When Breda Carty was told she couldn't become a teacher because she was deaf, she didn't take no for an answer.
Years later, the Springwood resident was on the writing team for the first national Auslan curriculum for schools, an "historic milestone" which is raising the profile of Auslan and those who use it following its rollout in 2016.
Dr Carty was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in today's Queen's Birthday honours for "distinguished service to people who are deaf or hard of hearing, to education and research, and to the community".
Currently an Adjunct Fellow at Macquarie University, Dr Carty's education career has spanned being a lecturer at the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children's Renwick Centre, a teacher at the Victorian School for Deaf Children, and a Research Fellow at Griffith University.
She has also written a seminal history on the Australian deaf community in the early 20th century.
But the spark that led to this distinguished career were the obstacles placed in her way.
"I guess the initial driver was just being told I couldn't do things," she said. "For example, when I first wanted to become a teacher I was told I couldn't because I was deaf, and it took some perseverance to become one.
"Then my motivation moved to a broader, community-based drive to enhance awareness and access. If Deaf community advocates can improve education, Auslan recognition and general access for ourselves, we make things better for everyone and create a more equitable and diverse society."
Dr Carty, who has been deaf since early childhood, said she felt "very honoured to join so many people I admire and I am still trying to emulate" in receiving the prestigious Queen's Birthday honour.
"So many things I've been involved in over the years have been team efforts, so I hope the AO honour will be an opportunity to raise awareness about the Deaf community."
She said this is important because the community faces many misconceptions.
"We still encounter them all - from the old idea that we are 'deaf and dumb' to more recent assumptions that a hearing aid or cochlear implant fixes everything and magically makes us 'hearing'."
It is one of the reasons she believes it is crucial for the Deaf community to document its own history, like she did in her 2018 book, Managing their own affairs: The Australian Deaf Community in the 1920s and 1930s.
"It's particularly important to document the history of small groups such as the Deaf community, especially when they can get swallowed up in larger narratives, or have their stories told by 'benefactors'," she said.
"It's also important to show that history is not necessarily a story of continuous improvement, there are constant ups and downs. The Deaf communities of the early 20th century, which I explored in my book, were in many ways more outspoken and hard-working than we are today, and we still face many of the same recurring challenges they faced."
Helping write the Auslan curriculum in schools was one modern challenge Dr Carty is proud to have risen to.
"Auslan was included in the Australian curriculum after lobbying from the advocacy group Deaf Australia, and I was privileged to be part of the very professional writing team. There is still much to be done in terms of training and recruiting the right teachers and developing resources, but it was a significant step," she said.
