The Institute of Training and Further Educations’ (iTFE) Hospitality Training Australia facility (HTA) recently received an enquiry from two deaf people interested in attending a short barista course.
This would be a unique enquiry for any training provider, given that Auslan interpreters were requested to be present during the training program and so it raised questions such as:
- Where and how do we book an Auslan interpreter?
- How will this impact on the training environment, the experience of other students and the teacher’s ability to cover all the material?
- What are the costs involved?
iTFE made contact with deafConnectEd, who provided the opportunity to discuss these questions and to explore practical solutions.
deafConnectEd (www.deafconnected.com.au) is funded by the Victorian Government to support the vocational education and training sector in meeting the needs of students who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Joe Sabolcec, Project Manager with deafConnectEd, met with the iTFE Training Centre Manager who suggested that Joe audit the barista course. Due to the hands on nature of the course it was determined that only one interpreter was required, and it was expected few other changes would be needed to make the course accessible for deaf students.
Joe also spoke to the iTFE course trainer Jonathon Anscough to check if he had any questions about teaching deaf students or working with an interpreter, and it turned out that he already had some awareness of the deaf community and could even sign a few greetings.
An Auslan interpreter was booked through the Central Auslan Booking Service (CABS), which is also managed by deafConnectEd. CABS undertakes administration requirements on behalf of training providers, maintaining a register of qualified Auslan interpreters experienced in the vocational education and training setting. There are no booking or administrative fees. The training provider is then able to engage the interpreter as they would with any other casual staff or contractor, keeping interpreting costs to a minimum.
The outcome of the iTFE training program, was really successful. Both students were pleased that they could participate and get the same level of access to the course as their peers, and the surprise of a welcome in Auslan was just icing on the cake, leading to a glowing evaluation from both students.
The success of the program has led to further enrolments at iTFE for hearing impaired students.
