Resources for community radio to better include people with a disability, because everyone can do community radio!
As I am fond of saying, "you don't know what you don't know". Thankfully when it comes to accessibility of our station buildings, documents and communications, others have done the work for us with these easy to use checklists: AusCamps Association have made this fantastic resource for assessing access that includes background info on legislative …
Continue reading "Is your station accessible? Some excellent checklists to find out"
CBAA press release: Radio 4EB, Brisbane’s Katharina Loesche has taken home the 2018 CBAA Community Radio Award in the National Features and Documentary Seriescategory for her radio documentary ‘The Runners’ Guide’. In ‘The Runners’ Guide’, Katharina followed a running group of vision-impaired joggers, finding solutions to get exercise in the Brisbane area. It was produced as part of the 2018 National Features and …
Find out what you can do to make your station more accessible, and engage a largely untapped font of new and enthusiastic volunteers! Sat November 10, 2018 at the 2018 Community Broadcasting Association of Australia Conference, Gold Coast Convention Centre. This workshop, presented by Kim Stewart (4ZZZ and CMTO) and Emma Couch (CMTO), Sancha Donald …
Continue reading "EVENT: Fostering your station’s accessibility @ #CBAAconf2018"
If you want to create accessible documents, websites or digital newsletters for your community radio station, you might benefit from checking out these online courses. Accessibility means making sure your content is available to as many people as possible, increasing audience, participation and social justice. Become an #A11y today! Some free online courses: Udacity have a …
"My feature is about Barbara and Jane, both vision impaired, who were lonely and like one of the main characters said “me and my guide dog where getting fatter and fatter”. With the help of a wonderful initiative here in Brisbane, they changed their life around - they started running." Please join us for the …
Continue reading "EVENT: The Runners Guide listening party, Brisbane"
People with a disability are often described in the media using stereotypes. Stereotypes stigmatise groups who are depicted in this shallow manner and affect people's lives. That's why it's important that we change the ways we talk about people with a disability to respect the person, and not make disability a focus of our attention. …
Continue reading "Words: How to refer to people with a disability"
In recent weeks I've been exploring the wonderful (and hitherto mostly unknown to me) world of accessible word documents. In MS Word, using document styles, headings and alternative descriptions (alt-tags) on images makes your document more readable for those using screenreaders, as well as more consistently formatted for everyone else. In addition, formatting for accessibility …
Continue reading "Need accessible documents? Check out MSWord templates"
Many Australian organisations and business, as diverse as AFL Australia, Government departments, and Lifeline are developing or implementing Disability Action Plans (DAP) also known as an Accessibility Action Plan (AAP). Those organisations realise they need to change what they do to be more fair, and to comply with the Disability Discrimination Act (1992). Your radio …
Continue reading "What’s a Disability Action Plan and why does a radio station need one?"
The Access and Inclusion Index provides a snapshot of your organisations progress on accessibility. Created by the Australian Network on Disability, the index can help you identify key areas you can improve upon and offers free (and paid) help doing that through their resources and services. "The Access and Inclusion Index gives organisations insights into …
Continue reading "Quiz: how accessible and inclusive is your org?"
So you want to change the way your organisation includes people with a disability, indigenous people, women or another disadvantaged group who need a voice? A good place to start, according to Clements, Spinks and Phillips in the Equal Opportunities Handbook (2009) is by changing what YOU personally do. Firstly, you need to learn about …
