Carol Chittleborough

Carol was a charismatic person, who would have people admiring her for who she was. She has left behind a legacy of many Deaf children who she worked with and a lot of colleagues who held her in a high esteem.

Carol left school at fifteen years old, and working as a data processor. She married a Deaf man, Bevin and they had two daughters. In 1979, after the children grew up, she got a job as a Teacher's Assistant at Mosman Park School for Deaf Children. From there she embarked on a journey to become the first Deaf person in Western Australia to gain a Teacher's Assistant certificate from Mt Lawley College of Advanced Education in 1980.

Carol worked at the school until 1994 where she moved to working at the WA Deaf Society in a variety of roles until landing a job at Central TAFE as an Auslan lecturer, which she held for many years. She was instrumental in establishing the first interpreter's pilot course and taught budding interpreters in 1986. Carol continued her focus on interpreting, by joining the NAATI Auslan panel as an examiner, and assessing interpreters for 11 years. She was an exceptional storyteller, she was well known for her Auslan stories!

Carol was part of the Concerned Deaf group in 1981 around Australia to lobby for better communication access in schools. This in turn later contributed to the establishment of Western Australian Association of the Deaf in 1987!

After many years of working, Carol decided to take a plunge with her partner, Glenn to travel around Australia for 12 months in 2000 and they ended up in Kununurra helping out with a "volunteer" interpreter who was working with the local indigenous Deaf children. This is where their travels finished as Carol ended up working with the children instead.

She worked in the Kimberley region for over 10 years in education working with their local communities. She would travel to Broome, down to Halls Creek and surrounding communities to teach Auslan, meet local children, and work with those in the remote regions.

Prior to leaving Perth, she was also pivotal in the establishment of several Deaf community groups such as the WA Deaf Film Club, WA Deaf Women's Netball club and the WA Deaf Women's Sport club.

She had some great loves - for motorbikes and her dogs. She departed peacefully in 2017 to cancer.