Annmaree Watharow

Preferred pronouns: she/her

Annmaree Watharow has Usher syndrome and completed a medical degree as the first deaf person to do so at the University of Sydney. She undertook a phd examining the hospital experiences of people with deafblindness and now works at the Centre fro Disability Research and Policy at the University of Sydney. She also recently completed a Masters of creative writing and writes essays and creative nonfiction about living with deafblindness-dual sensory impairment. Annmaree’s current research interests are: disability and identity; the pursuit of recognition of deafblindness as a unique and distinct disability in protections, policies and practices with dedicated funding and services; improving recognition and support of older people with dual sensory impairment and also in promoting accessibility for people with disability more broadly.

She brings with her to any position an ability to see many perspectives : clinical, academic, practical and lived experience. But the lived experience view is always the paramount one.