Jessica Sharp

President

Jess is a change maker and embodies continuous improvement, never quite satisfied with the status quo. She studied business management at the University of Queensland (UQ) and works in public policy development, project delivery and stakeholder engagement.

Jess was hooked after learning about socially-constructed disability barriers, shifting the perspective to designing environments and communications to include people with differences as equal. Jess believes in increasing access to communication through captioning to enable more people to engage and connect in whatever they choose.

Andrew Sharp

Treasurer

Andrew is an accomplished advocate for the hearing impaired. He is both a father and son of hearing impaired family members. He was educated at the University of Queensland as a professional engineer followed by an international corporate management career. He founded successful private companies in Australia and retired in 2012.

His involvement with the needs of the hearing impaired began nearly 40 years ago with the birth of his daughter and her journey through higher education and the workplace transition. Following years of encouragement (follow your dreams), the barriers to career fulfillment in the workplace provoked the bear. His interest in advocacy germinated in 2020 with the collapse of the National Relay Service captioned relay communication service. The explosion of screen technology cemented his belief in the importance of captions as an aid to communication.

Andrew has broadened his advocacy interests beyond the National Relay Service and campaigns for captioning as an aid to everyday communication, in public transport, tourism and within Government agencies.

Rick Webster

Secretary

Rick Webster is a retired veterinarian. He worked in a rural veterinary practice in England, similar to the ‘All creatures great and small’ TV series.

In Australia, he worked for the Queensland Department of Primary Industries on a range of projects including preventing chemical residues from being present in meat and milk, planning for an outbreak of an exotic disease such as rabies or foot and mouth disease, and the eradication of equine influenza (horse flu).

Rick is a volunteer driver for two charities; one taking people with disabilities to medical
appointments etc, one supporting families affected by domestic violence.

He is a widower having been married for 50 years. He has two children and two grandchildren.

Peter Kerley

Committee Member

Peter Kerley is a deaf Biomedical Engineer, specialising in Acoustics for the Deaf and Hearing-impaired.

For 10 years, he worked with the National Acoustic Laboratories designing Hearing Aids and Tactile Devices for all levels of deafness. Later, Peter became an Access Consultant and Disability Representative with Standards Australia.

As a father of six adult children and grandfather of six grand-children, Peter observes how infants transition through each level of communication. At first, it is emotional with smiles and tears, then babies observe visually and copy their parents and siblings behaviour. At the same time, they listen to the words and conversations around them. Next, they start to talk themselves. Home and pre-school follows with drawings and craft, and finally comes the alphabet and writing, the apex of communication.

OUR TEAM