As a blind person I’ve lived through many highs and lows navigating relationships with my support workers. Can you really be friends when your support worker is being paid to spend time with you?
Every time I step foot outside my door, I steel myself for public reactions. It’s natural to stare. Having a visible facial difference (along with multiple disabilities) means prying eyes and a constant stream of comments and questions.
Imagine approaching a restaurant only to find it has no door. You know people are inside but you can’t join them. For individuals with disabilities, this is how interacting with websites and mobile apps can feel when companies don’t prioritize accessibility.
Sometimes, an act of aggression toward disabled people is overt, like firing them from a job or not providing an accessible entrance to a bathroom or building. Other times, it’s subtler — an offhand comment that they’re “so inspiring,” or a cashier assuming they can’t communicate with them. These “microaggressions,” as they’ve come to be known, can still cause pain and reflect ableist attitudes. And people with disabilities can get pretty tired of hearing them.
Melbourne is the only Australian capital city where it is legal for motorcyclists to park on footpaths as long as they do not obstruct access. But as the city becomes more congested, obstacles on footpaths including motorcycles, bikes, A-frame signs and cafe tables, are making pedestrian crowding worse and life very difficult for people with disabilities. On Tuesday, the council will install “no stopping” signs along footpaths next to more than 50 disability parking bays in the CBD. The fine is $165.
There has long been concern and evidence that the NDIS, which promised so much for people with disability, is not meeting the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO) highlighted many of the reasons why in its 2018 submission to the Parliamentary Inquiry into NDIS Readiness.
Melbourne is a great city to live in, but it can do better for people with a disability by making it more accessible and inclusive. “One day, I’d love to not have to think about accessibility. Every building, event and public transport option in Melbourne would be wheelchair accessible and I could simply go about my day like everyone else, not having to plan my day around accessibility.”
As our everyday world moves increasingly online, the digital landscape presents new challenges for ensuring accessibility for the blind. A recent court challenge against Domino’s pizza may be a watershed case guiding the rights of disabled people on the internet.
Ms Ryan uses a power wheelchair, made of metal and powered by truck batteries, so she always expects that getting through the security checkpoints at the front door will be complicated. But her most recent visit, which was to attend a work function, was more than complicated — she said it was a traumatic experience that caused days of anxiety.
Almost a third of adults with disability (32 per cent) said they experienced high/very high psychological distress, compared to eight per cent of people without disability.
Lots of people go about their lives never getting to know a person with a disability (that they know of). Then when someone turns up in your workplace, school or church who has a visible disability, all that fear and miseducation keeps you from seeing them as a person to whom they can introduce themselves and strike up a friendship.
The panel discussed recent changes to Adaptive Technology (AT) processes and resources, how to prepare for an upcoming planning meeting where AT is needed, and how to escalate urgent AT issues with the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA). The panel included NDIA staff and sector representatives with substantial experience with the NDIS.
The launch of No Limits: The Disabled People’s Movement, A Radical History, took place last Friday (12 July), and was attended by its author, Judy Hunt, on the 40th anniversary of the death of her husband, Paul. It was Paul Hunt’s letter to the Guardian in 1972 which led to the formation of the Union of the Physically Impaired Against Segregation (UPIAS), which itself was to play a crucial role in the development of the movement and what was later known as the social model of disability.
In a survey of of economically disadvantaged people with a disability, 31% were not even aware of the NDIS. A further 41% had heard of the NDIS and were eligible but had not applied due to bureaucratic complexities.
CAPTCHA security tests, or the “Completely Automated Public Turing Test, to Tell Computers and Humans Apart”, are not always accessible to people with disabilities — sometimes putting them, ridiculously, in the “robot” category.