Filling in the Gaps and Joining the Dots

The National 2025 dual sensory impairment-deafblindness conference

Thursday 27th November, Friday 28th November 2025

Timings to be confirmed soon, but approx start time is 8:30am and finish time is 6:30pm.

This two-day, lived experience-led conference is a collaboration between the University of Sydney and Macquarie University. It is directly informed by the insights of people living with combined sight and hearing loss, gathered through the 2024 survey on community needs and wants, as well as by input from professionals, practitioners, and organisations that support them.

Dr Annmaree Watharow from The University of Sydney, and Dr Diana Tang from Macquarie University, have developed a program that brings together individuals and families living with dual sensory impairment - deafblindness, alongside professionals, practitioners, researchers and organisations. The program fosters mutual learning, networking, collaboration and a shared commitment to improving the experience of living with sensory losses.

Day 1 will showcase plenary sessions and panel discussions with world-leading experts and people with lived experience of sensory losses. All of Day 1 will be available for online attendees.

Day 2 will offer four streams of workshops addressing Creativity, Research, Communications, and Better Living. Please note that the research stream-only will be available for online attendees.

Thanks to funding from the National Disability Conference Initiative, we can offer a small number of subsidies to support persons to assist with travel or accommodation. We know for many with lived experience, whether a presenter, participant, researcher, professional, practitioner and/or organisation representative; may need a support person, communication guide or interpreter to attend conferences.

Unlike previous years, this is limited to 5x up to $1000 subsidies and 10x up to $500 subsidies. Subsidies will be allocated based on discretion with regard to support needed and costs involved, with priority given to those travelling a further distance, those coming from rural or remote regions, and those presenting. The conference convenors’ decision will be final. Reimbursements will be provided to the support person on the production of receipts and through the University of Sydney. If you are interested, please tick the box on the registration form. We are taking expressions of interest up until the 10th October.

The conference will spread across two days in the Susan Wakhil buidling of The University of Sydney (Camperdown, NSW). Unfortunately, due to exams and limited room availability, the venue is not fully accessible to everyone but there will accessible alternatives offered, e.g. live streaming in a seperate room for hand over hand communication, or an option to attend online.

For the safety and wellbeing of all, the conference is founded on principle of respectful behaviour that fosters a safe, inclusive and productive environment for sharing knowledge.

Day 1- Thursday 27th November

This day will have a dual focus, exploring the gaps that exist, and identifying ways we can join the dots together to create solutions and strategies.

Associate Professor Peter Simcock from Birmingham City University will open as keynote, addressing the challenges and complexities of dual sensory impairment -deafblindness in 2025 and beyond.

Then we have a panel addressing the data gaps in Australia.

People with lived experience will follow, giving snapshots into areas where gaps in knowledge and services are found.

The remainder of the day examines how joining the dots works to create solutions and strategies:

Associate Professor Walter Wittich from Canada will talk about the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health, and the brand new brief core set in deafblindness.

From Australia we will hear about:

• The newest brain implant technology,
• The Melbourne Collaborative Sensory Clinic,
• Integrated care,
• The role of social prescribing and psycho-social well-being.

From America, Dr Tara Brown-Ogilvie will discuss the Helen Keller National Centre's Confident Living Program.

Part two of Associate Professor Simcock's Keynote will centre on the importance of credentialing or creating courses to fill gaps in skills and knowledge. This will be supplemented by an Australian, hot-off-the-press example.

Finally, Stephen Hallinan, who lives with Usher syndrome, will show us how people with dual-sensory impairment-deafblindness can harness their strengths and build strong communities, where the benefits ripple outwards.

The program will also feature a screening of The Journey, an award-winning documentary following the travel of Billie Sinclair, a deafblind man, through Japan. Popcorn will be provided, and the film’s director will be present for a Q&A session following the screening. That evening, we will celebrate the launch of the first Deafblind History Project book.

Day 2- Friday 28th November

Jessica Grauds from Apple will present on how to make their products work for people living with dual sensory impairment - deafblindness, and provide a peek at new features and clever tricks.

Dr Tara Brown-Ogilvie will introduce the whole group to tactile messaging systems called social-haptic communication. People keen to learn even more can attend the second part after lunch.

Workshops begin after morning break with four streams:

· Creativity: Visiting the Chau Chak Wing Museum and an art workshop.

· Communication 1: Blak Auslan and Indigenous sign language with Rodney Adams and colleagues

· Communication 2: Steve Rose from Vision Australia with supporting children with congenital deafblindness, and the second social-haptic workshop.

· Better living: with the conscious caring model for dual sensory impairment in older people, social prescribing, the palliative care project from Western Australia, and there will also be a discussion and demonstration of better living hacks and assistive devices by Jarryd Busuttil.

· Research: Lived experience context with Gail Box and a better Inclusive Research Panel with Hannah McPierzie (external facilitator), Diana Tang, Yunie Rahmat, Peter Simcock, Prof John Gilroy, and Meredith Prain. Followed by Prof Sarah Wayland’s Trauma-informed research, exploring preparedness and skills to enhance qualitative interviews that involve working in accessible and inclusive ways.

We will regroup for ice cream, a demonstration from the National Relay Service and a performance piece by those with lived experience of dual sensory impairment-deafblindness.

Excitingly, throughout both days, we will have an exhibition by Queensland artist Victoria Hamilton called “The visions of Charles Bonnet Syndrome: visual hallucinations in people with any sight loss or deafblindness”. Victoria will give guided tours of her multimedia works, each captioned and audio described, depicting the hallucinations experienced by people with low vision or deafblindness. Victoria will also be available to answer questions about her amazing work and experiences.

PLEASE NOTE - There are structural barriers that mean the conference will not be a highly accessible event, though we are doing our best to deliver an accessible conference. If you are concerned we recommend attending online or reaching out with specific questions and we'll do our best to answer them.

Also check out other Business events in Redfern, Conferences in Redfern, Workshops in Redfern.