've done. Do
you did I did you do that? And B did

(10:54):
you send your results to some people and get their
responses to your findings?

S4 (10:59):
So I've some of my PhDs published already there.

S1 (11:03):
We're talking about that in a second.

S4 (11:05):
Yeah, yeah. So I've published some your PhD gets put
on like in a public, um, repository. And there were
some people that had contacted and asked for the findings
as well that had taken part that came across it.
So we don't send out findings after we do them,
but we do share if they get published, which is

(11:27):
obviously the the goal of it.

S1 (11:30):
But not so much your findings, but your published, your
publishing as if there's such a word because it's been
international hasn't it.

S4 (11:37):
Yeah. So we I the first paper I published, um,
was a meta analysis which got groups together, all other research,
and it does another analysis on it. And that was
on implicit bias. But there wasn't anything in Australia then.
That was the first thing I did. Um, and that
one won an award, surprisingly, which is kind of cool.

(11:58):
And then the second paper that we published, that was
part of my PhD, it was actually a really interesting
study that we did where I interviewed a in a
whole lot of employers about their perceptions of hiring people
with disability. And that had some really interesting findings as
well around, like whether we should disclose we have a disability.

(12:19):
And the answer to that is people that had experience
hiring people with disability were like, do not disclose. We
don't need to know. It's not part of the like.
It's irrelevant to the process. Whereas people who had never
hired people with disability were more likely to say that yes,

(12:40):
you need to disclose early, you need to disclose on
your application. Yet they never hired. So there was this
really clear kind of distinction between people who had experience
and who were who had hired were like, you don't
need to tell us, like, tell us when you get
the job and if you need adjustments and we'll sort
it out, but don't put it on your application because

(13:00):
we know that people are biased and people will discriminate.
So I think it's a really cool finding. Yeah. Yeah.
It was that was yeah, an interesting finding. I think
we probably could have suspected that. But to have such
a really clear distinction between two groups of people, people
who had hired and people who hadn't hired was interesting.

S1 (13:21):
Does it change you as a person? Uh, well, made
you a doctor, if that's kind of cool. But what
about kind of the response that you've got? I mean,
I'm still trying to process the 80%. I mean.

S4 (13:32):
The bias.

S1 (13:33):
Yeah, yeah.

S4 (13:33):
I think I now that I know so much about
implicit bias, I see it everywhere, not just in disability.
And I can see in the language that people use
and the choices people make and things in media. I
can pick out where the bias is, and I can
say that, you know, this has been written from this
perspective and it's not taking into this perspective. And once

(13:55):
you see it, you can't unsee it. Which is it's
quite it's great. But then it's also quite it's hard
because you can see it and you can't do anything
about it a lot of the time. And it can
be frustrating, especially when it is personal to you. But
then it also gives the motivation to to do something
about it. So yeah, I guess that's that's the main

(14:16):
way it's changed me. I see bias everywhere now.

S1 (14:19):
So Christie Antonopoulos in 30 years time that does this,
would the results be different?

S4 (14:24):
I hope so I think we can we can definitely
change it. We can definitely improve on it. I think
there's ways that we can and I hope that I
can be part of that in the future is to
it's not, I guess, just about raising awareness that we
have biases. It's what do we do with them? Because
at the end of the day, we'll all have bias.
And it's not reasonable to think that we're all going

(14:46):
to be totally non-biased people because we'll have our preferences,
we'll prefer different things or different people, and that's okay.
But the main thing is that we don't want it
to affect other people negatively. And in things like hiring decisions,
we don't want it to be affecting our decisions then.
So I think we can change it, and I think
we're on the way to do that. But it will

(15:08):
be hard because we've got a lot of people 80%
to change.

S1 (15:13):
Change 1% at a time. I guess the flip side
of that question, if you like, is I wonder how
this would have gone 30, 50 years ago in terms
of the response, how much has it changed in that
time I won?

S4 (15:23):
Yeah. Do you know what I think it has a well,
it might have changed a little bit, but I don't
know that it's changed a lot. Like when we think
it's still at 80%, maybe it was at 90%, and
maybe it probably was the further back you go. But
we still when you think about that, we've made a
lot of progress in the Seen the last. Where are

(15:45):
we now? Like 50 years or so. But we're still
sitting really high in terms of implicit bias, so it
might take longer than 30 years. So someone will have
to keep doing the work when I'm finished, when I'm
not here.

S1 (15:59):
And sort of on reflection now, was it all worth it?
I know we chatted last time about some of the challenges,
the hurdles, etc.. Yeah, I mean, you must feel it's
worth it now.

S4 (16:09):
I look, I love research, I love my topic, I
love the work that I do. I love that it
can make a difference, hopefully. And I'm still as passionate
about my the area, my topic as the day I started.
I think it's almost six years ago now, so it
was the like as much as doing it was one

(16:30):
of the hardest things and there was a lot of struggles.
I'm so glad I did it and if anybody else
has that opportunity to do it, I would tell them
to to just throw themselves in and we'll figure out
all the Though the accessibility and all the challenges as
you go, but it's definitely opened a lot of doors
and ideas for me.

S1 (16:50):
Great note to end on. Doctor Chris Antonopoulos, thanks so
much for speaking to us, and I look forward to
the next time we can.

S4 (16:55):
Thank you. Thank you.

S1 (16:56):
Doctor Chris Antonopoulos. What a wonderful insight and thought provoking PhD.
The implicit bias towards people with disabilities a systematic review
and meta analysis.

S5 (17:09):
One step beyond.

S1 (17:16):
So it's great to welcome back for another year the
fabulous team from Beyond Blindness, the fabulous work in the
community and from their marketing department. Rachel's on the line.
Thank you. First time for 2025. I almost used to
say that. Happy new year.

S6 (17:31):
Yeah. Oh, yeah. Peter. Yeah. It takes a bit to
get used to.

S1 (17:35):
How's it all going? Everyone getting back to the swing
of things now?

S6 (17:38):
Uh, yeah. Yeah, we're pretty much all settled in, and, um,
everyone's had a good break. I'm sure the staff and
members and volunteers have had a, you know, good long
break over summer, so. Yeah, but, um, they've all been
itching to sort of get back into things. So. Yeah. And, uh,
we've got a good programme coming up.

S1 (17:56):
You have indeed. Now you're, you're as in Beyond Blindness, uh,
going down to the south east for a pretty good
sounding event. Coming up.

S6 (18:03):
We're going down to the Mount Gambier Disability Aging and
Lifestyle Expo, also known as Dow. So that'll be next month,
on Friday the 14th of March. Uh, well under recreation
and convention centre. Frank is the member engagement officer for
our new Mount Gambier group. So he's going to be

(18:26):
heading down there on a bit of a road trip with, uh,
two volunteers and, uh, yeah, hitting the road and. Yeah,
going there and representing Beyond blindness.

S1 (18:37):
Now, there's a similar exhibition at the Wavell Wayville Showgrounds
last year. When I say similar put on by the
same group. So I guess in a sense it kind
of follows that kind of format.

S6 (18:45):
Yeah, it's um, yeah, it'll be very similar to that.
So we did our first expo last year, um, at
the Dow at uh, Wayville Showgrounds. So yeah, it's basically
the same as that. Um, it's probably on a bit
of a smaller scale. So, um, yeah, they have, uh,

(19:07):
boots around the hall where, um, service providers will be there,
sort of like, um, giving brochures or answering questions or
just making people sort of aware of what they can offer, uh,
people in Mount Gambier. So anyone that you know might benefit.

(19:28):
So that's why, um, Beyond Blindness will be doing, um,
just answering questions and, uh, handing out, um, yeah, some, uh,
brochures or CDs and, um, answering questions like that and just, um,
getting the word out there and just letting, uh, people
in Mount Gambier know that, uh, you know, we've we've

(19:50):
got a group, a new group there. So, uh, yeah,
we're really looking forward to it. And meeting, um, the
great and friendly people of Mount Gambier.

S1 (20:00):
Uh, now, give us the. Have you got the venue
there and what sort of time it gets underway?

S6 (20:05):
Yeah, it's on Friday, the 14th of March. That's it.
Under recreation and convention centre. That's at, uh, 1030 to 330.
So you've got a good few hours to go there
and wander around. It's free entry and there's no booking required.
You can just come along if you happen to be
free on the day. And, um, yeah. So we're really

(20:28):
hoping to increase membership as well and get our volunteers
up to because to support the members to Members to
do the activities in Mount Gambier. We do need and
really appreciate having a good group of reliable and regular
volunteers to to to run the program, especially, um, if

(20:49):
we can't, you know, get there every time. So yeah,
if you have any questions about the expo, specifically about
accessibility or anything like that, you can, um, go to
their website, which is Dhow Expo, and then click on
Mount Gambier. Or if you prefer to talk to them
on the phone, you can call 81688702.

S1 (21:14):
This is a great opportunity for people, obviously, to find
out about Beyond Blindness and the great work you do,
but also just to find out the sort of stuff
that's out there in terms of services and maybe some products, etc.
for anyone with a disability or anyone that's aging, or
if you have someone in your family that this is
a great opportunity because almost like a one stop shop.

S6 (21:34):
Yeah. That's right. Yeah. It's, um, very, um, sort of convenient,
I guess, to have it all in, you know, one
area and all in one day you can, you know,
hit up all of the booths and, yeah, go around and, uh,
get lots of information all at once. So, yeah, you're
right about that.

S1 (21:51):
And Frank will be there with a couple of volunteers
as well. So I guess they can talk about what, uh,
Beyond Blindness do, but also about maybe volunteering and and
sort of opportunities that can open up there.

S6 (22:00):
That's right. Yeah. He can hear it directly from themselves
about what what volunteering means to them and what sort
of things they do, and you know, what opportunities are available. And, uh,
Frank is the coordinator of the Matt Gambier group as well. So, yeah,
he's probably the best person to talk to. And um, yeah.

(22:21):
So he's really looking forward to it and, uh, yeah,
to going down there.

S1 (22:26):
As you mentioned, it's a fairly new group. So I
guess it's kind of, um, growing and also finding its
own way and maybe its own sort of niche interest
for people, etc., for etc. for members, etc. so it's
a good time to be getting in and kind of, um,
steering the ship along the way as it charters new waters.

S6 (22:41):
Yeah. Uh, well, uh, we actually had the first Mount
Gambier group get together, uh, earlier this month on the
5th of February. Oh, yeah. So, yeah, it's really good
timing to have the expo sort of come around. And
it's their first time doing the expo in Mount Gambier
as well. So the Cutlass Foundation. So yeah, it's been

(23:03):
really good timing for them to do their first expo
down there. And then for us to have our mate
Gambier Group for the first time too. So, um, yeah,
we're lucky. It's sort of turned out that way. And, um,
so yeah, we had the first gathering earlier on the
month in this month, and we've already had, um, ten

(23:24):
people turn up. Sure. Um, yeah. So for a first, uh, group,
you know, not all of them always turn out that way.
Sometimes it's quite small, sometimes only 2 or 3 people. So, yeah,
we've really, um, been lucky to have a lot of, um,
enthusiastic sort of members and, uh, all gathered together by

(23:46):
Frank and, you know, word of mouth as well, them
telling everyone they know as well. So, yeah, it feels
really good to start it all on a really strong footing.
And we're hoping, um, it can grow even more and
get bigger and better as time goes on. So yeah, um,
from what I heard, all members had a really good
time and, uh, yeah. So yeah, they, they just met

(24:07):
up for like, a, a lunch at the Park Hotel.
So I'm sure that everyone in Mount Gambier knows where
that is, so, um. Yeah. So it was a great turnout. And, uh,
we're very lucky that the Gambier community as well has
been very supportive. And, um, yeah, it's very heartwarming to
have them be so enthusiastic right off the bat and, uh,

(24:30):
from community members, but also the surrounding councils as well,
have helped guide us and get the word out and
offer advice. Um, because, uh, it is not so familiar
to us, uh, living in Adelaide. So, um, we've had
to organise it a lot remotely, but, um, yeah, they've
been very supportive and helpful too, which, uh, yeah, we

(24:53):
really appreciate. So yeah, here's to, uh, continuing on. And, uh,
we hope that the members, you know, keep enjoying, uh,
enjoying that group.

S1 (25:03):
Yeah. Going on with an upwards from here. Now, uh,
of course, the other kind of, uh, end of the
state or not quite, but, uh, further up north, uh,
your Whyalla group that also I think they kicked off
was it last year as well?

S6 (25:13):
I believe so it could have been. Yeah, the beginning
of last year. So, um, that's uh. Yeah, that's well
established now. And, uh, yeah, they're still going they, uh,
started at the, uh, Whyalla Uniting Church once a month
for like a very simple coffee and chat sort of

(25:34):
thing at the church. So for this year, I, Frank,
wanted to sort of end feedback from the members as well,
which is important. They were keen to sort of get
out there and start doing some more different things. So, um,
they met up last week for a at the Whyalla

(25:57):
Waves Cafe, which is by the water and um, yeah, really,
especially during summer when it gets hot, you really, you know,
it's a real place to be. And uh, so yeah,
they had a great time. And, um, the member said
that they really enjoyed it, you know, getting out and, um,
even though we're really we were really thankful to have, um,

(26:18):
the support of the Whyalla Uniting Church. Um, yeah. It's
good to sort of mix things up and get out
there and go and do some new things. So, um, yeah,
that's what we'll be aiming to do this year as
well as I'm perhaps sometimes doing the Uniting Church again
for those coffee and chats. So that's important too. So yeah,

(26:39):
that's still um, going along and uh, yeah. So um,
of course, if anyone in that area wants to come along, um,
they'll also be doing a day trip soon, uh, in,
I think April to Port Augusta as well. So they'll
be going up there. So, um, yeah, if there's anyone

(27:01):
listening that's up that way, just give us a call and,
you know, we can arrange to sort of meet with
you there and, um. Yeah. So it's good. They're sort
of branching out and trying new things, which is, uh,
important for sure.

S1 (27:13):
Well, I'll give you contact details before we wrap up
the interview. Now, what about the Adelaide Hills area? How's
that coming along?

S6 (27:19):
Well, that's still going well. Um, yeah. They, um, are
going to Langhorne Creek at the end of February, so
they'll be doing like a sort of day trip there.
And then March, they're doing the local bakery. So yeah.
And then I think, um, they take a bit of
a break in April, so. Yeah, I mean, Frank's got

(27:43):
a lot of things going on, so that's understandable. So, um. Yeah,
that's still still going ahead.

S1 (27:49):
Well, it's good that they're getting out and about into
their local area, but not just, uh, you know, Mount Gambier,
but also getting into some of the sort of more
rural areas like Langhorne Creek and Lobethal Bakery. Anywhere would
be good. I'm sure. Those country bakeries, there's something always
special about them.

S6 (28:03):
Yeah, definitely. Yeah. It's important to, you know, try them
all around.

S1 (28:07):
Yeah. All right. That should be great. Um, okay, so
you got the Frank doing a lot of good work,
and of course, all your other, um, member engagement officers
that just remind us where they all are. What, uh,
centres they're all working out of. And, of course, they're
always happy to hear from members or potential members with
either some activities they'd activities I'd like to get involved with,
or indeed take on some of the activities that are

(28:29):
already happening.

S6 (28:30):
Yeah, well, we've got the northern office, which is at Gawler.
We've got the Central East office, which is at Campbelltown,
and then we've got the southern office at Christies Beach.
So yeah, we cover a lot Adelaide and even Victor
Harbour as well. So yeah, we've got all of those
programs across metropolitan Adelaide too. Um, we've still got the

(28:52):
craft and the seniors group. Bingo, uh, fruit picking, book clubs, sports, walking. Um, just. Yeah.
So many different things. It's. Yeah, just so hard to
list everything, but, um. Yeah, but you can, um, members
know they can always read it in their newsletter. Uh,
what we've got. Or you can go to the online. Publications. Uh,

(29:18):
we've got the activity calendar there you can read, which
is tied into our newsletter, too. Um, but yeah, um,
all of the member engagement officers have, uh, put together
such a good calendar for term one that, um. Yeah,
it's it's just amazing what they've all done. And they
all work so hard, and it's so especially to try

(29:40):
to get it, you know, to me so early, um,
in advance. So yeah, they're all doing great things. So. Yeah,
try to have a look if you can. And, um,
as I, as we always say, you know, you're not
just restricted to only going to this activity in your
region or that region, but, um, you can come to
any in all regions just, uh, depending on transport and

(30:03):
depending on, um, if you're able to transport yourself, then
that opens up more opportunities. But um, yeah. So if
if there's something that piques your interest, you can always,
you know, come along or call us and have a
chat and, uh, yeah, we'll see what we can do.
But we do try to encourage independence where Possible, particularly

(30:24):
when it comes to transport. But, um, yeah, just just
to give us a call and, um. Yeah, we'll try to, uh,
book you in and, uh, see if you can come along.

S1 (30:34):
Now you're in charge of the newsletter. You put that
out on a regular basis, and it's free, isn't it?
If you want to take part or be a recipient
of the newsletter, it's easy enough.

S6 (30:43):
Anyone can, um, contact um marketing at Beyond Blindness and, um. Yeah,
I'll sign you up. And, um, even if you're a
member or you're thinking about becoming a member, but, um,
you're not quite ready to, you know, commit to that yet, then, uh,
let me know. And, um, I can still sign you

(31:03):
up anyway. And then, you know, maybe, um, you might
just need some time to read the newsletter before you're ready. Or,
you know, if it comes to that, um, sort of
stage where you do want to join, then at least
you already know a lot about the, um, blindness because
you've been receiving the newsletter. So. Good point. Yeah.

S1 (31:21):
Alright. How can we find you? How can we get
in touch?

S6 (31:23):
You can call the, uh, general beyond blindness, uh, main
office number, which is 83676088. For general inquiries, if you're
calling regarding the Mount Gambier group, in particular, uh, MT Gambier,
Adelaide Hills, Whyalla or the West. This is because we

(31:45):
just talked about Mount Gambier. So I'll give uh, Frank's
mobile number, which is 0488 114 626. So it just sort of
helps sometimes to. Yeah. Contact him directly.

S1 (32:00):
Terrific. Rachel. Great to catch up. Welcome back for this
new year. Look forward to catching up with you. Generally
the third week of each month throughout the year. And sure,
there's always plenty happening. And, uh, this is another place
where people can get all the good information about what's
happening at Beyond Blindness.

S6 (32:14):
Yeah, yeah. For sure. Okay. Speak to you next time.

S1 (32:17):
Thank you. There. From marketing at Beyond Blindness. this.

S7 (32:21):
You're listening to Focal Point on Vision Australia, radio 1190
7 a.m., VA radio, digital and online at VA radio.

S1 (32:30):
Well, we love Julian Bell on The Voice and good news,
particularly for people in Adelaide at first and then hopefully
for more people in Australia. Julian is doing a tour. Julian.
So great to catch up again and thank you for
your time.

S4 (32:42):
Thank you so much for having me, Peter.

S8 (32:44):
It's delightful to be talking to you again.

S1 (32:46):
You're coming to Adelaide?

S8 (32:47):
I'm coming to Adelaide, I love Adelaide. I've went to
Adelaide when I was a little girl as part of the.
I think it was a show. It was called the
Pacific Games. But when I was a little girl, I
don't know what it was called, but I went with
Narbethong school and I remember going to Adelaide and going
to visit a place called The colonnades.

S1 (33:06):
Oh, way down south.

S8 (33:07):
Yes. And, um, I don't remember much else except buying
toys at the toy shop.

S1 (33:12):
Well, that's very important. Well, that. Good memories. That's a
good thing.

S4 (33:15):
Yes.

S1 (33:15):
And hopefully you'll have even better memories after this. Now
you're touring with a show called Perfectly Imperfect.

S8 (33:22):
Perfectly Imperfect. That's right. It's a show that basically allows
myself and my partner, Melissa Buckholtz, who's a pianist, to
be our perfectly imperfect selves. We both are musicians who
work in an environment where perfection is, is, is so
highly sought after. You have to look a certain way,

(33:42):
you have to dress a certain way, you have to
behave a certain way. And as two women in our
early 50s, we are a little bit tired of that
and we just want to be ourselves. And so this
show is a place where we can tell stories about
our lives and sing and perform songs that have a
very special meaning to us both.

S1 (34:05):
Fantastic. I reckon there'd be a lot of people listening
right now that say, here, here. Go for it. There
should be more of it.

S8 (34:10):
We hope so. That's what we're hoping to inspire people,
not in the in the horrible way that we encounter
as people with disabilities, but inspire people to just step
out from behind those masks that we have to put
up and just be yourself. And as long as you're
not hurting anybody in the process, I think that more
of us need to be a bit more real and

(34:31):
a bit more authentic.

S1 (34:32):
That is such a great point you make about kind
of music, I guess art in particular, or art in general,
but music in particular can kind of demand perfection. I mean,
you know, we hear about perfect pitch. Yes. And, uh,
so I guess it's kind of, uh, you know, all
sort of wrapped into that.

S8 (34:47):
When I work with my students. I'm a vocal teacher
when I'm not touring and and doing other things. Um,
whenever I do a student concert, the first thing I
say to the audience is, if you want a perfect performance,
what I'd like you to do is, I'd like you
to stand up nice and quietly and and out you
go and go and get yourself a CD and go.

S9 (35:08):
And sit down and have a listen to that.

S8 (35:09):
Because that's where we get perfection or close to it.
But if you've come to a live performance, you've come
to see that humanity and that those imperfections are what
make us human. And they are what make us unique sometimes.
And so, rather than kind of getting all bent out
of shape about them, we're trying to embrace them, particularly

(35:32):
for the, you know, those pockets of the world that
view blindness as, as an imperfection. It's it's certainly not
my viewpoint. And I know it's not yours, but we
know that there are people out there who believe that
we need to be fixed or we need to be
made better, or that we suffer from our disability. And
I just see my blindness as a character trait, really,

(35:55):
just in the same way that I'm blonde or short
or whatever I might be. But, you know, to be
able to embrace those so-called imperfections and really sort of
own them is part of what this tour is all about.

S1 (36:08):
Now, have you gone putting it all together? I guess
you've given us a great background as to why you've
done it. Sort of. How have you done it in
terms of, um, Them. Have you written your own stuff?
Is it?

S8 (36:17):
We haven't. It's a lot of covers, so it's a
lot of songs that mean things to Melissa and I.
We have had lots of conversations where we talked about
our favorite songs from different decades, and our favorite songs
from different genres and from different, um, artists, and we
came up with a very long list of songs that
we both really enjoyed and songs that meant something to us,

(36:40):
and we've had to cull songs. It's not been a
question of finding songs, it's been a question of culling them. And, um,
we've had to cull songs. And so we start the
tour off with a little medley of two songs that
were released in the year of both our births and, um,
I was make the joke that that's 1995 and 1990, but, um,

(37:02):
of course, that's not quite true, but we've got a
little song from Mama Cass and a little song from
Olivia Newton-John to sort of start us off and to
sort of show the years of our birth. And then
we talk about our our high school years and songs
that mattered to us during that time. And our university years.
And then a few different milestones in our lives. And my, my, uh,

(37:24):
partner Melissa, she has overcome. She's battled and won the
battle against breast cancer.

S1 (37:30):
Right.

S8 (37:31):
And she's had some mental health struggles, as had so
many of us. And and we sort of talk a
little bit about those struggles and how we've overcome those things.
And it's, it's a it's a show that we've found
because we did a couple of test performances in Brisbane
last year, and it is quite emotional for people because
it's songs that they remember as well. And music tends

(37:54):
to have a lot of things attached to it. And
there have been some people who've really felt it quite deeply,
but it's a lovely, safe space to feel those feelings.

S1 (38:03):
So the songs kind of got a message behind them
as well, or they just fit the era.

S10 (38:07):
Uh, they've usually got a bit of a message.

S8 (38:09):
They're usually songs that we relate to. So, um, at
one point, Melissa's talking about her beautiful new husband that
she has, um, that she met after her illness. And, um,
I do a lovely segue and say, oh, Mel, could
you say that Rick's your bridge over Troubled Water. And
then we sing Bridge Over Troubled Water. So I'm giving
you I all my jokes here. Peter, I'll have to

(38:30):
come up with some new ones, but, um. Yeah. Songs
that really do speak to us. We're both women who
really value beautiful words. We're both women of faith. So, um,
while our fringe shows don't have any sacred repertoire in them,
we are doing another gig at Hahndorf while we're down there.
And that's at the Lutheran Church. And so that that

(38:52):
show has some sacred music in it as well, because
we're both very much very proud women of faith.

S1 (38:57):
Oh, well done Juliet. It's it's hard to get a
gig at the Adelaide Fringe Festival or it is.

S8 (39:02):
You have to go through quite a process. And Melissa
did all of that. And then I got this email
that said, we're in. And I just couldn't believe it really.
They you have to have to send in quite a
lot of material so they can decide if you're up
to it. And we've been able to get three gigs
at the Adelaide Town Hall, so we're really excited. But
it's really scary because people don't know who we are.

(39:24):
You know, I'm not Adam Hills or, you know, somebody
fabulous like that. So, um, there's always that fear that
nobody will show up. And I just always say to her, well,
it'll be a wonderful rehearsal. And, you know, the old
line of if there's more people on stage than in
the audience, you don't have to do the show. But
since there's only two of us, we're pretty safe. We

(39:45):
haven't ever had a gig that's had less than two
people at it, so that's pretty good.

S1 (39:49):
It's fantastic. What about the voice experience then? Has that
held you in good stead? And I mean, you've got
good you got good notoriety from that very positive notoriety.

S8 (40:00):
Nothing. Yeah. Nothing negative for me. I was very fortunate.
I mean, I worked hard to ensure that I didn't
give the producers anything negative to work with. I think
if you give them something negative to work with, they
are quite allowed to work with it. The contract that
you sign very clearly says that whatever they film, they
can use. So if you give them something that's negative,

(40:23):
or if you give them something that's controversial, they'll they'll
use that. And I was just bound and determined to
be a funny, fun blind woman, you know, and and that's,
I think, who I was. I didn't hide from my blindness.
They didn't let me. But I also didn't want to,
because it's a part of what makes me who I am.
And I will be forever grateful for the publicity that

(40:47):
I've received. And just having those clips on YouTube, those
two beautiful clips of my blind audition and then my
duet with Guy Sebastian, those clips. It's such a great
way to advertise yourself. And if someone says, well, who
are you? You can send them that clip and it
tells them a lot. And that's that's I'm so grateful
to the program for that exposure. I'm very, you know,

(41:11):
I was very well treated.

S1 (41:13):
I don't want to get too much off track. But
you talking about, you know, people maybe using stuff in
a show like that to kind of, um, push their
own way or maybe highlight your disability, etc.. I mean,
the media kind of can do that, can't they? Well,
if they can do that then yeah.

S8 (41:30):
And I always do. So I always sort of think
that that's really lazy marketing. It's the easy it's the grab.
It's the easy grab. What about all the other things
that you could look for? Um, it's the easy narrative,
you know, it's the easy story to tell. And I
think that the viewing public are smarter. Now, social media
has made us all very savvy. And I don't think

(41:51):
that a sob story really plays as well as people
might think it does. Having said that, I was just
what I was, um, had a bit of a guilty pleasure,
and I was watching I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out
of Here! And that had, um, Reggie from Bravo who got.
I think she has PP.

S1 (42:08):
Who doesn't do. Yeah.

S8 (42:09):
And she was quite real about some of the struggles
that she faces. And she was quite emotional about that.
And I think that was quite real as well. And
I think that that was a really reasonable way for
her to be portrayed, because someone who's losing their vision.
That's a really different animal for somebody like me who's

(42:31):
never had vision. And I think that they did a
very good job at really portraying that raw emotion that
she was feeling. And I don't think there's anything too
wrong with that as long as everyone is on the
same page, you know?

S1 (42:44):
That's a great point. Juliet, is this a tour to Adelaide?
Just the start of it, is it?

S8 (42:49):
It is the Adelaide Fringe and Hahndorf and a couple
of other places around. South Australia is our first little
week away tour. And then not long after that, we're
doing a tour of New South Wales, up all the
way from Twin towns down to Albury. So we're doing
the whole state And then we've got some other gigs
coming up in my hometown of Kingaroy and Melissa's hometown

(43:10):
of Toowoomba, and then we're hoping to book in a
North Queensland tour and a Western Australian tour, and then
later in the year we're going to come back and
we're really hoping to do Sydney. We, we, we're still
looking for a way in. It's very hard when you
are not a big, famous juggernaut of a machine to
get a look in, in some of the metropolitan places,

(43:33):
but we're trying for a look into Sydney and then
we'd like to go we're going to do a show
in Grafton in September. That's a that's a definite. So yeah,
we're going to be going around the country most of
this year if we can, if we can get the
bookings and New South Wales tour for the March April
period is absolutely booked solid. So oh.

S1 (43:53):
Fantastic.

S8 (43:54):
It's so exciting. We just got bookings after bookings and
one of the other things that we do, not so
much in the fringe because there's not the space for it,
but we have workshops, so we get people to come
in the day of the concert and sing in a
choir with us, and we teach them some backing vocals
for 2 or 3 of our songs, and then they

(44:14):
will come and sing behind us in our concert. So yeah,
we've got all these different formats. We've got schools, concerts.
If schools want us, we've created a show that we
can pull, pull bits out and put bits in and
really make it fit. You know, if you want it
to be more of a church kind of concert, if
you want it to be a schools concert. We both
have got so many years of experience that we can

(44:37):
create those concerts for whatever people want.

S1 (44:40):
Julianne, it sounds incredible. Good luck that. Now your first
show in Adelaide is the 28th of February.

S8 (44:45):
Yes, it is at 6 p.m. at the town hall.

S1 (44:48):
Yeah, that's the Garage International, I must admit. I know
the town hall, obviously, but I don't know about the garage.

S8 (44:53):
I don't have to be honest. I don't know much
about that either. Whether that's just a company that's. I
don't know, but it is definitely the Adelaide Town Hall.
And then we're doing the same thing on the Saturday
at 430 and the Sunday at 430. The Friday night
shows at 6 p.m.. So, um, we're hoping to capitalize
on people going out to shows on Saturday and Sunday night.
Maybe they want to come and see us first. It's

(45:15):
a 50 minute show and it's just go, go go song,
song song. And so, um, you'll get to see us
in all our glory if you come along.

S1 (45:24):
When you play your hand.

S8 (45:24):
Off. Hand off is a Sunday morning. So that's the
2nd of March at 10 a.m., and then we're going
to be whipping ourselves back into Adelaide to do the
show in the afternoon. So we're going to be very
busy little touring artists.

S1 (45:37):
Well, people can certainly book it by calling one 306
2125 or go to the website one 306 2125. The
show is called Perfectly Imperfect. Julianne. We'll put those details
up with our show notes as well. Thank you. Good luck.
We'll certainly try and get there. And if anyone's listening
in that gets there, maybe you can give Julianne a

(45:58):
bit of a cheerio. Oh, good. You heard her. heard
Julia on the radio to you on the left. The.
Good luck and thanks so much for joining us.

S8 (46:05):
Thank you so much, Peter.

S1 (46:06):
That's fantastic. Oh, that is a show not to be missed.
Perfectly imperfect. 1362125. Ring now sold out in New South Wales.
Let's sell it out in Adelaide as well. Well, some
really exciting news of fantastic news for Australia and for
people who are deaf or hard of hearing and for football.

(46:27):
Let's blend it all together and speak to the President
of Deaf Football Australia, Raul Unum. Raul, welcome and thank
you for your time.

S7 (46:35):
How are you.

S1 (46:35):
Today? Maybe not as good as you are, I suggest.
Tell us about this great news.

S7 (46:41):
Great, um, outcome from, you know, 18 months of hard
work and lobbying and, you know, against 50 countries. So
there's 50 countries worldwide that have deaf football teams. Only
24 will make it to Sydney. But, um, it came
down to, uh, China and I believe Russia and Australia. Obviously,

(47:08):
we were the preferred nation. So yeah, we were. We've
won the 2027 World Cup games for Sydney, Australia, um,
which will be held in Parramatta, New South Wales.

S1 (47:21):
Fantastic. So over 50 countries. So obviously a great opportunity
for tourism and also for uh, a chance for Sydney
and Australia to promote itself.

S7 (47:30):
Oh, definitely. There'll be over 1500, uh, people within the
teams that are coming to Sydney and their entourage, you know,
family and friends on the sightseeing. We're estimating about 10,000
will be coming. So, you know, if you allow this,
spending would be about $5,000 each. So there's about 70

(47:51):
to $80 million of, um, economic spending, which will go
through the Parramatta city And surrounding suburbs. So it is
it's quite, quite a big deal.

S1 (48:02):
What about from the players point of view, particularly the
Australian players point of view? I guess that was used
to just come out, but there'd be an extra pep
in their step. I mean, a chance to represent the
country and be in front of your home crowd.

S7 (48:14):
Definitely 100% that it's a home game. I mean, we
are going to the Olympics in Tokyo at the end of, uh,
this year. So that's another, uh, thing that they're looking
forward to representing their country in the Olympics. The deaf,
the Deaflympics, um, they they dropped the. Oh, when they
say Olympics. Yeah. In Deaflympics. Yeah. They're very excited. Very,

(48:38):
very excited. Um, in the last couple of years, thanks
to our media exposure and some international games in America
and Malaysia, we've been able to draw about 50 new
players that have applied to come and play for Deaf
Football Australia, which is Which is fantastic. Um, we're having

(49:00):
trouble recruiting, but since the media exposure, it's, um, opened
the doors, which has been fantastic.

S1 (49:07):
And of course, the media exposure has been on the
back of the fact that the team has done very well.

S7 (49:11):
Exactly. And the international games, they've done well, but the
international games have, um, drawn the media to attention to us.
The World Cup in Malaysia and the American game that
we went to last year, America, uh, you know, the
number one in their division, the women's team went over
there and they had a chance to play the number

(49:33):
one team in the world in Colorado. That was quite good,
I think.

S1 (49:37):
Quite good. It's a bit of an understatement, right? It is,
it is. And and I guess just the, um, I mean,
I talk about being subliminal advocacy, but just the chance
for people when they see that the players play at
a World Cup, the chance that, uh, the mainstream media, the,
the mainstream public get to Get to kind of understand
a bit about the abilities of people who are deaf

(49:59):
or hard of hearing, maybe some of the, you know,
challenges that they face, their day to day life, those
sort of things all come to the fore. And, you know,
people are learning about it without kind of realizing they're
learning about it.

S7 (50:09):
Correct. And, you know, they underestimate the deaf teams. We
played the second grade Wanderers team in Sydney. And we
we actually drew, you know, against them. They got a
shock of their life. Um, the Korean and Iranian teams

(50:30):
would actually, uh, beat our number one soccer teams, our
open national team. They beat them. You know, that's how
fast the games are. People think because they're deaf, that
the game's slower. It actually isn't because sight is faster
than sound.

S1 (50:47):
And yeah.

S7 (50:48):
When you're focusing on your senses, like your sight and you, you,
you improve it. And there's three linesmen on each side.
The players themselves you know, move their hands. It's a
very fast game.

S1 (51:03):
I understand we often talk about blind sport and in
different sports and different categories players have to wear blindfolds.
So there's no sort of cheating. If someone's got a
little bit of useless sight, they can't get an advantage.
So what about as far as people who are deaf
or hard of hearing when they play a sport like this,
there's a kind of an even field there, pardon the pun.

S7 (51:22):
There is, um, every every player must remove their cochlear
implant so that they're all on the level playing field. Yeah. So, um,
not not all the players are 100% deaf. Um, some
players can hear a little bit, but there are regulations
and they all have to have hearing tests and produce

(51:43):
their results before the games.

S1 (51:44):
And what about in terms of just the kind of
game itself? I guess if people were watching it, it
probably wouldn't look that different from a conventional game.

S7 (51:52):
No, no, it's very fast, very quick, very professional. You
wouldn't tell the difference from a distance.

S1 (51:58):
But what about the kind of logistics of, um, putting
it all together now? What sort of things are ahead
of the organising committee? What time of the year is
it in 2027?

S7 (52:08):
Um, between September and November. The date hasn't been fixed. Um,
the officials are leaning towards November, but we're telling them
it's going to be a bit hot in November. So
it's actually the it's actually men's and women's. It's great.
Like we've only just formed our women's team. Um, recently

(52:28):
we've had a about 15 years without a women's team, though.
We've just formed our women's team, which is quite exciting. Yeah.
So to verify and ratify the games, we had two
different officials here last week. DFA is a foundation under

(52:49):
FIFA that looks after the disabilities and two gentlemen from differ.
So the president of differ Yakov Frenkel from Russia and
the vice president Brice Alain from France were here last week, um,
inspecting eight plane grounds and stadiums, um eight hotels, Westmead

(53:16):
Hospital and other facilities to make sure that we were
equipped and ready for the games. And they left very,
very happy, very you know, they thought that we were
better than most other World Cups held around the world.

S1 (53:32):
Fantastic. Yeah. What what about in terms of its history? Uh,
is this the first time Australia would have held an
event like this?

S7 (53:39):
Yes. It is so apparent that the city is hosting.
So they're the host city for the games. We had
our public announcement Friday. we had a bit of media
attention and the federal MP for Parramatta, Andrew Charlton, attended and,

(54:01):
you know, wished us well and said that he's there
to support us. So that was that was quite good
as well to know that the government is behind us.

S1 (54:08):
Well, we touched on it at the beginning, didn't we,
in terms of, uh, tourism dollars and just the fact
that it gets to promote the city and, you know,
by virtue of that, a country as well. It's a
it's a great sort of, uh, mouthpiece for, um, an
event like this to kind of spread the word 100%.

S7 (54:25):
You know, it's a, it's a good deed for Australia to, to,
to be doing. It's, it's something that the whole world
will recognise.

S1 (54:34):
We talk about football. I mean it is the world
game and you know people are deaf or hard of hearing.
They probably follow teams like, uh, the Liverpools and the
Man City's and the Real Madrid's, etc. so a chance
for them to kind of be strutting their stuff on,
on a, on a On a world stage. It's just
such a precious thing.

S7 (54:52):
Correct? 100%. Right. Our players have all their, you know,
superstars that they follow and they talk about, um, we had, uh,
one of those superstars come to Sydney, um, from Italy.
He called the Lion of Italy. I think his name
is Messi. I'm not a soccer person myself. I played, um,

(55:12):
rugby league all my life, you know? But, um, I've
been asked to look after their football, and it's been
a great pleasure. We've got a partnership with Marconi Club. Um,
Marconi invited the Lion of Italy to come and, um,
test out the pitches. We put in two new synthetic
pitches at Marconi Club. Um, yeah. That was a great event.

(55:36):
And the players were, you know, dumbfounded that a world
superstar attended their grounds.

S1 (55:45):
And we're having a quick chat off air right now saying,
you know, obviously of his great September November in 2027
when the games are here. But there's also that opportunity
leading up to it in terms of maybe getting some
players to be out and about. Uh, I guess the
other thing is obviously very, very important for for young
kids who are deaf or hard of hearing to kind
of be able to identify with some of their, uh,

(56:07):
you know, peers as well, that that kind of message
to be able to get across their parents, you know,
their families as well, to kind of have that opportunity
to play a sport like this as well.

S7 (56:16):
100%, you know, it goes through the whole community.

S1 (56:20):
Yeah.

S7 (56:21):
1 in 6 people in Australia have hearing problems and deafness. So,
you know, that's one sixth of 25 million people. A
lot of families are affected. A lot of families struggle.
A lot of children are embarrassed. So this this gives them,
you know, some pride and a way of showing themselves.

(56:42):
We've had 50 new applicants come to us, uh, young kids,
and they're going to come up the ranks. Because what
happens with your cochlear if you get your cochlear implant
when you're young, you can't tell if the person is deaf.
They grow up being just like you and I, and
nobody knows the difference. And you need those people to

(57:04):
step forward like the Matildas. Um, goalkeeper Mackenzie Arnold. She
she stepped forward, um, and told us that she was
deaf and she wore a cochlear implant. Um, so it's
quite important. And the children that don't get a cochlear implant,
they're the underprivileged, and they can't function as well as

(57:27):
the ones with a cochlear. Um, the cochlear implants are
very expensive. And one of the reasons we take them
out during the games is so they don't get lost
or damaged. It is amazing. And they're the pride and
the self-consciousness of the community. It's a big thing.

S1 (57:44):
Again, you talked about our kids getting it at an
early age. I mean, again, things we often speak about
on this radio station is things like that early intervention
being a better being a child with autism, being a
child with a vision impairment. If you can get intervention
early and get the sort of rectification happening, then that's
that's a very positive thing as well. And yeah, as

(58:06):
you said, sets the child off on a good footing for, um, well, for,
for everything social career, uh, employment, all those sort of
interactions that are so important.

S7 (58:15):
Correct. You know, the ones that have had the implant
at an early age, uh, get the best jobs and, and,
you know, direct in society just like everybody else. And
it's fantastic to see.

S1 (58:28):
All right. So, uh, we'll find out the data in
due course. But in the meantime, I guess I'm sure
there's a, a website and there's ways people can find
out more about it. Just one quick one. So, uh, Parramatta, that's, uh,
in western Sydney, isn't it, for those who don't live
in that area. And it's a, it's a big area
population wise too, isn't it?

S7 (58:45):
It is. It's the second city in New South Wales.
So it's Parramatta City. It's growing very fast. They've just
got a light rail that takes you into Parramatta. It's
a huge place. Yeah, it's got all the everything you
need is in Parramatta.

S1 (59:00):
And it sounds like everything that the governing body wants
to have in place is there as well. Hence the
Australia winning the rights to host the games.

S7 (59:09):
Correct. But Parramatta Comeback Stadium is there um within walking
distance from all the hotels. So. And Westmead Hospital is
about 2 or 3km away which is in case somebody
injures themselves of course.

S1 (59:23):
Well you got to think of all these things don't you?

S7 (59:25):
Yeah, you have to. It's a whole, you know, it's
a whole array of, um, logistics that we have to
go through. We've got a a list from FIFA. It's
about 20 pages. You know, that you have to all
the rules and regulations and what we can and can't
do and can and can't say. The fields, The quality
goes right down to the quality of grass, you know.

(59:46):
So they were inspecting the grass at every field that
we went to.

S1 (59:51):
Talk about, knowing every blade of grass I write. Wonderful news.
Thank you for sharing it with us. We'll keep in
touch with you and hope to have the next two
and a bit years. Catch up with a couple of
the athletes as well as they prepare, but it's great news.
Australia hosting the Deaf Football World Cup in 2027.

S7 (01:00:09):
Thank you very much Peter Ryan.

S1 (01:00:10):
And there he's the president of Deaf Football Australia a
very happy man and a number many, many very happy
players and their families as well as 2027 gets ever closer.
I ordered the second show of the week this coming
Tuesday evening. 830 SBS Movie Channel. Alice doesn't live here anymore.

(01:00:32):
32 year old Alice sees her life slipping away. She
wanted to be a famous singer. She's now stuck with
an abusive husband and an ill mannered 12 year old
living in a small town in Oklahoma. Alice doesn't live
here anymore. With audio description this coming Tuesday evening SBS

(01:00:53):
Movie Channel. It is rated M. Some birthdays before we go.
Speaking about festivals and singing and acting, Olivia is having
a birthday. What a tremendously talented director and producer Alirio is.
Alirio a big happy birthday to you, Bernadette. Having a birthday.
What a tremendous advocate Bernadette is as well. So, Bernadette,

(01:01:16):
a very happy birthday to you. Hope life is going
especially well. We also say a very happy birthday to Briana.
Marimar up in Broome does a great work in the
area of advocacy and Melissa having a birthday, a former
Paralympic champion and also always a Paralympic champion. Once a champion,

(01:01:36):
always a champion, but also captained the Winter Paralympic team
and one bronze medal. So happy birthday to you, Melissa Perrine.
As well as that of course, a very professional and
successful career in the health area as well. Happy birthday,
Melissa Perrine. That's it for the program. Sam Rickard, thanks
so much for your help. Pam Green, thank you so
much for yours. Reminding you that Focal Point is available

(01:01:59):
on your favorite podcast platform. If you like the show,
tell some people about it. We'd love to have more listeners.
Always look at that. Always room everywhere. For more listeners
on behalf of Philip. And a big hello to everyone
listening in. This is Peter Greco saying, be kind to yourselves,
be thoughtful and look out for others all being well.

(01:02:21):
Focal point back at the same time next week on
Vision Australia Radio. This is focal point.