How do you tell someone else’s rich story and experiences navigating the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS)? Simple - you don’t. You let the individual speak for themselves, share their story, in their own words and in their own language. How do you share it with others? Simple – by using VR (short for virtual reality).
VR is a form of interactive software that immerses users in a three-dimensional environment (usually by way of a headset with special lenses) to simulate a real experience. Ideally, VR allows its’ user to simulate an experience in 360 degrees.
At Cultural Perspectives, we combined the use of VR and story telling to produce a series of incredibly rich experiences of different culturally and linguistically diverse families highlighting the importance of the NDIS and opportunities they have accessed for their children as a result. As part of a larger project, MiAccess (which you can read more about here) we set off into a virtual world of the unknown.
After a thorough recruitment process with the support of representatives from multiple community organisations, we were able to source five families from Arabic, Cantonese, Mandarin, Punjabi and Vietnamese speaking backgrounds with a child on the autism spectrum. These families were determined to have others from their community learn more about the NDIS and how it can help others.
From stories of migrating to Australia with no familial support, to navigating the public schooling system, facing cultural barriers of acceptance due to the stigma associated with disability, to a proud parent of a child who has been able to grow and prosper in their abilities with the use of NDIS funded supports and services.
What have we been doing with the VR experiences? Well, we’ve been packing a suitcase full of headsets, eye masks, a lot of sanitser and making our way across the country to groups of parents, carers, community members and service providers. The VR experiences having been showcased as part of an interactive information session facilitated in-language that allows participants to not only be introduced to the MiAccess platform but also experience and listen to the stories of the families being shared through VR.
What have we learnt? That VR works. We found ourselves finishing an information session with a group of ten Arabic speaking mothers, carers and family members in Bankstown, NSW a few months ago, with a room full of nothing but wide smiles and heartfelt gratitude. Gratitude for the opportunity to learn from the experience of another mother telling her story (in Arabic) of navigating the NDIS but also for bringing something new to the group in a respectful manner, that wasn’t limited to translated brochures and PowerPoint presentations. Participants from this group shared their experiences of existing cultural and social stigma associated with disability and expressed their own fear of sharing personal stories and experiences with others. However, by the end of the session, we had multiple mothers and carers volunteering to share their stories as part of future material development and feeling confident more than ever to have other members from their community learn more about the NDIS and disability.
Gone are the days of speaking on behalf of communities and telling their story. At Cultural Perspectives, we strongly believe in building platforms for community to tell their own story, in their own way. Authentic storytelling – out with the old, in with the new.