“Engaging people who are disabled or who are heavily experienced in disability means you’re going to get the best outcome in terms of being accessible. It’s the knowledge, experience, and the type of thinking that you can’t really get from someone who doesn’t have that lived experience.”
Live streams through the pandemic were a revelation for disabled and at-risk audiences. Now they’re being switched off – and it’s a devastating loss
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.
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.
Soprano Jordie Howell talks about how she’s learnt about drama and stage craft as a blind person and explores how the opera industry could be more accessible for musicians and singers who are blind.
Television and advertising should lift the numbers of people with disabilities if Australia hopes to increase employment numbers, a Royal Commission has been told. 53.4% of people living with disabilities are unemployed in Australia, a figure which hasn’t lifted in decades.
Meeting Place 2021 launched its online forum with a bang this year as keynote speakers offer reflections to overcome ableism and tips for the revolution. Speaking from a series of heartfelt experiences, keynote speakers Georgia Cranko, Riana Head-Toussaint and Joshua Pether address this year’s theme: Reflect; Redefine; Revolutionise!, highlighting ways they grapple with toxic structural inequalities to lead the revolution.
“I can’t believe I just won the Golden Slam,” Alcott said following his win. “I used to hate myself so much, I hated my disability, I didn’t even want to be here any more. I found tennis and it changed and saved my life. Now I’ve become the only male ever in any form of tennis to win the Golden Slam which is pretty cool.”
“Thanks for making the dreams of a young fat disabled kid with a really bad haircut come true because I can’t believe I just did it!” he told the Louis Armstrong Stadium crowd. “I just can’t believe I just won the golden slam!”
Despite many people with disability being highly skilled with incredible stories to tell, a lack of accessible career pathways, employment opportunities and commitment to authentic representation are creating significant blockages for those wanting to forge careers on or behind our screens – although there are signs things are changing.
As live music returns in much of the country, advocates and artists with disability say the industry should learn some lessons from the pandemic and build back up in a more inclusive way.
During the pandemic, when the world shrank, many of us walked in the bush. For someone who can’t see, it isn’t necessarily something that I can do independently. But over the years, it is something that has become important to me.
Carl Thompson, 31 – who lives with cerebral palsy and uses a power wheelchair – and his girlfriend Kirsty Crosby, 24, from Melbourne, say they are often met with confusion when people realise they are in fact in a relationship.
When children can’t and don’t see themselves and the possibilities of their lives, joy and dreams in what they watch, read and play with, it’s like a black hole gets torn inside them.
When 26-year-old Nathan Johnston tried to connect with people during the peak of last year’s COVID-19 lockdown, he realised how challenging it could be for people living with a disability to use social media networks like Twitter and Facebook.