About the Summit

ACAud is inviting structured submissions to help shape the Summit agenda and identify the people and perspectives needed for a focused Adelaide roundtable.

Australia needs a hearing healthcare workforce that works as a connected whole, with each layer recognised for the safe, competent care it is trained to provide. The Summit will bring existing ideas, evidence and experience into one structured process, so they are not held in isolation but tested together against the pathway Australia needs.

Submissions will help ACAud understand where there is already alignment, where further evidence is needed, which matters require focused discussion, and which people or organisations may need to be represented in the room.

ACAud as Convenor of the Summit

ACAud is well placed to convene the Summit because it represents and connects the united hearing workforce across students, nurse audiometrists, audiometrists and audiologists.

That whole-workforce perspective is essential because the pathway Australia needs will not come from a single title, single training route or single service model. It will come from recognising layered skills, safe scope of practice, practical training pathways, rural and regional realities, early identification, culturally safe care, and the full chain of care from screening and assessment through to rehabilitation, device fitting, follow-up and ongoing support.

ACAud also holds the practical workforce relationships needed to bring forward people who can speak from real service delivery, training, community access and implementation experience.

Why it is important

The Summit will use a life-course pathway lens. The question is not only who can provide care, but how hearing health is identified, responded to, referred, rehabilitated, followed up and measured across every major life stage.

· newborn screening linked to early supported care;

· preschool checks between newborn screening and school entry;

· primary school and secondary school transition points;

· entering work and working life hearing health supports;

· healthy ageing, rehabilitation, technology and connection;

· hearing assessment when entering residential aged care.

Consultation

Targeted and public consultation processes will be undertaken during the review.

To register your interest in participating in the consultation email: hearingsummit@acaud.org or download your submission LINK

Status

· Submissions open 6 July 2026

· Submissions close 14 August 2026

Contact

Hearing Health Workforce Summit Contact 

hearingsummit@acaud.org

acaud@acaud.org