Gordon Education Centre Mount Gambier teacher Ashleigh Calleja is passionate about enriching the lives of people with a disability.

Ms Calleja has taught at Gordon Education Centre for 12 years and currently teaches a middle school complex communication class, where all her students use alternate communication.

“The focus for our class is to immerse the students in a variety of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC), and by doing that we have given them all a voice which is suitable for them and their needs,” she said.

“Now they have got a voice we are able to gauge a lot more with what they are learning and their understanding and they are expressing themselves, it has been fantastic.”

Ms Calleja has a variety of students in her class, including students with physical disabilities who she had worked hard with on eye movements to indicate yes and no.

“I have got students using low-tech communication devices, so we use PODD books (Pragmatic Organisation Dynamic Display), the low-tech version where we model with the students the pathways,” she said.

“There is an index page and from the index page the students move through the categories to express themselves.

“Then we have high-tech communication aids, the one we use predominantly is Proloquo2go, where when the students touch the cell it says it, it has got categories where there is further vocab in there.

“We have supported the students to be able to explore a great deal of that vocabulary and they can use it independently to express themselves, make comments, ask questions, request things, so it has been huge.

“We also do a fair bit of Key Word Sign, so that multi-modal communication, so we are often signing as well so the students have input in more than one way.”

Ms Calleja said because spoken language was fleeting, using visuals allowed more processing time for people who needed it and these mechanisms gave them more time to access their vocabulary.

Student wellbeing and dignity is a major focus for Ms Calleja and she said ensuring students developed autonomy was a passion of hers.

“I have worked really hard on that, making sure that students always have a voice and that we respect and value what they are telling us and that we make sure they know we are hearing what they are saying and providing alternate options for them,” she said.

“Making sure they are the boss of their body, they have the right to say yes and no, they can support themselves to do things independently, they can access curriculum that is the best way for them, they can do it to the best of their abilities by themselves.

“I have always wanted people with disabilities to live the best quality of life they can, and I do believe that comes from being as independent as possible.”

Ms Calleja was awarded the Inclusive Teacher of the Year (Disability) Award at the 2022 Public Education Awards and said she always knew she wanted to work with people with a disability.

“I think they are some of the most incredible young people in our community and I think that being able to support them to become as independent and successful as possible, giving them the highest quality of life by giving them education, is something that just drives me,” she said.

“I want them to make sure they are enjoying what life has to offer and making sure they are all active participants in the community.”

Ms Calleja also approached children’s musical group Teeny Tiny Stevies with an idea for a song about children with disabilities and the song ‘Abilities’ was created, which features on ABC Kids.

“It is just fantastic to see young people with disabilities in mainstream media and being celebrated,” Ms Calleja said.

“I wanted our young people to be seen in the wider public, I wanted children that have disabilities to celebrate their abilities, and that becomes something that is just normalised as we continue on as the generations continue.

“Instead of looking at the things they may not yet be able to do, I wanted them to celebrate things they can do and things that may be different from other people but are also really incredible.”

Ms Calleja wanted young people with disabilities to continue to integrate with the wider community and hoped increasing understanding of people with disabilities and what they can achieve would lead to greater inclusion.

“I really hope that we can continue to work with other members of community to make sure our young people live their best lives and are fully included in the local community,” she said.

“It is lovely to see the Mount Gambier community is so accepting and inclusive and let’s hope that continues as we go on.”