"The Office of Industrial Relations is privileged to be the very first client of the Deaf Society of New South Wales’ new translation service.

Earlier this year, the Office began working with the Society’s translation service to develop a resource that would help the state’s signing deaf community to better understand their workplace rights and entitlements.

In June this year I took great pleasure in officially launching the resulting Auslan Info Bytes resource – a series of short videos featuring a deaf person delivering important workplace information in Australian Sign Language.

The OIR staff members involved with this initiative reported to me that throughout the process of developing the resource, their colleagues at the translation service were friendly, helpful and a pleasure to work with, whilst providing a high level of technical expertise and assistance.

In addition to delivering the Office with an effective and professional resource, the translation service has provided a deeper understanding of the communication needs of the signing deaf community and invaluable advice regarding the most effective way to meet these needs.

I extend my sincere thanks to everyone at the Deaf Society of NSW translation service for their excellent collaborative work with the Office of Industrial Relations.

I commend the translation service and encourage other agencies to utilise the expertise offered by this service to develop their own resources in Auslan, so people from the signing deaf community in this state can more easily access the information and assistance they need."

The Hon. John Hatzistergos
Attorney General, Minister for Industrial Relations
Parliament of New South Wales

To view the Auslan Info Bytes videos, click here.

For contact details, click here.