Vision Australia Radio was proud to return as an Access and Inclusion Partner for the 2026 Brimbank Writers and Readers Festival, continuing a valued collaboration with Brimbank Libraries and Brimbank City Council for the fourth year in a row. Held across Melbourne’s western suburbs from March 12 to 17, the festival celebrated storytelling in all its forms and brought together writers, readers and the wider community through a program of free events.
For Vision Australia Radio, the partnership provided an important opportunity to support a major local cultural event while ensuring people who are blind or have low vision could access festival information and feel included from the very beginning. A large number of Vision Australia clients live throughout Melbourne’s west, making Brimbank a particularly important community for our service.
In the lead-up to the festival, Vision Australia Radio helped promote key events and messages through on-air interviews and dedicated community service announcements. Festival organisers, library staff and contributors joined us on air to talk about the program, helping listeners feel connected to what was happening in their local area.
Image caption: Vision Australia Radio signage sits along other sponsor banners at the Sunshine library where the events took place.
One of the highlights of the partnership was the return of a dedicated ‘Hear This’ radio special, featuring the runners-up and winners of the festival’s Microfiction Competition. Announced live during the festival, the broadcast celebrated emerging and established voices from the western suburbs and showcased the power of short-form storytelling through accessible audio.
To further support independent access, Vision Australia Radio produced an audio version of the festival guide. This allowed blind and low vision listeners to explore the program, plan ahead and choose sessions of interest in their own time, without relying on printed materials.
The Brimbank Writers and Readers Festival once again drew strong interest from the local community, offering a welcoming mix of talks, workshops and shared experiences. Through our involvement, Vision Australia Radio helped ensure that the festival’s stories, ideas and conversations were accessible to more people across Melbourne’s west.
Photo credit: ‘Brimbank Libraries’. Includes 4 speakers within a forum setting, at the sunshine Library.
We are proud to continue working alongside Brimbank Libraries and Brimbank City Council to support inclusive community events and look forward to building on this partnership in the years ahead.
