Locke wins Australian Human Rights Award
UTS Communication graduate Kate Locke has been awarded the 2009 Australian Human Rights Community (Individual) Tony Fitzgerald Memorial Award.
The Australian Human Rights Commission who issued the award said, 'Kate has been recognised for her passion and dedication in increasing awareness and overcoming discrimination against deaf and hearing impaired people within Australia.'
Locke, 30, is profoundly deaf and has devoted much of her free time to helping others in the community with hearing disabilities, ranging from mentoring children, to lobbying the government for funding for better facilities and assistance. In July 2009, she received a cochlear implant.
"Being deaf was very difficult for me growing up, so I have an interest in human rights with a specific focus on disabilities," says Locke, who is now the Online Content Manager for Zurich Financial Services.
"As well as my full-time job, I work with several non-profit groups with the aim to promote equal opportunity and access for people with disabilities. I am the Deputy Chair of the Board of the Deafness Forum of Australia, and on the Board of the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network - the peak body that represents all consumers on communications issues."
It was back in 2000, when she was studying a BA in Communication at UTS, that she noticed her hearing began to drop to profoundly deaf levels.
"I began to realise how difficult it was going to be for me to become a deaf journalist. So, after finishing the journalism component of my degree, I decided to go more in the direction of online, and studied interactive multimedia and new media.
"Since graduating [in 2003], I have worked with Carat Media, Reed Business, Freehills and Lexis Nexis in their online and publishing departments. I have continued to feed my interest in social media, web 2.0 and everything online, and have designed, created and maintained several websites for non-profit organisations."
With her steely determination, she successfully convinced former Prime Minister John Howard (above) to become an ambassador of the Deafness Forum of Australia and she has gone on to win the Roma Wood Community Award for dedication to improving captioning and media access across DVDs, cinemas, online videos and TV.
Kate was short-listed with four other worthy nominees and won the Community Award for an Individual (Tony Fitzgerald Memorial Award) in the 2009 Human Rights Medals and Awards, announced on 10 December by the Australian Human Rights Commission.
Locke says she is keen to keep going: "This year is going to be a big one - I am passionate about improving access to communications for deaf and blind people around Australia, and I think this is the year when things will really start to improve."