Negative comments about hearing loss and equipment not provided easy read

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Who is Margarette?

A woman with a backpack and a coffee cup.

Margarette has a sensory disability.

Icon for people who can't see or hear.

A sensory disability affects your senses, like your:

  • sight
  • hearing.

An icon of a person with a question mark. There is a name badge with a cross on it.

We call her ‘Margarette’ because she didn’twant us to use her real name.

A woman with a hearing aid.

Margarette’s sensory disability affects her hearing.

She wears hearing aids to help her with:

A woman with a hearing aid driving.

  • day to day tasks

A woman with a hearing aid working in an office.

  • her job.

What happened to Margarette?

A woman with a hearing aid writing on a post-it note.

Margarette experienced disability discrimination at her job.

Disability discrimination is when you’re treated badly because:

A man in a wheelchair outside a building.

  • you have a disability

A man and a woman with a thought bubble that has a disability icon in it. There is another person in front of them who looks sad.

  • people think you have a disability

A person with a hand on their chest and the disability icon. There is a stack of calendar icons with an arrow curving to the left.
  • you used to have a disability

A person raising their hand and the disability icon. There is a stack of calendar icons with an arrow curving to the right.
  • you might have a disability in the future

Two people shaking hands.

  • you know a person with disability.

A woman talking in Auslan with another person.

Margarette told her boss how to make herjob better.

She told them there should be more:

A woman with her hearing aid.
  • equipment to support her sensory disability

A woman training a group of people.

  • training to help her learn new skills for

her job.

A woman with a hearing aid crying. She is being supported by another person.

She told them how people said bad things about her sensory disability.

What did Margarette do?

The Anti-Discrimination New South Wales icon.

Margarette contacted Anti-Discrimination NSW (ADNSW).

A man holding his hand out to stop something and a map of NSW. On the map, there are two people with a cross next to them and another person who looks sad.

ADNSW is an organisation that helps stop discrimination in NSW.

A group of people pointing and talking about a woman in a wheelchair.

Discrimination is when you treat someone badly because of something about them they can’t change.

Margarette told ADNSW what:

A woman with a hearing aid crying. She is being supported by another person.

  • went wrong
  • wasn't working well.

ADNSW had a meeting with:

A woman with a hearing aid having a meeting with two other people.

  • Margarette
  • her boss.

In the meeting Margarette:

A woman with a hearing aid looking upset.

  • talked about how she was feeling

A woman with a hearing aid talking to someone and looking happy.
  • came up with different ways to makework better.

What will happen next?

Margarette’s boss will:

A letter and a speech bubble with 'Sorry' in it.

  • write her a letter
  • say “sorry”.

Hearing aids.

Margarette’s boss will buy new equipment to support Margarette at work.

A woman with hearing aids using a screen reader at work.

Margarette will go back to work with bettertraining to help her learn new skills.

Two people training a group of people.

Everyone at Margarette’s job will have training about how to work with people with disability.

Word list

This list explains what the bold words in this document mean.

The Anti-Discrimination New South Wales icon.

Anti-Discrimination New South Wales (ADNSW)

ADNSW is an organisation that helps stop discrimination in NSW.

Montage of five images. The first is a man in a wheelchair outside a building, the second is s man and a woman with a thought bubble that has a disability icon in it and another person in front of them who looks sad, the third is a person with a hand on their chest and the disability icon, and a stack of calendar icons with an arrow curving to the left, the fourth is a person raising their hand and the disability icon, and a stack of calendar icons with an arrow curving to the right, the fifth is two people shaking hands.

Disability discrimination

Disability discrimination is when you’re treated badly because:

  • you have a disability
  • people think you have a disability
  • you used to have a disability
  • you might have a disability in the future
  • you know a person with disability.

A group of people pointing and talking about a woman in a wheelchair.

Discrimination

Discrimination is when you treat someone badly because of something about them they can’t change.

Icon for people who can't see or hear.

Sensory disability

A sensory disability affects your senses, like your:

  • sight
  • he


Images used in this Easy Read document are subject to copyright and must not be reused without explicit approval. For more information, please visit www.dcj.nsw.gov.au/copyright-and-disclaimer.


Last updated:

13 Dec 2021

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We acknowledge Aboriginal people as the First Nations Peoples of NSW and pay our respects to Elders past, present and future. We acknowledge the ongoing connection Aboriginal people have to this land and recognise Aboriginal people as the original custodians of this land.

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