Mary Sayers, chief executive of Children and Young People with Disability Australia, said the organisation was calling for federal funding for the plan to be created and rolled out over a decade.
Closing date: June 30, 2022
Like any community, people with disability have diverse views. They deal with issues like accessibility, discrimination, and exclusion on a daily basis. Today we’re going to bring you some of those unique perspectives – all stories told by people with lived experience. Meet six Australians who share their own personal stories of living with disability.
While film critics and audiences alike have shouted their praise for this year’s best picture win, CODA, they seem to be ignoring the voices of the Deaf community.
The effects of this complex and evolving disability, Acquired Brain Injury (ABI), are profound and poorly understood by many in the community. This session was part of the Health Discussions Project. Hear from Lisa, Manda and Anat who talk about their experiences of living with ABI.
She inspired a heroic revolution. In the 90s, Barbara Lisicki and her then partner Alan Holdsworth together organised brave, co-ordinated protests that pushed the campaign for disabled rights into the spotlight. They chained themselves to buses and they blocked streets. Wheelchair users were lifted from their chairs by police and laid down in the roads to try to deter them. And now, a new BBC drama will tell the story. Barbara is in the studio to talk about the behind the scenes events that inspired the show.
The data showed that ads rarely represent disabled people in everyday life, such as working, parenting, household chores or enjoying activities. But there is a slow movement occurring with advertisers challenging people’s perceptions, showing how inclusion can be beneficial to a company.
In We’ve Got This, twenty-five parents who identify as Deaf, disabled or chronically ill discuss the highs and lows of their parenting journeys and reveal that the greatest obstacles lie in other people’s attitudes. The result is a moving, revelatory and empowering anthology.
Posting my reality, of living with my disability, I’m quietly educating, opening minds and slowly expanding people’s definition of what a disabled person’s life can be. I hope through my presence on Instagram I am implicitly encouraging other disabled people to find the same power.
I’m literally a neuroscientist, and I am finding it challenging to find love. Online dating can already be intimidating and confusing, and even more so for people with disability. As a 27-year-old living with cerebral palsy who uses dating apps, I’ve definitely experienced that people with disabilities have trouble being seen as potential lovers because of stereotypes perpetuated from media such as Love on the Spectrum.
Rock legend Jimmy Barnes says the issue of inaccessibility doesn’t just affect disabled fans, but artists living with disability as well. He says he’s lucky to have his daughter Elly-May, who has cerebral palsy, on tour with him frequently.
Monash flips on ‘ableist’ learning model
Monash University’s law faculty has sensationally scrapped its “ableist” ban on recorded lectures following fierce backlash from students.
For many, getting access to a rapid antigen test has been a major challenge. But for those who are vision impaired, using at-home tests is near impossible.
A negative reaction on the first meet unfortunately isn’t uncommon for many of the disabled people I spoke to for this article. Sometimes the experience is awkward; sometimes the date is just plain rude.
“Having dolls visually representing various disabilities helps children feel included, but it also helps them to learn more about people who may be different from themselves, normalising disability in real life.”
The real power of the disability community, however, comes not in the big rally-round but in the slow accumulation of knowledge that accrues from bearing witness to each other’s lives. From meeting new people with a whole range of disabilities, I’ve learnt the importance of including the widest variety of access needs when I’m asked to give advice on accessibility. I’m now able to talk about hearing loops and good lighting alongside step-free routes and disabled loos.