Congratulations to ACCAN's own Wayne Hawkins, who won a prestigious award at the 2011 Deafness Forum Captioning Awards held in Sydney last night.

Wayne was awarded the Roma Wood OAM Community Award for his contribution to changes that will see captioning quality standards enshrined in legislation. This is a great win, not only for ACCAN, but for all Australians who are Deaf or hearing-impaired, people who use captions in noisy environments, to learn English, or for any of the many reasons that captioning is in demand.

Wayne, who is one of ACCAN's Disability Policy Advisers, says that he is honoured to have received the award.

"Access to information is a human right, which should be available to all," he said today.

Deafness Forum Chief Executive Kris Newton in congratulating Wayne echoed his sentiment, saying "Access to communications equals access to life." 

ACCAN Chief Executive Teresa Corbin said the organisation is very proud that Wayne has received this award. "It's wonderful that Wayne has been acknowledged for his hard work and tireless advocacy in this area. This is a great honour and very much deserved."