June 18, 2025 • 27 mins
Sam is joined by David Davenport, accessible formats production manager at Blind Vision NZ, who visited Australia recently to take part in a round table conference with a special interest in print disability and accessible printing for clients in New Zealand.
You'll also hear from Dr Jenny Crosbie, interim director of the Centre for Inclusive Employment, run through Swinburne University to drive better outcomes for employees and job seekers with disabilities in Australia.
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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):
We recently got a UV printer. It's like a Roland brand.
It's really massive, big piece of equipment. But we're really
excited about what it is that it can do, particularly
printing on anything and also making anything accessible with its
ability to put Braille on anything. So it's quite exciting.
And there's a lot of different seminars at the Round
(00:51):
table that discuss UV printing and 3D printing and various
different ways to make objects and things like everyday items
making them accessible. So that's really interesting to me.
S2 (01:03):
Welcome to the program. A couple of weeks ago, I
had the pleasure to catch up with David Davenport, who
flew over here from New Zealand to attend the Round
Table Conference with a particular interest in print, disability and
3D printing. As you heard, just there he is, the
(01:26):
accessible formats production manager at Blind Low Vision NZ, and
you can hear more from David very shortly. And then
after we hear from David, it's my great pleasure to
welcome Doctor Jenny Crosby to the show, who's here to
chat to us about the centre for Inclusive Employment, which
(01:50):
is progressively ramping up over the coming months, with a
focus on best practice for employees and job seekers with disabilities.
I hope you enjoy this week's episode of Talking Vision.
In late May, I had the great pleasure of catching
(02:12):
up with a member of the Blind Low Vision NZ
team Accessible Formats production manager David Davenport. He had a
chat with me all about his role at Blind Low
Vision NZ and his experiences at the recent roundtable at
the time. So without further ado, I hope you enjoy
(02:35):
hearing from David as much as I did chatting to him.
So here's David now. David, welcome to Talking Vision. Thank
you very much for your time.
S3 (02:45):
Yeah. No problem. Thanks for inviting me over, Sam.
S2 (02:47):
Appreciate it. No worries at all. Now, firstly, David, I'd
love to hear a bit more about Blind Low Vision
and Z. Tell us a bit about them.
S3 (02:56):
All right. Well, I've been talking to some staff at
Vision Australia, and it seems the way that they understand it.
The best is if I just say it's the New
Zealand version of Vision Australia.
S2 (03:07):
Okay.
S3 (03:08):
So we've been around for about 130 years. I think
we were originally called the Royal New Zealand Foundation for
the blind, and I've seen the photos. We I think
we started as a like a school for blind children.
And it was. Yeah, late 1800s. One of my favorite
photos that I did see of the era back then
was Santa Claus giving out presents to the blind kids,
which was really cool to see. But yeah, the foundation
(03:30):
has been around for quite a long time. We're based
in Auckland, specifically Parnell, and we have branches all across
Auckland as well as the rest of the country as
well in New Zealand.
S2 (03:41):
I'm very keen to have a bit of a discussion
about where you come in as the Accessible Formats production manager.
Tell us a bit about your work there.
S3 (03:51):
Yeah. Okay. So the Accessible Formats Service Department is responsible
for creating all of the accessible formats that people would
use to get information. So it's braille, large print, text
and audio. We have our studios in a separate place
where we do the narration for the audio, but we
field the requests or I should say, we manage the
(04:13):
requests for audio. And we're. The department operates out of
the South Auckland branch on the compound. Same compound as
the Guide Dogs facility. And we've got about ten people
that work for AFS in a producer role, as well
as proofreading and coordinating the work and various other things
to do with AFS as well.
S2 (04:34):
What about yourself and how you came into the world
of accessible formats production? What's the story there and how
did that sort of come about?
S3 (04:45):
Yeah, I really like these questions. I usually speak about
what I can do for others, and so it's very
refreshing to get some questions about myself. So yeah, let's see,
I started with blind Low Vision in New Zealand a
little while ago, probably over five years ago. I was
just simply contracting, doing odd jobs in between jobs that
I had going on for myself, one of them being
(05:05):
a project manager for the Alexa rollout that we had. So, uh,
you know, I was responsible for making sure that all
the clients were getting as many Alexa's as possible and
fielding any sort of issues they may have, and also
organizing setup and things like that. And I worked my
way up or through the organization to the point where
I was project manager, and I really liked that role,
(05:28):
where they would just stick me in an area where
there was a problem that needed to be solved, and
I would come in and take care of whatever needed
to be taken care of. I'd learned what I needed
to learn. I'd do what I need to do. I'd
work with who I need to work with, and I'd
cause the results that they're after. And I guess I
got really good at that. So they stuck me in
a in roles where, um, I would have to learn
other people's jobs when they would go on leave. In particular,
(05:51):
the Accessible Formats coordinator was going on maternity leave for
about a year, and they asked me to learn her
role and then take it over. And then while I
was doing that, the manager for the Accessible Formats department,
his contract had ended and they asked if I would
be interested in filling that position too. And so I did.
And that's how I got started in the department, just
(06:13):
working my way up, solving problems. And now I'm the
manager and I'll toot my own horn a little bit.
I've been told that the department has gotten better since
I've been manager there, so I'm glad to hear that.
S2 (06:24):
That's fantastic news. Yeah. Okay. And over the time that
you've been involved in accessible formats production, David, have you
managed to try your hand at audiobook narration or you've
been directing and pulling the strings behind the scenes rather
than getting on the microphone yourself?
S3 (06:46):
Yeah, yeah. I am the person behind the scenes. I
did at one point attempt to get into narration. However,
there was a little bit of It a discrimination going
on because people want to hear a Kiwi accent instead
of an American one. So for the life of me,
I would not be able to do a Kiwi accent.
I've lived in New Zealand for most of my life,
(07:07):
moved to New Zealand when I was eight years old
and I grew up there, did all my schooling, and
went back and forth a couple of times to the
United States. But for the most part, the majority of
my life I have spent in New Zealand and I
cannot do a Kiwi accent, I cannot.
S2 (07:21):
Well, let's see, it's very different, completely different vowels and
everything like that from American to the New Zealand. So
I don't think you'd be alone there. I don't know
how many people would be able to pull off the
very specific American accents, given there's dozens of those across
the whole landmass, rather than just the generic one that
(07:42):
a lot of people hear. So I think that's quite common.
But do you have any sort of equivalent to Vision
Australia radio in New Zealand that people could perhaps turn into.
Has there been any progress with that or what sort
of the situation there?
S3 (08:02):
From what I know, we do have some podcasts. We
do have one podcast from a blind client. His name
is also Sam, if I if I remember correctly.
S2 (08:12):
That's correct. Yep.
S3 (08:13):
And he, uh, his podcast is called revision and I
think you can listen to it through the blind low
vision skill on Alexa. And I think it's also uploaded
on some websites, but I'm not familiar as to which
ones they are. If you were to do a Google
search for Sam revision podcast, I'm sure you'd be able
(08:33):
to find that.
S2 (08:33):
Tell us a bit about what you've been up to
lately with Vision Australia, and the sort of discussions that
you've been having with us over here in Melbourne.
S3 (08:43):
I'm really loving these questions. These are so good. So
I am in Melbourne right now for the roundtable. Uh,
it's the first time I've been a part of that.
And it's really exciting stuff. Like, there's lots of different
sessions on different seminars that I can attend, and I
can pick and choose which ones are pertinent to my
role and what I can bring back with me to
(09:05):
New Zealand and to my team as well. So it's
been really informative and also the networking opportunities have been
fantastic as well. And in between that, I've carved out
a day to check out the Melbourne Vision Australia location
because I do work with Vision Australia on occasion, specifically
a print access where if we have too many requests
(09:28):
coming in, we can rely on Vision Australia to help
us out and get those requests fulfilled on as well,
with transcriptions and things like that. So it was really
great to put faces to names and emails and correspondence
that have been going back and forth. And I am
also going to visit the Vision Australia in Sydney as
well later on in the week. So it's pretty exciting stuff.
(09:49):
I'm really happy to meet these people. It feels like
an extended family and we talked the same language. We
have the same challenges and we, uh, you know, we
enjoy each other's solutions as well. So it's been fantastic.
S2 (10:00):
And there's been quite a few Kiwis through Vision Australia,
both Melbourne and Sydney. And there's also, you know, Brisbane
and a few scattered around. So that's always been a
really valuable connection there where people have exchanged knowledge and
come over and given their insights from New Zealand coming
(10:22):
to Australia and perhaps Aussies going to New Zealand, so
vice versa. But I'm very keen to hear about what
you got up to at the Round Table, David, and
what you sort of enjoyed the most there. And, you know,
give us a bit of a highlight package.
S3 (10:37):
Yeah. So what I'm really interested in learning about is
print disability and also UV printing. So these are two
things that are quite pertinent to what I'm taking on
at AFS in New Zealand. We recently got a UV printer.
It's like a Roland brand. It's really massive, big piece
of equipment, but we're really excited about what it is
(10:59):
that it can do, particularly printing on anything and also
making anything accessible with its ability to put Braille on anything.
So it's quite exciting. And there's a lot of different
seminars at the Round table that discuss UV printing and
3D printing and various different ways to make objects and
things like everyday items, making them accessible. So that's really
(11:21):
interesting to me. And then also, yeah, like just larger
conversations around print disability. I recently have taken on an
employee that has a print disability, and it's put me
in a position where, because I'm very much interested in
this person's success, I want to learn as much as
I can so that I can bring what's needed for
this guy to be successful, and also for the team
(11:42):
to be able to work with him to be successful
as a team as well. So not only do we
deal with print disability on a client base, but also
we have staff members as well that are print disabled too.
And we're more than happy to bring them into the
fold and find ways where. They would be able to
be contributing to what it is that the overall mission is.
And we can also work cohesively regardless as well. So
(12:05):
these are the two points that I'm very interested in.
And the seminars related to that at the roundtable is
what I'm getting the most out of.
S2 (12:13):
And that's also where Vision Australia Radio really nicely connects
in today, as we are broadcasting on the Radio Reading Network,
and we're talking on the radio station, which does provide
those services for people with print disabilities in Australia and
for people around the world tuning in via podcasts and online.
(12:38):
So that's a nice little symbiotic connection there. Now, David, finally,
what are you looking forward to in the next months
and years in terms of new innovations and new exciting projects, and,
you know, the future of accessible formats and services for
(12:58):
people with print disabilities.
S3 (13:01):
Two little tiny letters, eh?
S2 (13:04):
Yep.
S3 (13:05):
So I'm always, always interested. And mainly three things. Streamlining,
creating efficiency, and also being proactive with any type of
processes that would be able to make things easier. Not
in the sense of like laziness or anything like that,
but just more in terms of efficiency. So I is
very exciting to me. I'm very interested in the leaps
(13:27):
and bounds that it's been making, particularly in the field
of transcription. And to be further in depth with it.
Optical character recognition. So one of the seminars that I
was attending at the roundtable had a university student with
a proof of concept where you can have a pair
of glasses that can do optical character recognition or OCR.
(13:49):
So you can just basically point to text on a
page or a book, and then it would automatically recognize
that text letter for letter. And from there you can transcribe,
you can transcribe into audio or a different language or anything.
And if that's the case then we would be able
to turn around transcription requests at rapid pace with AI
(14:09):
tech that can do OCR. And at that point we
would be more editors or reviewers rather than producers, and
we can increase our yield and our productivity to get
the requests to the clients much quicker. So that's very
exciting to me. I'm really interested in that. And it
looks like that would be the future as well, so
(14:29):
I can't wait for that future to come. I can't
wait to be able to deliver quality products at rapid pace.
And it's exciting. It's exciting. It's it's a good time
to be in the industry, I think.
S2 (14:41):
And I can't wait to have a chat with you in,
you know, six months, one year, two years. Time to
see what developments have occurred in that time. So let's
totally keep in touch and always welcome you back on
talking Vision anytime. And as you've mentioned there with I,
I think the phrase there is work smarter, not harder.
(15:04):
And I think that's the huge thing making life more accessible,
making things easier to access and more available for people
around the world with disabilities, but also for people in general,
just making life that little bit better. Well, today I've
been speaking to David Davenport, Accessible Formats production manager at
(15:30):
Blind Low Vision NZ. David, thank you so much for
your time today. It was great to catch up with
you and have a chat.
S3 (15:39):
Yeah, yeah, thanks a lot Sam. I really enjoyed being
here and I look forward to keeping you updated and
popping in next time.
S2 (15:50):
I'm Sam Corley and you're listening to Talking Vision. On
a Vision Australia radio, associated stations of Reading Radio and
the Community Radio Network. I hope you enjoyed that conversation
there with David Davenport from Blind Low Vision NZ. If
you missed any part of that chat with David or
(16:13):
you'd love to hear it again. Talking vision is available
on the Vision Australia Radio website. Simply head to radio Dot.
That's RVA radio all one word.org to find all the
latest episodes and more. You can also find Talking Vision
on the podcast app of your choice or through the
(16:36):
Vision Australia library. Over the past few months, the centre
for Inclusive Employment and Swinburne University of Technology have been
closely working together to provide a centre and a series
of resources led by people within the disability community for
(16:58):
job seekers and members of the workforce with disabilities in Australia.
To have a chat with me all about this. It's
absolutely my great pleasure to welcome the interim director, Doctor
Jenny Crosbie, to Talking Vision. Jenny, welcome to Talking Vision.
Thank you very much for your time today.
S4 (17:19):
Thank you for having me, Sam. It's a pleasure to
be here.
S2 (17:22):
First of all, let's have a bit of a chat
about the centre for Inclusive Employment itself. Tell us a
bit about the centre.
S4 (17:31):
Sure. So the centre came about. It was originally called
the Centre of Excellence in Disability Employment. And it came
about because there was a group of people meeting early
in 2021 and 21 and 2022. Looking at how the des.
The disability employment services system could be reformed, and that
was chaired by the then Disability Discrimination Commissioner Ben Gauntlett.
(17:54):
And it had people with disability and service provider reps
and family reps and so forth on that group. And
one of the recommendations of the group was to have
a centre of excellence where there could be a central repository,
a central hub, where providers and people with disability and
families and employers could go and get access to high
quality information about what works. The Labour government then picked
(18:17):
that up as an election promise for the 2022 election,
and once they were elected, they then delivered on that promise.
And we now have what's called the centre for Inclusive Employment.
S2 (18:27):
Let's have a bit of a chat about the timeline, Jenny,
because as I understand, it's still in its early stages.
It is getting off the ground and there's been quite
a lot of work that has gone on over the
past few months to get the center where it is now,
but there's still quite a few things that people can
(18:48):
look forward to in the coming months. So tell us
a bit about them.
S4 (18:53):
Sure. So the center was announced earlier in the year
and the funding commenced in March of 2025. So for
this financial year, we've got a small amount of funding
to do some establishment work. And then the center itself
kicks off on the 1st of July. The timing of
the center aligns with the launch of the new Inclusive
Employment Australia program, which is replacing deaths. So the Disability
(19:16):
Employment services, the Des program is being replaced. Unfortunately, that
timeline was pushed back to 1st of November, but very
much the centre and the new Inclusive Employment Australia program
are supposed to work together and line up. So we're
just in the process of onboarding some new staff. So
we'll be going out with some job ads very soon.
And we're have been developing a strategic plan, an interim
(19:40):
strategic plan, getting a governance structure in place and some
other short term planning will be recruiting for a director.
So I'm the interim director at the moment until October.
And so there will be a recruitment process shortly for director,
and then there'll be a second strategic planning process held
towards the end of the year. And the Centre's got
(20:01):
a three year. It runs for three years, so it'll
be until the 30th of June 2028. And our first
big milestone is to get our online hub up and running.
So we've contracted Oppo, who are the Analysis and Policy Observatory,
and they are working with us to build an online hub,
which will be the central place where people can go
(20:22):
for access to resources, information, all sorts of things, including
our new centre for Inclusive Employment collection. So we'll have
a collection which will have all of the evidence based
information that we're hoping people will use.
S2 (20:36):
What sort of information Formation is the center looking to
hear about from people in terms of the disability, employment,
space and sort of resources, knowledge and information that would
be of benefit to both the center and the people
accessing those resources.
S4 (20:56):
So the intention is that the center is disability led.
And so both the governance structure and the recruitment processes
we're undertaking have a strong lens on disability leadership. So
once we've got those processes completed, there will be several
ways that both individuals with disability, but also organizations and
(21:18):
others can engage. Just to let you know, we have
got a consortium behind the centre. So Swinburne, the centre
for Social Impact at Swinburne University, is the lead of
the consortium. We also have all of the disability representative
organisations from across Australia engaged, as well as some service
provider peak Bodies, Disability Employment Australia and National Disability Services.
(21:41):
We have a family advocacy group called Nacubo who are
engaged in the consortium, and also Melbourne University through the
Melbourne Disability Institute. So once we get the governance structure right,
there will be multiple opportunities and ways that individuals can
engage with the centre, but also through those other organisations
I just talked about, including the disability rep organisations.
S2 (22:04):
And Jenny, I understand earlier in the year, you and
a few of your colleagues received quite a few insights
in terms of fact finding and knowledge gathering and all
that sort of thing, while the centre was sort of
getting off the ground. What was the biggest highlight for
(22:25):
you and the most exciting learnings and insights that you
and the team were able to gather in that time?
S4 (22:32):
So yeah, I was lucky enough to be invited to
attend the Zero Foundation Conference in Vienna. It's held every
year and it's a disability focused international conference, which is
invitation only. And this year's conference theme was employment. So
that was probably the highlight for me of my fact
finding mission. I also met with people in the United Kingdom,
(22:54):
in Europe about disability employment policy and practice, with a
strong lens on people with intellectual disability and autism, who
are two of the groups that we want to have
a focus on in the center. So at the Zero conference,
it had a very strong lens on technology as an
enabling tool for people both seeking employment but also in
the workplace. So I saw some fabulous initiatives where technology
(23:17):
was being used to connect people looking for work. It
was creating talent pipelines, if you like, so that graduates
coming out of university, or people who had particular skill
sets were being matched with employers or businesses that were
looking for people with that skill set. So they were
using technology at the front and back end to connect
people up. And so that was something that I was
(23:38):
really interested in exploring in Australia, because I think we
haven't really put enough focus on how employers and businesses
can actually find the talent that they need. They often
tell us that they don't know where to find people.
So yeah, so that was one thing that I thought
was really exciting and interesting for the Australian environment.
S2 (23:55):
Certainly very exciting. So we're very keen to keep tabs
on how all of that goes. And speaking of which, Jenny,
if people are interested in following the progress of the centre,
they'd like to keep in touch and hear about the
next steps. And when the new components of the centre
(24:17):
go live, what's the best way for people to keep
in the loop and follow the latest updates from the
centre for Inclusive Employment?
S4 (24:27):
So once the website launches, we will be promoting that
very heavily across all parts of the community, including hopefully
through this program. So I'll come back to you with
the website address and some further information once we have
that all locked down. In the meantime, people can send
CSI and email at CSI, which is s w I
(24:53):
at Dot edu, and that you'll get added to our
mailing list so that you'll start to receive newsletters and
other information. But I think from 1st September, that's when
the engagement will really ramp up and people will start
to be able to access the website and have a
look at the early resources that have been made available.
(25:14):
And then I think moving into next year, you know,
we'd be really keen to engage with the blindness and
low vision community around what they think the centre can
help with. We'd be very keen to do that, so
it'd be great to hear from the community, either through
the disability rep organisation or directly about some of the
barriers to employment and some of the. Particularly some of
(25:36):
the enablers that they'd like to see in the system.
S2 (25:40):
Okay. Well, that's all very exciting. And we do absolutely
have a great interest in keeping in touch. And you
are always welcome back on Talking Vision any time in
the coming months. Jenny, we'd absolutely love to have a
chat and hear more about the centre. I've been speaking
today with Doctor Jenny Crosbie, interim director of the centre
(26:04):
for Inclusive Employment, currently operating through the Swinburne University of
Technology in Melbourne. Jenny, thank you so much for your
time today. It was great to have a chat with
you and hear all about the centre.
S4 (26:20):
Thanks so much for having me Sam and I really
would love to come back in September once the online
hub is launched and tell your listeners a little bit
more about it.
S2 (26:32):
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 anytime on our email at
Talking Vision at Vision Australia. That's talking vision all. One
(26:57):
word at Vision Australia dot. But until next week it's
Sam Corley saying bye for now.
S1 (27:07):
You can contact Vision Australia by phoning us anytime during
business hours on one 384 746. That's one 384 7476
or by visiting Vision Australia. That's Vision Australia.
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):
We recently got a UV printer. It's like a Roland brand.
It's really massive, big piece of equipment. But we're really
excited about what it is that it can do, particularly
printing on anything and also making anything accessible with its
ability to put Braille on anything. So it's quite exciting.
And there's a lot of different seminars at the Round
(00:51):
table that discuss UV printing and 3D printing and various
different ways to make objects and things like everyday items
making them accessible. So that's really interesting to me.
S2 (01:03):
Welcome to the program. A couple of weeks ago, I
had the pleasure to catch up with David Davenport, who
flew over here from New Zealand to attend the Round
Table Conference with a particular interest in print, disability and
3D printing. As you heard, just there he is, the
(01:26):
accessible formats production manager at Blind Low Vision NZ, and
you can hear more from David very shortly. And then
after we hear from David, it's my great pleasure to
welcome Doctor Jenny Crosby to the show, who's here to
chat to us about the centre for Inclusive Employment, which
(01:50):
is progressively ramping up over the coming months, with a
focus on best practice for employees and job seekers with disabilities.
I hope you enjoy this week's episode of Talking Vision.
In late May, I had the great pleasure of catching
(02:12):
up with a member of the Blind Low Vision NZ
team Accessible Formats production manager David Davenport. He had a
chat with me all about his role at Blind Low
Vision NZ and his experiences at the recent roundtable at
the time. So without further ado, I hope you enjoy
(02:35):
hearing from David as much as I did chatting to him.
So here's David now. David, welcome to Talking Vision. Thank
you very much for your time.
S3 (02:45):
Yeah. No problem. Thanks for inviting me over, Sam.
S2 (02:47):
Appreciate it. No worries at all. Now, firstly, David, I'd
love to hear a bit more about Blind Low Vision
and Z. Tell us a bit about them.
S3 (02:56):
All right. Well, I've been talking to some staff at
Vision Australia, and it seems the way that they understand it.
The best is if I just say it's the New
Zealand version of Vision Australia.
S2 (03:07):
Okay.
S3 (03:08):
So we've been around for about 130 years. I think
we were originally called the Royal New Zealand Foundation for
the blind, and I've seen the photos. We I think
we started as a like a school for blind children.
And it was. Yeah, late 1800s. One of my favorite
photos that I did see of the era back then
was Santa Claus giving out presents to the blind kids,
which was really cool to see. But yeah, the foundation
(03:30):
has been around for quite a long time. We're based
in Auckland, specifically Parnell, and we have branches all across
Auckland as well as the rest of the country as
well in New Zealand.
S2 (03:41):
I'm very keen to have a bit of a discussion
about where you come in as the Accessible Formats production manager.
Tell us a bit about your work there.
S3 (03:51):
Yeah. Okay. So the Accessible Formats Service Department is responsible
for creating all of the accessible formats that people would
use to get information. So it's braille, large print, text
and audio. We have our studios in a separate place
where we do the narration for the audio, but we
field the requests or I should say, we manage the
(04:13):
requests for audio. And we're. The department operates out of
the South Auckland branch on the compound. Same compound as
the Guide Dogs facility. And we've got about ten people
that work for AFS in a producer role, as well
as proofreading and coordinating the work and various other things
to do with AFS as well.
S2 (04:34):
What about yourself and how you came into the world
of accessible formats production? What's the story there and how
did that sort of come about?
S3 (04:45):
Yeah, I really like these questions. I usually speak about
what I can do for others, and so it's very
refreshing to get some questions about myself. So yeah, let's see,
I started with blind Low Vision in New Zealand a
little while ago, probably over five years ago. I was
just simply contracting, doing odd jobs in between jobs that
I had going on for myself, one of them being
(05:05):
a project manager for the Alexa rollout that we had. So, uh,
you know, I was responsible for making sure that all
the clients were getting as many Alexa's as possible and
fielding any sort of issues they may have, and also
organizing setup and things like that. And I worked my
way up or through the organization to the point where
I was project manager, and I really liked that role,
(05:28):
where they would just stick me in an area where
there was a problem that needed to be solved, and
I would come in and take care of whatever needed
to be taken care of. I'd learned what I needed
to learn. I'd do what I need to do. I'd
work with who I need to work with, and I'd
cause the results that they're after. And I guess I
got really good at that. So they stuck me in
a in roles where, um, I would have to learn
other people's jobs when they would go on leave. In particular,
(05:51):
the Accessible Formats coordinator was going on maternity leave for
about a year, and they asked me to learn her
role and then take it over. And then while I
was doing that, the manager for the Accessible Formats department,
his contract had ended and they asked if I would
be interested in filling that position too. And so I did.
And that's how I got started in the department, just
(06:13):
working my way up, solving problems. And now I'm the
manager and I'll toot my own horn a little bit.
I've been told that the department has gotten better since
I've been manager there, so I'm glad to hear that.
S2 (06:24):
That's fantastic news. Yeah. Okay. And over the time that
you've been involved in accessible formats production, David, have you
managed to try your hand at audiobook narration or you've
been directing and pulling the strings behind the scenes rather
than getting on the microphone yourself?
S3 (06:46):
Yeah, yeah. I am the person behind the scenes. I
did at one point attempt to get into narration. However,
there was a little bit of It a discrimination going
on because people want to hear a Kiwi accent instead
of an American one. So for the life of me,
I would not be able to do a Kiwi accent.
I've lived in New Zealand for most of my life,
(07:07):
moved to New Zealand when I was eight years old
and I grew up there, did all my schooling, and
went back and forth a couple of times to the
United States. But for the most part, the majority of
my life I have spent in New Zealand and I
cannot do a Kiwi accent, I cannot.
S2 (07:21):
Well, let's see, it's very different, completely different vowels and
everything like that from American to the New Zealand. So
I don't think you'd be alone there. I don't know
how many people would be able to pull off the
very specific American accents, given there's dozens of those across
the whole landmass, rather than just the generic one that
(07:42):
a lot of people hear. So I think that's quite common.
But do you have any sort of equivalent to Vision
Australia radio in New Zealand that people could perhaps turn into.
Has there been any progress with that or what sort
of the situation there?
S3 (08:02):
From what I know, we do have some podcasts. We
do have one podcast from a blind client. His name
is also Sam, if I if I remember correctly.
S2 (08:12):
That's correct. Yep.
S3 (08:13):
And he, uh, his podcast is called revision and I
think you can listen to it through the blind low
vision skill on Alexa. And I think it's also uploaded
on some websites, but I'm not familiar as to which
ones they are. If you were to do a Google
search for Sam revision podcast, I'm sure you'd be able
(08:33):
to find that.
S2 (08:33):
Tell us a bit about what you've been up to
lately with Vision Australia, and the sort of discussions that
you've been having with us over here in Melbourne.
S3 (08:43):
I'm really loving these questions. These are so good. So
I am in Melbourne right now for the roundtable. Uh,
it's the first time I've been a part of that.
And it's really exciting stuff. Like, there's lots of different
sessions on different seminars that I can attend, and I
can pick and choose which ones are pertinent to my
role and what I can bring back with me to
(09:05):
New Zealand and to my team as well. So it's
been really informative and also the networking opportunities have been
fantastic as well. And in between that, I've carved out
a day to check out the Melbourne Vision Australia location
because I do work with Vision Australia on occasion, specifically
a print access where if we have too many requests
(09:28):
coming in, we can rely on Vision Australia to help
us out and get those requests fulfilled on as well,
with transcriptions and things like that. So it was really
great to put faces to names and emails and correspondence
that have been going back and forth. And I am
also going to visit the Vision Australia in Sydney as
well later on in the week. So it's pretty exciting stuff.
(09:49):
I'm really happy to meet these people. It feels like
an extended family and we talked the same language. We
have the same challenges and we, uh, you know, we
enjoy each other's solutions as well. So it's been fantastic.
S2 (10:00):
And there's been quite a few Kiwis through Vision Australia,
both Melbourne and Sydney. And there's also, you know, Brisbane
and a few scattered around. So that's always been a
really valuable connection there where people have exchanged knowledge and
come over and given their insights from New Zealand coming
(10:22):
to Australia and perhaps Aussies going to New Zealand, so
vice versa. But I'm very keen to hear about what
you got up to at the Round Table, David, and
what you sort of enjoyed the most there. And, you know,
give us a bit of a highlight package.
S3 (10:37):
Yeah. So what I'm really interested in learning about is
print disability and also UV printing. So these are two
things that are quite pertinent to what I'm taking on
at AFS in New Zealand. We recently got a UV printer.
It's like a Roland brand. It's really massive, big piece
of equipment, but we're really excited about what it is
(10:59):
that it can do, particularly printing on anything and also
making anything accessible with its ability to put Braille on anything.
So it's quite exciting. And there's a lot of different
seminars at the Round table that discuss UV printing and
3D printing and various different ways to make objects and
things like everyday items, making them accessible. So that's really
(11:21):
interesting to me. And then also, yeah, like just larger
conversations around print disability. I recently have taken on an
employee that has a print disability, and it's put me
in a position where, because I'm very much interested in
this person's success, I want to learn as much as
I can so that I can bring what's needed for
this guy to be successful, and also for the team
(11:42):
to be able to work with him to be successful
as a team as well. So not only do we
deal with print disability on a client base, but also
we have staff members as well that are print disabled too.
And we're more than happy to bring them into the
fold and find ways where. They would be able to
be contributing to what it is that the overall mission is.
And we can also work cohesively regardless as well. So
(12:05):
these are the two points that I'm very interested in.
And the seminars related to that at the roundtable is
what I'm getting the most out of.
S2 (12:13):
And that's also where Vision Australia Radio really nicely connects
in today, as we are broadcasting on the Radio Reading Network,
and we're talking on the radio station, which does provide
those services for people with print disabilities in Australia and
for people around the world tuning in via podcasts and online.
(12:38):
So that's a nice little symbiotic connection there. Now, David, finally,
what are you looking forward to in the next months
and years in terms of new innovations and new exciting projects, and,
you know, the future of accessible formats and services for
(12:58):
people with print disabilities.
S3 (13:01):
Two little tiny letters, eh?
S2 (13:04):
Yep.
S3 (13:05):
So I'm always, always interested. And mainly three things. Streamlining,
creating efficiency, and also being proactive with any type of
processes that would be able to make things easier. Not
in the sense of like laziness or anything like that,
but just more in terms of efficiency. So I is
very exciting to me. I'm very interested in the leaps
(13:27):
and bounds that it's been making, particularly in the field
of transcription. And to be further in depth with it.
Optical character recognition. So one of the seminars that I
was attending at the roundtable had a university student with
a proof of concept where you can have a pair
of glasses that can do optical character recognition or OCR.
(13:49):
So you can just basically point to text on a
page or a book, and then it would automatically recognize
that text letter for letter. And from there you can transcribe,
you can transcribe into audio or a different language or anything.
And if that's the case then we would be able
to turn around transcription requests at rapid pace with AI
(14:09):
tech that can do OCR. And at that point we
would be more editors or reviewers rather than producers, and
we can increase our yield and our productivity to get
the requests to the clients much quicker. So that's very
exciting to me. I'm really interested in that. And it
looks like that would be the future as well, so
(14:29):
I can't wait for that future to come. I can't
wait to be able to deliver quality products at rapid pace.
And it's exciting. It's exciting. It's it's a good time
to be in the industry, I think.
S2 (14:41):
And I can't wait to have a chat with you in,
you know, six months, one year, two years. Time to
see what developments have occurred in that time. So let's
totally keep in touch and always welcome you back on
talking Vision anytime. And as you've mentioned there with I,
I think the phrase there is work smarter, not harder.
(15:04):
And I think that's the huge thing making life more accessible,
making things easier to access and more available for people
around the world with disabilities, but also for people in general,
just making life that little bit better. Well, today I've
been speaking to David Davenport, Accessible Formats production manager at
(15:30):
Blind Low Vision NZ. David, thank you so much for
your time today. It was great to catch up with
you and have a chat.
S3 (15:39):
Yeah, yeah, thanks a lot Sam. I really enjoyed being
here and I look forward to keeping you updated and
popping in next time.
S2 (15:50):
I'm Sam Corley and you're listening to Talking Vision. On
a Vision Australia radio, associated stations of Reading Radio and
the Community Radio Network. I hope you enjoyed that conversation
there with David Davenport from Blind Low Vision NZ. If
you missed any part of that chat with David or
(16:13):
you'd love to hear it again. Talking vision is available
on the Vision Australia Radio website. Simply head to radio Dot.
That's RVA radio all one word.org to find all the
latest episodes and more. You can also find Talking Vision
on the podcast app of your choice or through the
(16:36):
Vision Australia library. Over the past few months, the centre
for Inclusive Employment and Swinburne University of Technology have been
closely working together to provide a centre and a series
of resources led by people within the disability community for
(16:58):
job seekers and members of the workforce with disabilities in Australia.
To have a chat with me all about this. It's
absolutely my great pleasure to welcome the interim director, Doctor
Jenny Crosbie, to Talking Vision. Jenny, welcome to Talking Vision.
Thank you very much for your time today.
S4 (17:19):
Thank you for having me, Sam. It's a pleasure to
be here.
S2 (17:22):
First of all, let's have a bit of a chat
about the centre for Inclusive Employment itself. Tell us a
bit about the centre.
S4 (17:31):
Sure. So the centre came about. It was originally called
the Centre of Excellence in Disability Employment. And it came
about because there was a group of people meeting early
in 2021 and 21 and 2022. Looking at how the des.
The disability employment services system could be reformed, and that
was chaired by the then Disability Discrimination Commissioner Ben Gauntlett.
(17:54):
And it had people with disability and service provider reps
and family reps and so forth on that group. And
one of the recommendations of the group was to have
a centre of excellence where there could be a central repository,
a central hub, where providers and people with disability and
families and employers could go and get access to high
quality information about what works. The Labour government then picked
(18:17):
that up as an election promise for the 2022 election,
and once they were elected, they then delivered on that promise.
And we now have what's called the centre for Inclusive Employment.
S2 (18:27):
Let's have a bit of a chat about the timeline, Jenny,
because as I understand, it's still in its early stages.
It is getting off the ground and there's been quite
a lot of work that has gone on over the
past few months to get the center where it is now,
but there's still quite a few things that people can
(18:48):
look forward to in the coming months. So tell us
a bit about them.
S4 (18:53):
Sure. So the center was announced earlier in the year
and the funding commenced in March of 2025. So for
this financial year, we've got a small amount of funding
to do some establishment work. And then the center itself
kicks off on the 1st of July. The timing of
the center aligns with the launch of the new Inclusive
Employment Australia program, which is replacing deaths. So the Disability
(19:16):
Employment services, the Des program is being replaced. Unfortunately, that
timeline was pushed back to 1st of November, but very
much the centre and the new Inclusive Employment Australia program
are supposed to work together and line up. So we're
just in the process of onboarding some new staff. So
we'll be going out with some job ads very soon.
And we're have been developing a strategic plan, an interim
(19:40):
strategic plan, getting a governance structure in place and some
other short term planning will be recruiting for a director.
So I'm the interim director at the moment until October.
And so there will be a recruitment process shortly for director,
and then there'll be a second strategic planning process held
towards the end of the year. And the Centre's got
(20:01):
a three year. It runs for three years, so it'll
be until the 30th of June 2028. And our first
big milestone is to get our online hub up and running.
So we've contracted Oppo, who are the Analysis and Policy Observatory,
and they are working with us to build an online hub,
which will be the central place where people can go
(20:22):
for access to resources, information, all sorts of things, including
our new centre for Inclusive Employment collection. So we'll have
a collection which will have all of the evidence based
information that we're hoping people will use.
S2 (20:36):
What sort of information Formation is the center looking to
hear about from people in terms of the disability, employment,
space and sort of resources, knowledge and information that would
be of benefit to both the center and the people
accessing those resources.
S4 (20:56):
So the intention is that the center is disability led.
And so both the governance structure and the recruitment processes
we're undertaking have a strong lens on disability leadership. So
once we've got those processes completed, there will be several
ways that both individuals with disability, but also organizations and
(21:18):
others can engage. Just to let you know, we have
got a consortium behind the centre. So Swinburne, the centre
for Social Impact at Swinburne University, is the lead of
the consortium. We also have all of the disability representative
organisations from across Australia engaged, as well as some service
provider peak Bodies, Disability Employment Australia and National Disability Services.
(21:41):
We have a family advocacy group called Nacubo who are
engaged in the consortium, and also Melbourne University through the
Melbourne Disability Institute. So once we get the governance structure right,
there will be multiple opportunities and ways that individuals can
engage with the centre, but also through those other organisations
I just talked about, including the disability rep organisations.
S2 (22:04):
And Jenny, I understand earlier in the year, you and
a few of your colleagues received quite a few insights
in terms of fact finding and knowledge gathering and all
that sort of thing, while the centre was sort of
getting off the ground. What was the biggest highlight for
(22:25):
you and the most exciting learnings and insights that you
and the team were able to gather in that time?
S4 (22:32):
So yeah, I was lucky enough to be invited to
attend the Zero Foundation Conference in Vienna. It's held every
year and it's a disability focused international conference, which is
invitation only. And this year's conference theme was employment. So
that was probably the highlight for me of my fact
finding mission. I also met with people in the United Kingdom,
(22:54):
in Europe about disability employment policy and practice, with a
strong lens on people with intellectual disability and autism, who
are two of the groups that we want to have
a focus on in the center. So at the Zero conference,
it had a very strong lens on technology as an
enabling tool for people both seeking employment but also in
the workplace. So I saw some fabulous initiatives where technology
(23:17):
was being used to connect people looking for work. It
was creating talent pipelines, if you like, so that graduates
coming out of university, or people who had particular skill
sets were being matched with employers or businesses that were
looking for people with that skill set. So they were
using technology at the front and back end to connect
people up. And so that was something that I was
(23:38):
really interested in exploring in Australia, because I think we
haven't really put enough focus on how employers and businesses
can actually find the talent that they need. They often
tell us that they don't know where to find people.
So yeah, so that was one thing that I thought
was really exciting and interesting for the Australian environment.
S2 (23:55):
Certainly very exciting. So we're very keen to keep tabs
on how all of that goes. And speaking of which, Jenny,
if people are interested in following the progress of the centre,
they'd like to keep in touch and hear about the
next steps. And when the new components of the centre
(24:17):
go live, what's the best way for people to keep
in the loop and follow the latest updates from the
centre for Inclusive Employment?
S4 (24:27):
So once the website launches, we will be promoting that
very heavily across all parts of the community, including hopefully
through this program. So I'll come back to you with
the website address and some further information once we have
that all locked down. In the meantime, people can send
CSI and email at CSI, which is s w I
(24:53):
at Dot edu, and that you'll get added to our
mailing list so that you'll start to receive newsletters and
other information. But I think from 1st September, that's when
the engagement will really ramp up and people will start
to be able to access the website and have a
look at the early resources that have been made available.
(25:14):
And then I think moving into next year, you know,
we'd be really keen to engage with the blindness and
low vision community around what they think the centre can
help with. We'd be very keen to do that, so
it'd be great to hear from the community, either through
the disability rep organisation or directly about some of the
barriers to employment and some of the. Particularly some of
(25:36):
the enablers that they'd like to see in the system.
S2 (25:40):
Okay. Well, that's all very exciting. And we do absolutely
have a great interest in keeping in touch. And you
are always welcome back on Talking Vision any time in
the coming months. Jenny, we'd absolutely love to have a
chat and hear more about the centre. I've been speaking
today with Doctor Jenny Crosbie, interim director of the centre
(26:04):
for Inclusive Employment, currently operating through the Swinburne University of
Technology in Melbourne. Jenny, thank you so much for your
time today. It was great to have a chat with
you and hear all about the centre.
S4 (26:20):
Thanks so much for having me Sam and I really
would love to come back in September once the online
hub is launched and tell your listeners a little bit
more about it.
S2 (26:32):
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 anytime on our email at
Talking Vision at Vision Australia. That's talking vision all. One
(26:57):
word at Vision Australia dot. But until next week it's
Sam Corley saying bye for now.
S1 (27:07):
You can contact Vision Australia by phoning us anytime during
business hours on one 384 746. That's one 384 7476
or by visiting Vision Australia. That's Vision Australia.
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