In the five decades since 1975 there have been many changes in Australian society. Some of these have already been referred to in earlier articles in this issue – in particular, technological changes, and changes in attitudes towards women. The development of a human rights framework for social policies has had a significant impact on both official and everyday language, and this is clear in reading some of the older reprinted material. In general, the ideas of diversity and inclusion have been increasingly incorporated into the mainstream language of social policy, and this has been reflected in the daily realities of life in Australia, including the lives of people who are blind or vision impaired.
But within our own community have all voices been heard equally? We have included below several articles which suggest that the answer to this question has not always been ‘yes’.
From the very early days of our organisation there were many efforts to raise the issues of dual sensory loss and to support the recognition of deafblindness as a disability in its own right (which has now been achieved). The article by Di Hartmann, published in 2002, argued that few of our members were familiar with the needs of people who are deafblind, and outlined these needs in detail.
In 2003, Amanda Tink wrote an article about the efforts of some people who are blind or vision impaired to gain recognition and respect for blind people of diverse sexuality, and to form a special interest branch to give voice to their concerns. In a footnote Amanda notes that this has not happened.
Pari Srikanteshwara has written from the perspective of a woman from a minority culture, outlining her experience of the intersection between disability and cultural difference in Australia. Pari is hopeful about working within BCA to raise awareness of this intersection and develop appropriate policies which reflect the multicultural nature of Australian society.
In our searches through 50 years of BCA newsletters we found almost complete silence regarding indigenous Australians who are blind or vision impaired. This is a significant voice from which little has been heard directly in our publications, and we hope that in our anniversary year this void will be filled.