When: Monday 19 October 2026 

Time: 12pm - 1pm (AEDT) 

Where: Online via zoom

Webinar overview:

This webinar explores being nonverbal, emotional literacy, and what happens to communication and connection when emotions become challenging to manage.

Georgia is a firm believer in talking things through to create shared understanding. One of the things they are beginning to understand is that this is not always possible in the moment. Strong emotions can leave little capacity to find words, construct a message, and engage with another person. At other times, the effort of communicating can leave little room to work out what is actually being felt. There are rare moments when things slow down enough for both to happen together. Recognising when that is possible, and when it is not, is critical. Sometimes that gets messy. Someone might shut down, lash out, or have what looks like a tantrum. Despite everyone's best intentions, it can be easier to focus on the behaviour than recognise someone who may not yet be able to process what is happening and communicate it at the same time. Expecting an explanation before that processing has happened can make things harder.

For an AAC user, being given time to process, being believed, and having an emotional experience recognised are forms of validation. They can also nurture relationships where people become better at understanding themselves and each other. It is about learning how to understand each other, repair things when they go wrong, and maintain connection through difficult moments too. Drawing on Georgia's lived experience, relevant research (including aspects of neurology), and strategies they are still learning and developing, the webinar will also consider how medical and care settings can unintentionally make communication, emotional processing, and connection harder.

Presenter:

Georgia Cranko is a gender queer disabled artist, writer and activist. They are Sydney born and bred and live and work on the land of the Wurundjeri Woi wurrung people in Melbourne. They majored in Gender Studies as part of a Bachelor of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Sydney, graduating in 2018. They write articles alongside their artistic and political work, using cultural analysis and social theory to make sense of the world and shape their writing, politics, and sense of identity. Georgia communicates through finger spelling using an idiosyncratic alphabet and an array of rudimentary text to speech devices. They centre unashamed truth telling in everything they write and make, using narrative across art, journalism, and political work to expose ingrained prejudice and push back against prescriptive social ideologies, asserting meaning on their own terms in a world that often refuses to listen. They have run training, spoken publicly, worked on research projects, and collaborated across disability, media, and advocacy spaces. They work as a political researcher and assistant producer with ABC News (Aus). 

Register here

Details coming soon! 

This event is FREE for all to attend - everyone is welcome! 

When: 

Time: 

Where:

Details coming soon! 

This event is FREE for all to attend - everyone is welcome! 

When: 

Time: 

Where: 

This event is FREE for all to attend - everyone is welcome! 

When: Saturday 24 October 2026

Time: 10:30am - 12:30pm 

Where: NovitaTech Cafe, 31 Manton Street Hindmarsh