When Victoria State Emergency Service volunteer Shanleigh Meldrum learned her hearing had suddenly declined, her team rallied to ensure it was no barrier.
A dual responder with VICSES Bendigo and Gisborne Units, Shanleigh is also the section leader for events and presentations at Gisborne; responsible for community engagement, fundraising and social media.
She is now also the inspiration for her team learning Auslan.
Once her hearing began to rapidly deteriorate, during her second year at VICSES, Shanleigh worked with unit controller Mike Bagnall to come up with a strategy.
The unit agreed to pay for four weeks of Deaf Awareness and Auslan training, starting in 2019.
Since then, a monthly refresher session has been a part of their regular meetings, and further Auslan training and interpreters have been funded by Shanleigh’s National Disability Insurance Scheme plan.
“The unit undertaking Deaf Awareness training and basic Auslan was a huge benefit to me; communicating with me is second nature to them now,” Shanleigh said.
“They know how to approach me, get my attention and communicate with me really well.
“Mike’s feeling that it was not me who needed to change, but rather that ‘we need to change for you’ really stuck with me, and everyone has benefited.”
To begin, volunteers attended four sessions, where they learned numbers, colours, and basic commands like: ‘stop’, ‘start’, ‘go’ and ‘help’.
They were also taught how to ‘finger spell’ the alphabet, so they could use English language words if they lacked the Auslan gesture.
VICSES Gisborne Unit volunteer, Tori Collins, said members were eager to learn.
“It’s good to be able to communicate; having to wear a mask, Shanleigh needs to be able to read your lips to be able to interpret what you’re saying. Having those common signs to use has helped us to communicate effectively,” Tori said.
As well as being able to communicate better with Shanleigh, having access to Auslan during a pandemic – where face-mask mandates prevent hard-of-hearing or deaf Victorians from lip-reading – allows volunteers to communicate, empathise with and provide reassurance to those Victorians.
“At the sharp edge, say during a road crash rescue, it could contribute to allaying their fears, and it’s only right that we should do it,” VICSES Gisborne Unit deputy controller, Tobin Connell said.
“In terms of that community service though, it’s an opportunity to engage more with parts of the community we couldn’t engage with before.”
There are more than 40 volunteers at VICSES Gisborne Unit now trained in Deaf Awareness and Basic Auslan.
Plans are now in motion to roll out a similar program at VICSES Bendigo Unit.
Volunteers have found acquiring even a basic vocabulary of 10 or 20 words makes all the difference.
