News article: Next Sense
Before her Paralympic journey began, Katie was involved incommunity sports, and in particular DeafSports Australia. She came to know NextSense through visiting childrenusing our school services. Katie has Usher Syndrome, which is a geneticcondition that affects both hearing and vision.
‘I just felt so connected to those young children whoreminded me of my five year-old self of feeling confused and needing thatsupport,’ Katie says. ‘I have always been very passionate about RIDBC – nowNextSense.’
Since then, she has had support from our centre in Toowoomba,and through her Paralympic outreach to schools has observed NextSense clientsthriving in a mainstream school environment because they are getting thesupport at school that they need.
In her advocacy work, Katie now focuses on the importance ofall people with disabilities being able to fully engage in the community andreach their goals.
So, this International Day of People with Disability 2023,we talked to Katie about the importance of bridging gaps in understanding ofdisability. And we asked her to discuss something positive about hearing andvision loss that others might not know.
