“Hearing loss has the capability to be debilitating but with the right support for children and adults it shouldn’t stop anyone from doing anything.”
On March 26 six young adults aged between 17 and 25, all born with profound hearing loss, spoke to an audience of politicians and advocates in Australia at Power of Speech – Hear the Future.
Their purpose – to speak about issues faced by over 3.6 million Australians living with hearing loss and highlight the need for our government to make hearing health a national priority.
“It was difficult at first when my parents found out that I was deaf,” said TSH graduate, Gaby Gray.
“Particularly with some of the attitudes towards deaf people, at misconceptions about hearing loss at the time.”
“The main message I was pushing for was to recognise the middle ground between hearing and deaf. And appreciate this new modern minority of hearing-speaking deaf people,” said Hamish Fairlie, a graduate of The Shepherd Centre in NSW.
Telethon Speech & Hearing is proud to be among a select number of organisations around Australia and New Zealand that provides world-class listening and spoken language early intervention services to children with a hearing loss.
Watch the video below for highlights from this year’s Power of Speech at Parliament House.
Click here to learn more about our work with First Voice.
