Deaf President Now! Disability-Led Film Screening

Lineup

• More details about Prof Jackie Leach Scully

  Prof Jackie Leach Scully

  Jackie Leach Scully is an internationally recognised bioethicist specialising in disability and feminist bioethics and a deaf activist for over 40 years. With a background in molecular biology and neurobiology, she held research fellowships at the Swiss Cancer Research Institute on Lausanne and the University of Basel, Switzerland, before helping to establish Basel’s first interdisciplinary unit for bioethics. Before moving to Australia she was Executive Director of the Policy, Ethics and Life Sciences Research Centre at Newcastle University, UK. In 2019, she joined UNSW Sydney as Professor of Bioethics based in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, and Director of the Disability Innovation Institute. Deaf President Now! is also personally significant to Jackie. She knows several people who took part in the original 1988 protests and still has a commemorative T-shirt!

  • Prof Jackie Leach Scully's website
• More details about Adj Prof Alastair McEwin AM

  Adj Prof Alastair McEwin AM

  Adjunct Professor Alastair McEwin AM has extensive experience in disability and human rights, and a strong record of service to Australia through senior executive and Commonwealth statutory office holder roles. Profoundly deaf, Adjunct Professor McEwin has held numerous management and governance roles in the private, government and non‑government sectors. He has served as Australia's Disability Discrimination Commissioner at the Australian Human Rights Commission, and as a Royal Commissioner with the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability. Adjunct Professor McEwin’s role at UNSW is focussed on translating the findings and recommendations of the Disability Royal Commission into systemic reforms that produce policies and practices for greater societal inclusion of disabled people. He is currently positioned in the Faculty of Law & Justice. Adjunct Professor McEwin is also a Senior Fellow with the Grattan Institute’s Disability Program, which produces public policy recommendations on current Australian disability issues.

  • Adj Prof Alastair McEwin AM's website
• More details about Dr Breda Carty AO

  Dr Breda Carty AO

  Breda Carty is an Adjunct Fellow at Macquarie University. She has had many years experience as a teacher of the deaf and in developing resource materials about the Deaf community, culture and history. She was one of the pioneers of the Deaf Studies field in Australia, and regularly delivers presentations and community workshops on these topics.

• More details about David Curzon

  David Curzon

  David Curzon is a writer and film producer who is passionate about inclusivity in visual storytelling. David’s PhD research builds on his MPhil dissertation on the representation of disability in Australian film and television by focusing on the principles of co-production in filmmaking practice. With the support of the UNSW Disability Innovation Institute, David is developing the short disability-led film Princess together with lived experience experts Daniel Aylett and Dianna La Grassa and students at Bus Stop Films’ Accessible Filmmaking Program.

• More details about Yuka Maruyama

  Yuka Maruyama

  Yuka Maruyama is a first-year Master of Philosophy student supervised by Dr. Benjamin Tag, Professor Flora Salim, and Professor Thad Starner. Her research explores wearable technologies and visualisation techniques for everyday applications, including language learning. Born Deaf, Yuka grew up in Japan and attended a Deaf school until age 15 before transitioning to a mainstream high school. She moved to Adelaide, South Australia, after completing high school to pursue higher education. At the University of Adelaide (now Adelaide University), she served as a Disability Officer within the Student Representative Council, advocating for accessibility and inclusion. Yuka also contributes to academic and nonprofit initiatives as an Accessibility Chair and volunteer teacher for students with disabilities and women in underserved communities across Australia, India, Cambodia, and other countries. These experiences have shaped her passion for inclusive education and accessibility through technology, particularly within Human-Computer Interaction. Currently, she serves as the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility Chair for the OzCHI conference committee and as a Diversity Chair for the SydCHI committee.

• More details about Ana Dougenis

  Ana Dougenis

  Ana is the current Students with Disabilities Officer at UNSW, facilitating the disability collective and advocating for students. Recently, they've been organising around the austerity cuts to the NDIS and helping to mobilise the collective in doing so. Much of their work revolves around creating a safe space for students and taking on cases of ableism faced by our student population. Nothing about us without us is perhaps the core tenant which lies within the disability collective here at UNSW, and they will keep fighting for a world where disability justice is ingrained properly in the makings of our world instead of an afterthought.

• More details about Sierra Willow Bromwich

  Sierra Willow Bromwich

  Sierra Willow Bromwich is a PhD candidate in the UNSW School of Social Sciences, researching how young people with intellectual disability experience agency, identity, and, importantly, self-determination during transitions to adulthood. Her research uses flexible communication options and support ask young people with intellectual disability about breakthrough moments in growing up, their future aspirations, and what adulthood and a good life mean to them. Sierra's work is grounded in disability rights, inclusive research and the expertise of people with disability in their own lives.