Patricia Levitzke-Gray has followed in the footsteps of the deaf women in her family, lobbying for access to communication and basic services for deaf people.
IF there is one thing of which Particia Levitzke-Gray is proud it is her deafness; and if there is one thing she is thankful for, it is the fact she is an anomaly – born deaf into a deaf family rather than a hearing one.
Ms Levitzke-Gray’s life’s work has been to follow in the footsteps of the powerful deaf women in her family, who have long worked to empower Australia’s deaf community.
She is one of the 5 per cent of deaf children born into deaf families; her mother, grandmother and great grandmother were all deaf, as was her grandfather on her paternal side. Her father was one of the only immediate family members who was not deaf.
Her maternal great-grandparents worked for the Victorian Deaf society and lobbied hard for access to community services, while her maternal grandmother was the first president of Deaf Australia and her paternal grandmother started the WA Deaf Society.
“My grandmother has an OAM for her services to the community; she fought for the provision of the TTY telephone typewriter to deaf people. My mother is really heavily involved in sports; she organised the Australian Deaf games and has been to the world deaf games as a 10-pin bowling champion,” Ms Levitzke-Gray says.
“So in our family line it is the deaf women who have lobbied and advocated for the community and as a result I feel a responsibility to take that on as well and fight for that access.”
Ms Levitzke-Gray has followed her family’s advocacy path – she is the secretary of the WA Association of the Deaf and has worked for the WA Deaf Society since 1993.
Ms Levitzke-Gray has also been instrumental in establishing services including Auslan for Families, which works to educate hearing parents of deaf children in how to communicate in Auslan (Australian sign language), as well as community participation groups for senior deaf people and has been widely recognised for her work.
She says the most frustrating part of her role is that securing services for deaf people still requires significant lobbying.
“Advocating is the most frustrating aspect of what we do, because we face a lot of barriers within the community,” she says.
“Communication is vital and that is the barrier we face, the communication barrier. If a deaf person wants to go into any government department or any similar service, there is a communication issue.”
Ms Levitzke-Gray considers her advocacy work to be integral across all areas in her life; raising issues at her daughter’s school is important in creating equal opportunities for her deaf daughter.
“I actually view myself as being a troublemaker, and I think my reputation precedes me in that respect,” she says. “Unfortunately a lot of people see complaints as a negative thing, they don’t see it as moving things forward. Quite often the only way to make change is to make complaints and therefore make people aware there is an issue.”
Ms Levitzke-Gray says she can see differences in the way society treats deaf people today, when looking at the opportunities her daughter is offered, compared to when Ms Levitzke-Gray was in high school in in the 1980s.
“I attended a deaf school and things were quite different then … teachers of the deaf courses have changed considerably now, there are more qualified teachers of the deaf who can use Auslan, but there is still a gap in deaf education.” she says.
“The community as a whole kind of pitied deaf people and saw deaf people as being unable to do things, and unfortunately that attitude is still current.”
Ms Levitzke-Gray says she has long valued being born into a deaf family rather than a hearing one.
“Fortunately I come from a deaf family so I was valued as a deaf person. We have a language, we have a culture, we have a community and it is a very rich and a very strong community,” she says.
“I have a lot of deaf friends who come from hearing families, and when they come over for dinner, they are really astounded at how free communication is in our house. We sit around and we are all chatting in Auslan.
“It is quite common for people to say that the vital things in life are clothing, housing and food but from my perspective, I think communication is paramount, it is absolutely vital.”
What have been the biggest challenges in your career?
Getting deaf and hearing people to work together because both deaf and hearing people have different cultures, they have different behavioural norms, for example the deaf community is very collective and hearing is very individualistic. When you bring the two together you have some clashes.
What has been your greatest achievement?
Lobbying the government in 2001 so that deaf people could access interpreters for medical appointments … it led to the national establishment of NABS, the National Auslan Booking and Payment Service so now the Australian government funds interpreters for medical appointments. It isn’t something I have done by myself, it is a huge collaborative effort.
What accolade are you most proud of?
I think the Deaf Australia, deaf person of the year because it is in the name of my grandmother, Dorothy Shaw, the Dorothy Shaw award.
