February 25, 2025 • 28 mins
Sam catches up with Vision 2020 policy and advocacy manager Jonathan Craig to speak about the body's priorities for an incoming federal government following this year's election, regarding the health and wellbeing of the blind and low vision community.
We also hear a sneak peek of an interview from an upcoming podcast, this week featuring blindness and low vision advocate and influencer Karan Nagrani, who talks about impostor syndrome and managing expectations at work as an employee who is blind or has low vision.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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S1 (00:13):
From Vision Australia. This is talking vision. And now here's
your host Sam Colley.
S2 (00:23):
Hello, everyone. It's great to be here with you. And
for the next half hour, we talk matters of blindness
and low vision.
S3 (00:30):
What we'd like to see is to not just provide
the equipment, but to take like a train, the trainer
kind of approach where we train people on the ground
to deliver information and to deliver the equipment in such
a way that people are actually going to use it
and people are going to know what to do with it.
S2 (00:49):
Welcome to the program. This week we hear from Jonathan Craig,
policy and advocacy manager from vision 2020, who's here to
chat about the upcoming priorities for an incoming government in
the 2025 federal election, with a focus on the health
(01:11):
and wellbeing of the blind and low vision community. That
interview is coming up very shortly, so make sure to
stick around. And then after you hear from Jonathan, we've
got a sneak peek of an upcoming podcast coming out.
In a few weeks. You'll hear from a very familiar
voice who's here to chat to me a little bit
(01:33):
about imposter syndrome and how to advocate for yourself in
the workplace. I hope you enjoy this week's episode of
Talking Vision. With news of an upcoming election expected any
day now. Blindness and low vision organizations around Australia are
(01:55):
gearing up to present their priorities to a potential incoming
government regarding the health and wellbeing of the blind and
low vision community to have a chat with us about
these priorities. It's my great pleasure to welcome back vision
(02:15):
2020 Policy and Advocacy manager, Jonathan Craig. Jonathan, welcome back.
Thank you very much for joining me.
S3 (02:25):
Thank you very much for having me.
S2 (02:27):
Now firstly, Jonathan, what we'll do today is get a
bit of an outline of vision 2020. Before we begin.
S3 (02:35):
Yeah of course. So vision 2020 is what they call
the peak body for the vision and eye health sector.
So we ourselves are actually quite a small organisation. We
just have a few expert staff and you may or
may not have heard of us before, but we have
(02:57):
a very particular role, and that is to speak on
behalf of the whole sector based on consensus positions developed
by our member organizations, and so organizations like Vision Australia
are members of vision 2020, as are many, many other
(03:17):
organisations in the vision sector. Guide dogs, you know, visibility
see differently all of those kinds of organisations as well
as consumer organisations like Blind Citizens Australia, Macular Disease Foundation
and so on. Also involved, of course, are organisations to
(03:37):
do with the prevention of blindness like Optometry Australia, Ranzco,
which is the College for ophthalmology, Orthoptics Australia and so on.
And so we represent a very broad church of voices,
and the idea is that we gather together and sing
in harmony about what we would like to see improved,
(04:01):
and the government hears our beautiful choir and hopefully they
listen and and respond. And so everything that vision 2020
does is driven very much by what our member organizations
are telling us. And you know, also what, of course,
what you are telling us through talking to our members
(04:23):
as well.
S2 (04:24):
On that point, people may be aware there is an
election very shortly upon us. We're still just finding out
what date exactly that will be, but it is definitely
within the next three months. And vision 2020 has been
quite busy in recent weeks, talking to various people and
(04:49):
launching their election platform. So tell us a bit about
that platform.
S3 (04:55):
Yeah. So this of course was developed in consultation with
our member organisations. Probably it's it actually started really almost
a year ago now. And really what we wanted to
get to was we know that lots of organizations within
the sector are going to have their own individual kind
(05:17):
of ideas and asks and things that they're going to
put forward to government, and we support everything and everyone, essentially.
But what we wanted to get to was a few
really key things that were going to make a big
difference to everybody in the sector that we're going to
really change everything from from beginning to end, and to
(05:40):
meet and help the most vulnerable people in Australia and
in the region.
S2 (05:46):
Starting off with, I'm quite interested to hear a bit
about your priorities around eye care at the community and
primary care level. Let's have a little bit of a
chat about that.
S3 (05:59):
Yeah. So this is around prevention and early intervention and
it's a really interesting project that kind of had its
inception in Victoria a couple of years ago. Throughout Australia,
there are these things called primary health networks, and they
are basically organisations that are meant to link up between
(06:21):
government and between people on the ground. And there was
a pilot run in Victoria with some of the primary
health networks to give GPS a better understanding of eye
health related issues, and particularly when to refer on to
an optometrist and when to refer to a hospital and
(06:45):
what was an emergency and what was something that could
perhaps be dealt with in the moment. And where this
becomes particularly important is when you don't live in a
metro area. And there might be not an optometrist or
not an ophthalmologist or not a hospital nearby. So we
were really hoping to equip GPS to deal better with
(07:07):
eye health issues in the moment, and to know what
the next right step is. And so that pilot ran
a couple of years ago and came to an end.
And then there was an independent evaluation, which was very,
very positive and which said this pilot could be scaled
up at a national level. And that is essentially what
we're asking for. We would like to see a lot
(07:30):
more GPS have a better understanding of what eye health
looks like and how they can fit it into their
daily practice, and we'd also like to see optometrists be
a little bit better equipped to understand the very difficult
to comprehend, and even find sometimes information about what referral
(07:52):
to the local eye hospital will look like as well.
That's another key part of it.
S2 (07:57):
And that dovetails quite nicely, Jonathan, into the next main
point in the platform that vision 2020 is outlined regarding
the provision of early intervention services for older adults with
low vision. There's a goal here to significantly reduce long
(08:17):
term health care costs and the need for support workers,
so that focus on older Australians, that's super important. As
we know the population is ageing and there is that
urgent priority to address those issues sooner rather than later.
S3 (08:34):
Yeah, it might not be obvious to some people, but
the vast majority of people with vision impairments in Australia
are actually not eligible for the NDIS because they acquire
their vision impairment over the age of 65. And I
think that that's really important, because that means that the
(08:55):
system that needs to work well, which is the aged
care system, hasn't always been super aware of vision and
that being one of the key priorities and key issues,
despite it being an increasing problem and the prevalence of
vision conditions, is set to increase significantly over time. And
(09:20):
of course, if you have a vision condition at the
moment that makes you more predisposed to things like depression,
things like falls, things like hip fractures and things like dementia.
But if you are an older person with a vision
condition listening, never fear, because this doesn't have to be.
(09:40):
This is not a prophecy. This is actually completely unnecessary.
And we would like to see things change. And we
have a lot of evidence that when somebody is receiving
services from a specialist vision provider, then they really are much,
much less likely to experience any of those outcomes. And
(10:02):
some of you listening now will have had that exact experience.
You'll have been hooked up with somebody and you will
have perhaps been thinking, oh, you know, you'll be a
bit worried and concerned and frightened at the beginning, but
then they will have helped you and shown you all
that is possible, and your perspective on everything will have changed.
And that's what we would like to see more of,
(10:23):
because actually, one of the big problems that we see
in the aged care system as it is now, is
that people are not being well hooked up, people are
not being connected to vision services, and that's what we'd
like to see more of. The technical details are not important,
but what we really want to see is more of
you being connected more early and quickly to vision service
(10:47):
providers who can give you training like orientation and mobility
services can teach you how to use a white cane,
can teach you what kinds of assistive technology you're going
to need to be able to use, can teach you
how to keep cooking and cleaning and doing everything that
you are previously used to doing. And there's a really
strong financial argument for that because it's an up front
(11:09):
investment to mitigate longer term costs. But there's also a
dignity argument because it allows you to stay at home
and keep doing what you were previously doing, and you
don't have to rely on other people. And most of all,
you don't have to have your kids constantly hassling you
to move into a nursing home or something like that
(11:30):
because they're worried about you.
S2 (11:32):
Mhm. Well, let's dig into that point you made there
about assistive technology with the third and final main area
that vision 2020 is looking to highlight with well prescribed
low cost assistive technologies in not only Australia but the
Western Pacific region. So tell us a bit about that.
S3 (11:55):
Yeah. So this was an ask developed by a number
of our members working in the region. And we kind
of presented it as a coalition to government. And this
is a very good news story because it is actually
been a great success. The current government has committed to
providing $12 million for assistive technology in the Western Pacific.
(12:20):
As you say, and we are hoping to target particularly
older Australians with technology that they really need, which includes.
It's interesting that because in Australia, glasses are absolutely not
considered assistive technology, but in the region they are. And
so it's glasses, it's white canes, it's magnifiers, a lot
(12:45):
of low cost pieces of equipment that can make an
absolutely huge difference. And one of the key things that
we want to get to here is we're not just
sewing a bunch of kit at people. What we'd like
to see is people really getting the information and training
that they need to use the equipment. Well, if you
just give somebody a cane, that's not very helpful. In
(13:08):
and of itself, the piece of equipment is not the key.
The key is learning how to use a white cane
in different situations. And, you know, if you're a cane user,
you know how differently you use your cane depending on
where you are. And so what we'd like to see
is to not just provide the equipment, but to take
(13:28):
like a train, the trainer kind of approach where we
train people on the ground to deliver information and to
deliver the equipment in such a way that people are
actually going to use it and people are going to
know what to do with it. And this is really
based around a philosophy called integrated people centred eye care,
which is increasingly being seen as the way we should
(13:51):
do things, and a very effective way of, you know,
making sure that people with vision conditions are well looked
after because it's integrating into services that already exist rather
than relying on, you know, specialists to fly in.
S2 (14:06):
And Jonathan, of course, in the past couple of weeks,
vision 2020 have, you know, spent a couple of days
in Canberra to launch this election platform. We've just been
speaking about with those three main areas. And in amongst that,
you've held several positive meetings with advisers, MPs and and
(14:28):
shadow ministers. So I'm really keen to hear about how
those meetings went and give us a bit of a
highlight package of all the happenings in Canberra over the
past couple of weeks.
S3 (14:41):
Well, first of all, let me say that to get
into anyone at this time was a great privilege, but
also a great sign of how people do see eye
health when the right messages come across, because it's something
that's not well understood amongst politicians and amongst the public generally.
(15:05):
issues to do with eye health and vision are kind
of a little bit niche. But that said, people really
do care about it. You know, vision is the thing
that people are most worried about losing, for example, if
they have it. And of course, having been blind all
my life, that's not something that, you know, I've ever
had to think about, but I've really understood that that's
(15:27):
a big motivator. And so I think that that's part
of the reason why we were able to actually get
in to see some people in what was probably the
last sitting week of Parliament before the election, when lobbyists
are very thick on the ground and everybody's trying to
get their message across at their last opportunity. And I
(15:48):
will say that it was very, very busy at Parliament
House when we were there. The bells were going. The
other thing, of course, is that they're trying to get
their legislative agenda through. So if you've not been to
Parliament House, there's bells going when either the House of
reps or the Senate is is about to vote. And
the bells were going off absolutely constantly. And so to
(16:09):
get into any one was a really great thing. And
we did actually get into a lot of people, and
we were very strategic about who we got into because
rather than going directly to all of the ministers and
people who are being accosted by hundreds and hundreds of people,
what we really trying to do as well was reach
to the people who are key influencers within the parties
(16:32):
and who have the minister's ears. And we've met with
officers of both current health and shadow health ministers in
the last few weeks, and we've met with quite a
few key MPs on both sides. And I could probably
give you a highlight from each meeting, but we'd run
out of time. So what I will say, as a
(16:53):
general sense, was really when you actually talk to politicians,
they really understand what you're talking about and there's a
real kind of willingness to listen. And though, you know,
it's it's hard to get promises out of people. We
were very pleased in health and eHealth. This is something
(17:13):
where a lot of the time the parties try to
get along more than they might otherwise do, and you
might have seen evidence of that over the last few days.
If you've been reading or watching the news around the announcement,
first by labor of $8.5 billion and then the opposition's decision.
So there's clearly the government is hearing that people are
(17:35):
struggling and they're seeing healthcare as a priority and prevention
and early intervention as health priorities. And that's a big
advantage to us, certainly.
S2 (17:45):
And in terms of how people can potentially have a
read of these election priorities, what's the best way for
them to access that info? How can they find out
a bit more about the election priorities from vision 2020?
Point of view.
S3 (18:05):
Best way is to visit our website, which is vision
2020 Australia.gov.au and the 2020 is numbers. So 2020.
S2 (18:17):
Perfect. And that's available for people in both word and
PDF format, so whichever is more suitable. That's also available.
Well I've been speaking today with vision 2020 policy and
advocacy manager Jonathan Craig, talking to me today about the
(18:41):
election priorities for the upcoming 2025 federal election. Jonathan, thank
you so much for your time today. It's great to
catch up with you, as always, and chat about really
important things like the election and all the fantastic work
that people around the country are doing, both from your
(19:05):
side and the government as well.
S3 (19:07):
Thank you so much, Sam. Talk soon.
S2 (19:15):
I'm Sam Corley and you're listening to Talking Vision. On
Vision Australia Radio, associated Stations of Reading Radio and the
Community Radio Network. I hope you enjoyed that conversation there
with Jonathan. If you missed any part of that conversation,
Talking Vision will be available on the podcast app of
(19:38):
your choice or through the Vision Australia library. You can
also find the program on the Vision Australia Radio website
at VA radio.org. That's VA radio.org. Now coming up next
it's Karen Negrini. He's back chatting with me all about
(19:59):
imposter syndrome and so many more topics. We've just got
a little bit of a sneak peek of the upcoming
interview for a podcast, which is going to be coming
out in a couple of months time. So let's hear
from Karen now. How can someone with vision loss overcome
feelings of imposter syndrome and build confidence in their abilities
(20:23):
at work?
S4 (20:25):
That's a really loaded question, because, um, it's hard to
summarize in just a couple of sentences, but it's something
that I've lived with for a long time because you
just always feel like, oh, there's always a better option, or,
you know, you're here because of this, this, this, not
because of that, but I think you've just got to
(20:45):
push past the fact that it's a disability thing, because
it doesn't necessarily have to be. There are people that
are fully able that live with these issues as well. Like,
you know, imposter syndrome is everywhere. So I think it's
just one of those things where you've got to tell yourself,
this is in my head, and I'm my biggest enemy
right now, and I need to be my biggest fan.
S2 (21:07):
And following on from that car. And have you ever
felt like the token blind person, quote unquote, at work?
S4 (21:14):
I've definitely felt like the token disabled person. I've not
met organizations or people that have employed blind people that much.
It's only a recent thing that I've noticed. So I've
definitely felt like the token disabled person. And it can
get quite frustrating because you can tell anytime there's like
an annual report photo shoot, they want you right at
the front. And it's not because you're so good looking,
(21:36):
it's because you have a disability and they want to
see that. So yeah, I mean, I've definitely felt like
the token disabled person for sure.
S2 (21:42):
And there's a couple of other things that people have
to deal with in the workplace. You know, everybody makes mistakes.
But what strategies are available that can turn workplace mistakes
into opportunities for growth?
S4 (21:56):
Look, it depends on the person. Like for me, without
giving the name away, I did work for a German
company several years ago. My eyesight was a little better,
but that was the last marketing job I had as such,
where I felt like it was at the end of
that job that I realized that I can't do this
professionally anymore. And what I started to feel like was
(22:18):
this sense of pressure that I was putting on myself,
because German work ethic and culture is quite strong. I
felt like I had to constantly prove to them that
just because I'm blind, I'm not second rate or I'm
not a damaged good. So I would work extra hard
and I would be the first one in the last
one out. And they weren't asking me to do it.
(22:40):
But I started to do that because I had a
point to prove. But that then becomes dangerous as well,
because then you're setting that expectation that, oh, this guy
comes in first thing in the morning, he's the last
one to go. So your workload just piles up and
up and up, and you reach a stage where you're like, okay,
now I'm just being exploited, you know, just because I'm
putting my heart and soul into this, because I have
(23:00):
a mission that I want to prove that, you know,
being a blind marketing manager does not mean I'm a
second rate one. So yeah, it's a double edged sword
because one side, the way I look at it, it
pushes you to be better and then you're opening yourself
up to being exploited.
S2 (23:18):
Tied in with that. There's quite a few expectations, either
self-imposed on yourself or implicit through work, or sometimes you
get them outlined explicitly, which I guess does help. But
how can somebody with vision loss manage workplace expectations while
still advocating for their needs? And is that any different
(23:38):
to how sighted people would do you think?
S4 (23:41):
Look, again, as someone who works quite hard and I
know you work hard as well, I would really not
be happy if I am a fully sighted person and
I've employed someone with a disability and their attitude is, oh,
I'm a disabled person, I can get away with this,
you know? That would piss me off as an advocate.
But I feel like if you are ambitious, if you're
(24:03):
hardworking and you have a disability and you're genuine about
your work ethic. It comes across. And I think when
that comes across, your employers will love you and respect
you even more. So you wouldn't really be put in
that position as often where you've got to tell yourself, like, okay,
now I'm being too hard on myself, or they're being
too hard on me. I feel like it does come
(24:25):
down to a balance, but your intentions have to be good.
S2 (24:29):
And Karen, you've spoken about advocating for yourself, and as
people know, you are a fantastic advocate for so many
out there in the blind and low vision community. But
other people can be self-advocates too. So how can employees
with vision loss confidently advocate for accessibility and showcase their strengths?
S4 (24:52):
Look, I think disability can be quite a heavy subject
for people that aren't disabled. You know, there's this sense of,
oh my God, how am I going to offend them?
Oh my God, is this rude? So I feel like
if you lighten the mood a little bit, like, you know,
talk about your disability in a in a natural, organic manner,
not as something that's, you know, constantly a downer. I
(25:12):
feel like that creates like an atmosphere where they feel
like they can talk about it and ask questions. And
that will automatically make you a good advocate, controversial opinion.
And quite honestly, I don't care if people attack me
for saying this, because this really does piss me off
when I see other people that claim to be advocates,
and all they're doing is getting offended by what people
(25:32):
are doing, and I'm like, okay, so you're someone who's
just looking to get offended so you can complain and
feel good about yourself or be on this high road
or this, you know, uh oh, that is offensive. Oh,
that's rude. And not everything that someone says is meant
to be offensive or rude. You know, you can tell
when that person is coming from a place of love
(25:54):
or it's just a little joy, a little sense of humor.
But yeah, I mean, don't take being an advocate that seriously,
because if you do, it's going to bring you down.
I mean, I've been doing this for a couple of
years now, and I still go through phases where I
need to just completely disconnect from social media, and I'll
say no to events because I need to put my
mental health first, because it's hard work when you're constantly
(26:16):
fighting or advocating. And for me, I guess I try
so hard to not give out this, aw, poor guy,
he's blind. Or, you know, I don't want to come
across as someone who looks miserable because I'm not. And
I feel like there's this false misconception or this stereotype
that blindness means your life is dark and blindness means
you have no friends. Blindness means you have no fun.
(26:38):
Blindness means you can't do anything. Hence this person is
miserable pity party, which is anything but true. And some
of the happiest people I know are blind. So I
just feel like we really need to put that out
there as well. So if you are advocating, my tips
would be to just, you know, lighten the mood a
little bit, because when you're going to come across as
(26:58):
a serious advocate, you're going to scare people off.
S2 (27:07):
And that's all the time we have for today. You've
been listening to Talking Vision. Talking vision is a Vision
Australia radio production. Thanks to all involved with putting the
show together every week. And remember, we love hearing from you.
So please get in touch any time on our email
at Talking Vision. At Vision australia.org. That's talking vision all
(27:31):
one word at Vision australia.org. But until next week it's
Sam Coley saying bye for now.
S1 (27:42):
You can contact Vision Australia by phoning us any time
during business hours on 1300Â 847Â 406. That's one 308 474106 or
by visiting Vision australia.org. That's Vision australia.org.
From Vision Australia. This is talking vision. And now here's
your host Sam Colley.
S2 (00:23):
Hello, everyone. It's great to be here with you. And
for the next half hour, we talk matters of blindness
and low vision.
S3 (00:30):
What we'd like to see is to not just provide
the equipment, but to take like a train, the trainer
kind of approach where we train people on the ground
to deliver information and to deliver the equipment in such
a way that people are actually going to use it
and people are going to know what to do with it.
S2 (00:49):
Welcome to the program. This week we hear from Jonathan Craig,
policy and advocacy manager from vision 2020, who's here to
chat about the upcoming priorities for an incoming government in
the 2025 federal election, with a focus on the health
(01:11):
and wellbeing of the blind and low vision community. That
interview is coming up very shortly, so make sure to
stick around. And then after you hear from Jonathan, we've
got a sneak peek of an upcoming podcast coming out.
In a few weeks. You'll hear from a very familiar
voice who's here to chat to me a little bit
(01:33):
about imposter syndrome and how to advocate for yourself in
the workplace. I hope you enjoy this week's episode of
Talking Vision. With news of an upcoming election expected any
day now. Blindness and low vision organizations around Australia are
(01:55):
gearing up to present their priorities to a potential incoming
government regarding the health and wellbeing of the blind and
low vision community to have a chat with us about
these priorities. It's my great pleasure to welcome back vision
(02:15):
2020 Policy and Advocacy manager, Jonathan Craig. Jonathan, welcome back.
Thank you very much for joining me.
S3 (02:25):
Thank you very much for having me.
S2 (02:27):
Now firstly, Jonathan, what we'll do today is get a
bit of an outline of vision 2020. Before we begin.
S3 (02:35):
Yeah of course. So vision 2020 is what they call
the peak body for the vision and eye health sector.
So we ourselves are actually quite a small organisation. We
just have a few expert staff and you may or
may not have heard of us before, but we have
(02:57):
a very particular role, and that is to speak on
behalf of the whole sector based on consensus positions developed
by our member organizations, and so organizations like Vision Australia
are members of vision 2020, as are many, many other
(03:17):
organisations in the vision sector. Guide dogs, you know, visibility
see differently all of those kinds of organisations as well
as consumer organisations like Blind Citizens Australia, Macular Disease Foundation
and so on. Also involved, of course, are organisations to
(03:37):
do with the prevention of blindness like Optometry Australia, Ranzco,
which is the College for ophthalmology, Orthoptics Australia and so on.
And so we represent a very broad church of voices,
and the idea is that we gather together and sing
in harmony about what we would like to see improved,
(04:01):
and the government hears our beautiful choir and hopefully they
listen and and respond. And so everything that vision 2020
does is driven very much by what our member organizations
are telling us. And you know, also what, of course,
what you are telling us through talking to our members
(04:23):
as well.
S2 (04:24):
On that point, people may be aware there is an
election very shortly upon us. We're still just finding out
what date exactly that will be, but it is definitely
within the next three months. And vision 2020 has been
quite busy in recent weeks, talking to various people and
(04:49):
launching their election platform. So tell us a bit about
that platform.
S3 (04:55):
Yeah. So this of course was developed in consultation with
our member organisations. Probably it's it actually started really almost
a year ago now. And really what we wanted to
get to was we know that lots of organizations within
the sector are going to have their own individual kind
(05:17):
of ideas and asks and things that they're going to
put forward to government, and we support everything and everyone, essentially.
But what we wanted to get to was a few
really key things that were going to make a big
difference to everybody in the sector that we're going to
really change everything from from beginning to end, and to
(05:40):
meet and help the most vulnerable people in Australia and
in the region.
S2 (05:46):
Starting off with, I'm quite interested to hear a bit
about your priorities around eye care at the community and
primary care level. Let's have a little bit of a
chat about that.
S3 (05:59):
Yeah. So this is around prevention and early intervention and
it's a really interesting project that kind of had its
inception in Victoria a couple of years ago. Throughout Australia,
there are these things called primary health networks, and they
are basically organisations that are meant to link up between
(06:21):
government and between people on the ground. And there was
a pilot run in Victoria with some of the primary
health networks to give GPS a better understanding of eye
health related issues, and particularly when to refer on to
an optometrist and when to refer to a hospital and
(06:45):
what was an emergency and what was something that could
perhaps be dealt with in the moment. And where this
becomes particularly important is when you don't live in a
metro area. And there might be not an optometrist or
not an ophthalmologist or not a hospital nearby. So we
were really hoping to equip GPS to deal better with
(07:07):
eye health issues in the moment, and to know what
the next right step is. And so that pilot ran
a couple of years ago and came to an end.
And then there was an independent evaluation, which was very,
very positive and which said this pilot could be scaled
up at a national level. And that is essentially what
we're asking for. We would like to see a lot
(07:30):
more GPS have a better understanding of what eye health
looks like and how they can fit it into their
daily practice, and we'd also like to see optometrists be
a little bit better equipped to understand the very difficult
to comprehend, and even find sometimes information about what referral
(07:52):
to the local eye hospital will look like as well.
That's another key part of it.
S2 (07:57):
And that dovetails quite nicely, Jonathan, into the next main
point in the platform that vision 2020 is outlined regarding
the provision of early intervention services for older adults with
low vision. There's a goal here to significantly reduce long
(08:17):
term health care costs and the need for support workers,
so that focus on older Australians, that's super important. As
we know the population is ageing and there is that
urgent priority to address those issues sooner rather than later.
S3 (08:34):
Yeah, it might not be obvious to some people, but
the vast majority of people with vision impairments in Australia
are actually not eligible for the NDIS because they acquire
their vision impairment over the age of 65. And I
think that that's really important, because that means that the
(08:55):
system that needs to work well, which is the aged
care system, hasn't always been super aware of vision and
that being one of the key priorities and key issues,
despite it being an increasing problem and the prevalence of
vision conditions, is set to increase significantly over time. And
(09:20):
of course, if you have a vision condition at the
moment that makes you more predisposed to things like depression,
things like falls, things like hip fractures and things like dementia.
But if you are an older person with a vision
condition listening, never fear, because this doesn't have to be.
(09:40):
This is not a prophecy. This is actually completely unnecessary.
And we would like to see things change. And we
have a lot of evidence that when somebody is receiving
services from a specialist vision provider, then they really are much,
much less likely to experience any of those outcomes. And
(10:02):
some of you listening now will have had that exact experience.
You'll have been hooked up with somebody and you will
have perhaps been thinking, oh, you know, you'll be a
bit worried and concerned and frightened at the beginning, but
then they will have helped you and shown you all
that is possible, and your perspective on everything will have changed.
And that's what we would like to see more of,
(10:23):
because actually, one of the big problems that we see
in the aged care system as it is now, is
that people are not being well hooked up, people are
not being connected to vision services, and that's what we'd
like to see more of. The technical details are not important,
but what we really want to see is more of
you being connected more early and quickly to vision service
(10:47):
providers who can give you training like orientation and mobility
services can teach you how to use a white cane,
can teach you what kinds of assistive technology you're going
to need to be able to use, can teach you
how to keep cooking and cleaning and doing everything that
you are previously used to doing. And there's a really
strong financial argument for that because it's an up front
(11:09):
investment to mitigate longer term costs. But there's also a
dignity argument because it allows you to stay at home
and keep doing what you were previously doing, and you
don't have to rely on other people. And most of all,
you don't have to have your kids constantly hassling you
to move into a nursing home or something like that
(11:30):
because they're worried about you.
S2 (11:32):
Mhm. Well, let's dig into that point you made there
about assistive technology with the third and final main area
that vision 2020 is looking to highlight with well prescribed
low cost assistive technologies in not only Australia but the
Western Pacific region. So tell us a bit about that.
S3 (11:55):
Yeah. So this was an ask developed by a number
of our members working in the region. And we kind
of presented it as a coalition to government. And this
is a very good news story because it is actually
been a great success. The current government has committed to
providing $12 million for assistive technology in the Western Pacific.
(12:20):
As you say, and we are hoping to target particularly
older Australians with technology that they really need, which includes.
It's interesting that because in Australia, glasses are absolutely not
considered assistive technology, but in the region they are. And
so it's glasses, it's white canes, it's magnifiers, a lot
(12:45):
of low cost pieces of equipment that can make an
absolutely huge difference. And one of the key things that
we want to get to here is we're not just
sewing a bunch of kit at people. What we'd like
to see is people really getting the information and training
that they need to use the equipment. Well, if you
just give somebody a cane, that's not very helpful. In
(13:08):
and of itself, the piece of equipment is not the key.
The key is learning how to use a white cane
in different situations. And, you know, if you're a cane user,
you know how differently you use your cane depending on
where you are. And so what we'd like to see
is to not just provide the equipment, but to take
(13:28):
like a train, the trainer kind of approach where we
train people on the ground to deliver information and to
deliver the equipment in such a way that people are
actually going to use it and people are going to
know what to do with it. And this is really
based around a philosophy called integrated people centred eye care,
which is increasingly being seen as the way we should
(13:51):
do things, and a very effective way of, you know,
making sure that people with vision conditions are well looked
after because it's integrating into services that already exist rather
than relying on, you know, specialists to fly in.
S2 (14:06):
And Jonathan, of course, in the past couple of weeks,
vision 2020 have, you know, spent a couple of days
in Canberra to launch this election platform. We've just been
speaking about with those three main areas. And in amongst that,
you've held several positive meetings with advisers, MPs and and
(14:28):
shadow ministers. So I'm really keen to hear about how
those meetings went and give us a bit of a
highlight package of all the happenings in Canberra over the
past couple of weeks.
S3 (14:41):
Well, first of all, let me say that to get
into anyone at this time was a great privilege, but
also a great sign of how people do see eye
health when the right messages come across, because it's something
that's not well understood amongst politicians and amongst the public generally.
(15:05):
issues to do with eye health and vision are kind
of a little bit niche. But that said, people really
do care about it. You know, vision is the thing
that people are most worried about losing, for example, if
they have it. And of course, having been blind all
my life, that's not something that, you know, I've ever
had to think about, but I've really understood that that's
(15:27):
a big motivator. And so I think that that's part
of the reason why we were able to actually get
in to see some people in what was probably the
last sitting week of Parliament before the election, when lobbyists
are very thick on the ground and everybody's trying to
get their message across at their last opportunity. And I
(15:48):
will say that it was very, very busy at Parliament
House when we were there. The bells were going. The
other thing, of course, is that they're trying to get
their legislative agenda through. So if you've not been to
Parliament House, there's bells going when either the House of
reps or the Senate is is about to vote. And
the bells were going off absolutely constantly. And so to
(16:09):
get into any one was a really great thing. And
we did actually get into a lot of people, and
we were very strategic about who we got into because
rather than going directly to all of the ministers and
people who are being accosted by hundreds and hundreds of people,
what we really trying to do as well was reach
to the people who are key influencers within the parties
(16:32):
and who have the minister's ears. And we've met with
officers of both current health and shadow health ministers in
the last few weeks, and we've met with quite a
few key MPs on both sides. And I could probably
give you a highlight from each meeting, but we'd run
out of time. So what I will say, as a
(16:53):
general sense, was really when you actually talk to politicians,
they really understand what you're talking about and there's a
real kind of willingness to listen. And though, you know,
it's it's hard to get promises out of people. We
were very pleased in health and eHealth. This is something
(17:13):
where a lot of the time the parties try to
get along more than they might otherwise do, and you
might have seen evidence of that over the last few days.
If you've been reading or watching the news around the announcement,
first by labor of $8.5 billion and then the opposition's decision.
So there's clearly the government is hearing that people are
(17:35):
struggling and they're seeing healthcare as a priority and prevention
and early intervention as health priorities. And that's a big
advantage to us, certainly.
S2 (17:45):
And in terms of how people can potentially have a
read of these election priorities, what's the best way for
them to access that info? How can they find out
a bit more about the election priorities from vision 2020?
Point of view.
S3 (18:05):
Best way is to visit our website, which is vision
2020 Australia.gov.au and the 2020 is numbers. So 2020.
S2 (18:17):
Perfect. And that's available for people in both word and
PDF format, so whichever is more suitable. That's also available.
Well I've been speaking today with vision 2020 policy and
advocacy manager Jonathan Craig, talking to me today about the
(18:41):
election priorities for the upcoming 2025 federal election. Jonathan, thank
you so much for your time today. It's great to
catch up with you, as always, and chat about really
important things like the election and all the fantastic work
that people around the country are doing, both from your
(19:05):
side and the government as well.
S3 (19:07):
Thank you so much, Sam. Talk soon.
S2 (19:15):
I'm Sam Corley and you're listening to Talking Vision. On
Vision Australia Radio, associated Stations of Reading Radio and the
Community Radio Network. I hope you enjoyed that conversation there
with Jonathan. If you missed any part of that conversation,
Talking Vision will be available on the podcast app of
(19:38):
your choice or through the Vision Australia library. You can
also find the program on the Vision Australia Radio website
at VA radio.org. That's VA radio.org. Now coming up next
it's Karen Negrini. He's back chatting with me all about
(19:59):
imposter syndrome and so many more topics. We've just got
a little bit of a sneak peek of the upcoming
interview for a podcast, which is going to be coming
out in a couple of months time. So let's hear
from Karen now. How can someone with vision loss overcome
feelings of imposter syndrome and build confidence in their abilities
(20:23):
at work?
S4 (20:25):
That's a really loaded question, because, um, it's hard to
summarize in just a couple of sentences, but it's something
that I've lived with for a long time because you
just always feel like, oh, there's always a better option, or,
you know, you're here because of this, this, this, not
because of that, but I think you've just got to
(20:45):
push past the fact that it's a disability thing, because
it doesn't necessarily have to be. There are people that
are fully able that live with these issues as well. Like,
you know, imposter syndrome is everywhere. So I think it's
just one of those things where you've got to tell yourself,
this is in my head, and I'm my biggest enemy
right now, and I need to be my biggest fan.
S2 (21:07):
And following on from that car. And have you ever
felt like the token blind person, quote unquote, at work?
S4 (21:14):
I've definitely felt like the token disabled person. I've not
met organizations or people that have employed blind people that much.
It's only a recent thing that I've noticed. So I've
definitely felt like the token disabled person. And it can
get quite frustrating because you can tell anytime there's like
an annual report photo shoot, they want you right at
the front. And it's not because you're so good looking,
(21:36):
it's because you have a disability and they want to
see that. So yeah, I mean, I've definitely felt like
the token disabled person for sure.
S2 (21:42):
And there's a couple of other things that people have
to deal with in the workplace. You know, everybody makes mistakes.
But what strategies are available that can turn workplace mistakes
into opportunities for growth?
S4 (21:56):
Look, it depends on the person. Like for me, without
giving the name away, I did work for a German
company several years ago. My eyesight was a little better,
but that was the last marketing job I had as such,
where I felt like it was at the end of
that job that I realized that I can't do this
professionally anymore. And what I started to feel like was
(22:18):
this sense of pressure that I was putting on myself,
because German work ethic and culture is quite strong. I
felt like I had to constantly prove to them that
just because I'm blind, I'm not second rate or I'm
not a damaged good. So I would work extra hard
and I would be the first one in the last
one out. And they weren't asking me to do it.
(22:40):
But I started to do that because I had a
point to prove. But that then becomes dangerous as well,
because then you're setting that expectation that, oh, this guy
comes in first thing in the morning, he's the last
one to go. So your workload just piles up and
up and up, and you reach a stage where you're like, okay,
now I'm just being exploited, you know, just because I'm
putting my heart and soul into this, because I have
(23:00):
a mission that I want to prove that, you know,
being a blind marketing manager does not mean I'm a
second rate one. So yeah, it's a double edged sword
because one side, the way I look at it, it
pushes you to be better and then you're opening yourself
up to being exploited.
S2 (23:18):
Tied in with that. There's quite a few expectations, either
self-imposed on yourself or implicit through work, or sometimes you
get them outlined explicitly, which I guess does help. But
how can somebody with vision loss manage workplace expectations while
still advocating for their needs? And is that any different
(23:38):
to how sighted people would do you think?
S4 (23:41):
Look, again, as someone who works quite hard and I
know you work hard as well, I would really not
be happy if I am a fully sighted person and
I've employed someone with a disability and their attitude is, oh,
I'm a disabled person, I can get away with this,
you know? That would piss me off as an advocate.
But I feel like if you are ambitious, if you're
(24:03):
hardworking and you have a disability and you're genuine about
your work ethic. It comes across. And I think when
that comes across, your employers will love you and respect
you even more. So you wouldn't really be put in
that position as often where you've got to tell yourself, like, okay,
now I'm being too hard on myself, or they're being
too hard on me. I feel like it does come
(24:25):
down to a balance, but your intentions have to be good.
S2 (24:29):
And Karen, you've spoken about advocating for yourself, and as
people know, you are a fantastic advocate for so many
out there in the blind and low vision community. But
other people can be self-advocates too. So how can employees
with vision loss confidently advocate for accessibility and showcase their strengths?
S4 (24:52):
Look, I think disability can be quite a heavy subject
for people that aren't disabled. You know, there's this sense of,
oh my God, how am I going to offend them?
Oh my God, is this rude? So I feel like
if you lighten the mood a little bit, like, you know,
talk about your disability in a in a natural, organic manner,
not as something that's, you know, constantly a downer. I
(25:12):
feel like that creates like an atmosphere where they feel
like they can talk about it and ask questions. And
that will automatically make you a good advocate, controversial opinion.
And quite honestly, I don't care if people attack me
for saying this, because this really does piss me off
when I see other people that claim to be advocates,
and all they're doing is getting offended by what people
(25:32):
are doing, and I'm like, okay, so you're someone who's
just looking to get offended so you can complain and
feel good about yourself or be on this high road
or this, you know, uh oh, that is offensive. Oh,
that's rude. And not everything that someone says is meant
to be offensive or rude. You know, you can tell
when that person is coming from a place of love
(25:54):
or it's just a little joy, a little sense of humor.
But yeah, I mean, don't take being an advocate that seriously,
because if you do, it's going to bring you down.
I mean, I've been doing this for a couple of
years now, and I still go through phases where I
need to just completely disconnect from social media, and I'll
say no to events because I need to put my
mental health first, because it's hard work when you're constantly
(26:16):
fighting or advocating. And for me, I guess I try
so hard to not give out this, aw, poor guy,
he's blind. Or, you know, I don't want to come
across as someone who looks miserable because I'm not. And
I feel like there's this false misconception or this stereotype
that blindness means your life is dark and blindness means
you have no friends. Blindness means you have no fun.
(26:38):
Blindness means you can't do anything. Hence this person is
miserable pity party, which is anything but true. And some
of the happiest people I know are blind. So I
just feel like we really need to put that out
there as well. So if you are advocating, my tips
would be to just, you know, lighten the mood a
little bit, because when you're going to come across as
(26:58):
a serious advocate, you're going to scare people off.
S2 (27:07):
And that's all the time we have for today. You've
been listening to Talking Vision. Talking vision is a Vision
Australia radio production. Thanks to all involved with putting the
show together every week. And remember, we love hearing from you.
So please get in touch any time on our email
at Talking Vision. At Vision australia.org. That's talking vision all
(27:31):
one word at Vision australia.org. But until next week it's
Sam Coley saying bye for now.
S1 (27:42):
You can contact Vision Australia by phoning us any time
during business hours on 1300Â 847Â 406. That's one 308 474106 or
by visiting Vision australia.org. That's Vision australia.org.
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