Deaf and Hearing Impaired Engagement Workshop

As part of our Regulatory Reset Proposal for the 2025-2030 period, we engaged a range of priority population groups in early discussions about their access to, current needs, and future priorities for electricity. We held a workshop to talk to the deaf and hearing-impaired community on 12 May 2022.

To prepare for the workshop, scoping discussion was held with Katrina Lancaster-Maggs from the Can:do community to ensure our methodology was appropriate and accessible and that the community's expectations for the session were understood and the workshop was designed accordingly.

Who did we engage?

Six people attended the workshop, made up of three men and three women, with two interpreters also attending.

SA Power Networks was represented by Mark Vincent, Alex Lewis and Kylie Kerrigan at the session.

Dana Shen from DS Consulting on behalf of ThinkHuman facilitated the session, supported by Amy Blaylock and Gerry Shearim, engaging through Can:do assist interpreting the session.

What we engaged on?

Participants were provided with a background on the role SA Power Networks plays within the electricity network operations. This was followed by a general discussion with the participants about their experience and expectations as a user of electricity to prompt dialogue about what's important to them, their concerns, or any barriers they experience in accessing electricity.

Click here to access a copy of the workshop presentation.

They were then taken through the four key themes for our Regulatory Reset Proposal, followed by in-depth discussions around those themes to determine key priorities.

What were our key learnings?

The key learnings that emerged from our session are as follows:

• Participants discussed the difficulty in understanding information, with English being a second language for many in the hearing impaired community. Providing information in visual formats and using pictures were suggested as helpful ways to communicate with the community going forward.
• Participants stressed the barriers they experienced in the face of obtaining the same level of security as the broader community such as the need for extra equipment which is often unaffordable and dependency on power for various alarms.
• Discussions were held around subsidies to ensure that the community can afford batteries critical for power backup supply in emergency situations.
• The need for AUSLAN interpreters and accessibility to understand the information was discussed.

Workshop Reports

Read a detailed report of our Deaf and Hearing Impaired Engagement Workshop to find out our key learnings from the session.

Click here to access our Engagement Infographic Summary for a quick overview of our session, documenting who we engaged with and what our key findings were.