Join us this week as we celebrate the lives and stories of Deafblind Western Australians. Simon and Andrew have a chat with Linni Oliver and Jason Rowland from Deafblind WA (DBWA) to help us celebrate and acknowledge Deafblind Awareness Week which runs from June 22nd to the 28th.

This year's theme is 'Connected by touch: Breaking barriers, building bridges." While we can't connect via touch in this audio format we do hope to help reduce barriers and build bridges between individuals and communities.

During Deafblind Week there will be celebrations across Australia highlighting community, advocacy and inclusion. We make mention of activities happening in Victoria but our main focus is on our recording location, WA. An example of the activities being held is the Lawn Bowls Event on Saturday 27 June, which is a celebration to wrap up the week with an afternoon on fun, friendship and community connection.

You can contact Linni at linni@dbwa.org.au to find out more.

This is a warm, friendly and engaging program that we are sure you will enjoy.

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This week we enjoyed the company of Matt Spencer, a well respected member of the Blind Community in Perth. We really appreciate learning about such positive and active people, and to be able to share their stories with you. Matt is one of those wonderful people who is actively involved in many aspects of community and we aim to bring his story to light, which would otherwise be hidden in plain sight.

It is always a privilege to speak with our guests and we acknowledge that Matt shares some very personal details about his life including his vision loss, Keratoconus and many aspects of living a full life while being vision impaired. Matt's delightful sense of humour warmly threaded through our personal, anecdotal conversation. It's so great to get a brief insight into peoples' lives, ordinary and extraordinary, and to hear wonderful stories, all worth shining a light on.

This week we also preview events happening for DeafBlind Week 2026 with Deafblind West Australians (DBWA) which runs from June 22 to 28. DBWA will hold two special events to acknowledge this on Wednesday the 24th and Saturday the 27th of June. You contact DBWA at this link https://dbwa.org.au/contact-us/ for more info.

Stay tuned to In Plain Sight on Vision Australia Radio on digital, you can also contact us at inplainsight@visionasutralia.org with any questions or comments.

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This week on In Plain Sight we have compiled a very special show to highlight some of the prominent people who have featured in Simon’s life who have demonstrated leadership and acted as role-models, within the Blind Community in Perth and beyond.

We start the program with a fresh conversation with Dr Scott Holier as we explore & examine aspects of leadership, community connections and how role-models can assist us and inspire us. It is always great to speak with Scott and we are very appreciative that he could share some of his valuable time and provide us with some fabulous positivity and insights.

Several years ago when we began this program Simon wanted to start with one of the most dynamic and active advocates for the Blind and all people with a disability and we chose Erika Webb. We have selected some of the highlights from her engaging interview, to give a brief insight into her strengths and determination. To accompany this we have also selected some highlights from an interview with Zel Iscel, to highlight her long involvement with Blind Citizens WA and her passion in advocacy for better “Rights” for people with disabilities.

And, finally we allow Simon to be a little indulgent to pay tribute to his friend Dave Regan (born 09/06/1969 - died, 02/11/2016). On what would have been his 57th birthday Simon praises his good friend who was one of motivations and inspirations for creating and producing this podcast program. We also play a song he wrote called "Not Forever" covered by Bernie Pickett and the Fish Whisperers.

*Note: - special thanks to Andrew Williams, for all his hard work, dedication & extra time working on editing & production with this complex project — which resulted in a wonderful program & high quality content.

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