The Disability Information and Resource Centre

It is now possible to hire DIRC meeting rooms online using our new meeting room booking system!

The system provides a room availability calendar showing you exactly how many of our meeting rooms are available at all times, and a booking form allowing you to make multiple room bookings.

Payments can be made online using PayPal. This requires either a PayPal account, a Visa card, a MasterCard or a Discover card. Payments can also be made by EFT, Cheque or Money Order.

More information on the DIRC meeting rooms.

The DIRC Meeting Room Availability Calendar.

The DIRC Meeting Room Booking Form.

The Positive Partnerships online learning courses are fully funded by DEEWR (Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations). They cover topics such as ‘using evidence to guide decision making,’ ‘positive behaviour support,’ ‘transitions’, ‘communication,’ and ‘bullying.’

You can register and access the workshops at http://www.autismtraining.com.au

The South Australian Health and Community Services Complaints Commissioner (HCSCC) is seeking your ideas about the redevelopment of their website. The new website aims to:

• improve your access
• provide helpful information to consumers, carers, advocates and service providers
• simplify navigation – so information is quick and easy to find
• have the capacity to add new functions – such as new ways to communicate

To find out more please read the  Information Sheet and then complete the short Website Survey.

HCSCC welcomes survey responses up until 5.00pm on Friday 7 October 2011.

Creative use of electronic media to build a Mental Health community on-line

The Mind Share web site is a project that aims to be a conduct and display for all things arts whilst building an on line community and assisting with stigma reduction through generating digital stories and creating a communications portal via a website for a range of information and interactions on broad topics relevant to mental health, mental illness and well-being.

This project will build skills amongst consumers, carers and non for profit mental health workers in SA by providing training opportunities such as train the trainer, digital storytelling and boot camp film groups. It aims to create opportunities for consumers and others from this sector to produce digital stories and communicate about health and well-being issues, whilst increasing their electronic media literacy and skills.

The overall objective is to increase communication opportunities amongst people with an interest in mental health and well-being and for them in the future to create their own digital stories and content for the website.

The website will host the digital story content generated through the project along with a range of art, poetry, music, prose, blogging, short documentaries, other digital stories submitted, service information, information for the media and much more.

The call is now out for individuals interesting in submitting the following for inclusion on the site in 2011/2012:

• Short stories
• Poetry
• Photographs of art work or photography
• Original musical recordings
• Information about mental health services
• People who are interested in becoming bloggers on the site are also sought

Music, short stories, poetry and images of art work may now be submitted to Tracey Davis at the Mental Health Coalition of SA via mindshare@mhcsa.org.au.

If you have any queries contact Tracey via 8212 8873 or 0406 980 962.

Potential bloggers, musicians, writers should download an application form below or contact Tracey Davis at the MHCSA for a word version to fill out.

Visit www.mhcsa.net/?catID=131

The Mind Share web site will be launched in October at the Mercury Cinemas. It’s url will be www.mindshare.org.au.

This project has been funded by Arts SA and developed by the Media Resource Centre working with Freerange Future.

A new website has been launched aimed at people with complex communication needs to help find ways to make phone calls, use SMS and internet technology.

The Newell Network website is packed full of resources and allows you to ask questions of experts and the disability community.

You can check it out at www.newell.org.au.

The Mental Health Coalition of SA together with the Media Resource Centre are seeking participants to be bloggers on a new site ‘Mind Share’ a Mental Health Community On Line – which will be released during Mental Health Week. They are seeking individuals who are interested in blogging about their views on mental health, events, news, controversy and personal stories. You may also submit blogs from the perspective of being a person with a lived experience of a mental health problem.

They are also seeking poetry and short stories for the site.

The site will open for Mental Health Week on the 9th of October at the Media Resource Centre’s Mercury Cinema’s.

You may participate in the following ways:

• To join up to be a regular blogger on the site (this can be once a week or once every few months).
• To submit original poetry in the form of text to be viewed on the site
• To submit short stories for the site in text format

If you would like to take part please contact Tracey Davis at the MHCSA via mindshare@mhcsa.org.au for an application form.

For further details please also contact Tracey Davis by phone at 8212 8873.

New content is being created for the sa.gov.au website and volunteers are sought to be part of a reference group to evaluate the new content:

Seeking parent, carer and guardians to participate in a reference group and to provide feedback about education and early childhood

The sa.gov.au website is a whole-of-government initiative to create a single website for the public to access government information and services. The main objective of the website is to give the public accurate, up to date, easy to find and easy to understand information.

New web pages are being developed for parents, carers and guardians to provide information about:

• Early childhood services (child care, playgroups, etc)
• Preschools and kindergartens
• Schools (junior primary, primary, secondary/high)
• Skills based training / vocational education and training (eg. TAFE)
• University
• Community education

To assist the team in developing a ‘user friendly’ website, I am looking for a group of parents to ‘road test’ the structure of the website and provide feedback on the new web content.

Each of our major topics (listed above) will have its own reference group of 8-12 people. We are asking for volunteers. This may involve providing feedback via the web, email, over the phone or in person. Ideally members of the reference group will not work in education as they may have prior knowledge that may not be representative of the general public.

We expect that the majority of activities will be web based and will take between 5 and 15 minutes. There may be some face-to-face meetings, however, we recognise that some people may not be able to travel into Adelaide. If this is the case we will look at alternatives such as telephone or web conferences.

If you would like to provide feedback and have an influence on the new information that will replace the existing Education, skills and learning content on the sa.gov.au website, please complete the form at http://bit.ly/refgroup. Alternatively, you can contact myself or Kristen Morgan on telephone 8204 1438 or email sagovau@sa.gov.au.

Please feel free to share this request with your friends and relatives.

Regards,

Christine Irmler
FRANCHISE MANAGER, LEARNING FRANCHISE
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND CHILDREN’S SERVICES
sa.gov.au

A PDF of the above content is also available.

The Disability & Arts Transition Team (DATT), a partnership between Can SA and DIRC, have created a website to cater to the needs of artists with disabilities.

www.disabilityandarts.net.au

The site is still in its early stages and we are seeking comments and opinions from the community. Please have a look at the site and let us know what you think by using the comment form provided on the site’s “Contact Us” page.

Technical Aid to the Disabled SA Inc (TADSA) the state-wide charity which for over 30 years has used the skills, time and facilities of its technical volunteers to design and build equipment for people with disabilities, has launched a new website.

Apart from providing information to people with disabilities about TADSA’s unique service, the site will also enable anyone to access an online shop and purchase amongst other products, commercially available aids and devices to help people who struggle with day to day activities.

TADSA Public Relations Officer, Ian Beaton, said “Our clients and the public will be able to shop online for disability equipment whether they live in Adelaide, Mt Gambier or Ceduna. The website also includes news, information on volunteering with TADSA, a member’s only area, and details of recent projects.”

Other features of the site include an Occupational Health and Safety section for TADSA volunteers which highlights the safe use of tools and machinery in the shed, and videos showcasing TADSA’s service.

“Our volunteers who have skills in many different areas including: engineering, carpentry, metalwork, plastics or are just good handy persons, aim to improve the quality of life for our clients by solving practical problems,” Mr Beaton said.

One client who uses a wheelchair had difficulty reaching her clothesline. A TADSA volunteer created a lever for the clothesline enabling the client to raise and lower the clothesline with one hand. She describes her story in a video on the new TADSA website.

Disability Minister, Jennifer Rankine, officially launched the site at Parliament House.

The website can be found at: www.tadsa.org.au

Dignity for Disability have announced the launch of their new web site. They have also released a flyer outlining the launch.