Tag Archives: disability awareness training

What Dave said he needed to say

Leave a reply

He said best. Thank you Dave.

 

No more needs to be said. Today at least.

Possibly Related Posts:


I’ve been busy

2 Replies

I have a lot to say, but a combination of tired and still busy means this will be a quickie. But I’ve missed blogging so here I am.

It’s been a very disability week after a fun weekend.

Starting with:

While visiting a friend on the weekend I was asked to be part of a news story on the rather ridiculous closure of a lift to three platforms at the busiest interchange in Sydney for 10 weeks to upgrade the lift. The lift upgrade is great but 10 weeks? C’mon. Anyway, here’s the piece.

Apart from being refereed to as wheelchair bound I like it. I got to state the obvious and pose for a bit.

It may not sound that big a deal, but I’m right:

“I need to use Town Hall station almost daily to get to business, medical and other appointments,’’ she said. “I’m not sure how I’m going to organise my life for the next three months. It’s just going to add cost, time and inconvenience.’‘

.

And after sitting at the station for 20 minutes to wait for the photographer and hearing the announcement of the lift closure several other times since, this article is the first time anyone from RailCorp has apologised to me for the inconvenience.

The annoying thing is not so much the increased distances but the fact that if I have to change trains it is another point at which I must seek permission to board a train at convenience other than my own. Something that most if not all other  taxpayers don’t have to stoop to.

It was posed but this is how I feel. Thanks for the photo Melvyn.

Joanna waiting at the bottom of staires

awkward again

Possibly Related Posts:


Uprights behaving badly: Footpaths

8 Replies

I’m going to do a series of posts on things I wish those without apparent disability understood or did differently. It is from my perspective as a person who uses a wheelchair, but hope it can be useful more broadly. So to start with:

Footpaths: their use and misuses

My top 5 things six things I wish uprights got about using the footpath:

  1. Don’t just stand there – move something. Standing still at the top of kerb ramps instead of moving off it to allow people crossing to safely and legally get off the road. This is not the place to start a meaning of life conversation or adjust your wardrobe. I, like others need a clear metre at the top of the incline to safely complete the crossing process without tipping myself up or collecting your shins. For many of us who have different mobility issues we need to pick a direction of travel and keep moving as much for safety as energy or anything else so abrupt stopping is never polite. It’s like a car slamming on the brakes every 50 metres instead of going say 30 kph with on-coming traffic coming at you on either side. Also if I am obeying the rules of the road and waiting on the kerb ramp with you jay-walking in the opposite direction please don’t climb over my chair to get off the road.. My footplates are part of my personal space.
  2. While talking of footpaths they are not the place to mingle with five or six of your friends all looking and talking  inwards. Given I am waist high to most of you it can be very hard to attract your attention to keep moving (see above) and am often stuck yelling at people’s belt loops for some minutes waiting for one of the party to look down. Not everyone can sidle past or tap you somewhere that my grandmother would consider polite. I can’t tap you on the shoulder if I’m three foot tall.
  3. Footpaths are still first and foremost designed built and paid for to enable the safe pedestrian movement of all of us. They are not designed to act as a parking lot for prams cars or bikes, a community ashtray, a junk storage zone, a dining room or an extension of your business. While these uses are able to be incorporated in parts and more modern footpathing have integrated these uses, please remember that the narrow footpaths still need to fulfil the movement thing as their primary role.
  4. If you are over 12 do as our parents and the law teaches: please walk your pushbike on footpaths. It’s polite, non aggressive and saves kerb ramps for those of us who have need them to get anywhere not just get somewhere quickly. I know you are doing a good thing for the planet and all that, but polite is still polite. You are still a vehicle. You saving carbon by not using your car is great and something I very much support but the energy flow needed to incorporate your riding on the footpath for me is higher I suspect than for most other people (see point regarding committing to a direction of travel) in the other direction in a need for higher concentration, and the kind of stopping and starting of a machine that you are trying to avoid.
  5. While we are on a roll here can smokers please refrain from lowering your cigarette and it’s  plume to get me right in the face. Just as you don’t want it right near your eyes when your not smoking it – neither do I. I have even been ashed in my lap or on my hand or chest more than once. It might also be worth noting that this behaviour is not going to be good for any children in the area either.
  6. This same idea applies to the swinging of handbags and backpacks in the vicinity  of my head shoulders or back or failing to look in all directions (up/down as well as forward and back when exiting a shop to re-enter a flow on the footpath. Its like entering a flow of car traffic without checking your mirrors. Bumping the back of a wheelchair isn’t like bumping a chair leg.. I can feel it. If checking in all directions before you move seems exhausting my only solace for you is; if we all did it more we’d probably all have to do it less.

The main things I wish that “uprights” understood about footpath/sidewalk  issues are:

  • everyone is trying to get somewhere to be with those we love. I know all the stuff about vibrant footpath culture, but we need to be able to get places to enjoy the culture.
  • everyone comes in different sizes so please look down as well as behind. It can be humiliating talking to belt loops for 5 minutes.

Possibly Related Posts:


A thank you

2 Replies

I just want to say thank you to everyone for their interest in my small contribution to this discussion about Dancing with the Stars. It will be interesting to see the impact that these discussion on and off air will have on the show.

I want to make one thing clear. It wasn’t the low scores I was most concerned with. It was the combination of factors, and how they combined.

The comments generally made to Gerrard have shown a nervousness that some awareness training would have assisted as some of my commenters have noted. Not to necessarily have softened the feedback, but to make the judges and the hosts more confident and therefore relaxed around the topic. Perfect time to do that was whey asked him on to the show.

Another major point is that he is making an effort to take the feedback that he is given on board and therefore give more feedback and judge accordingly. None of these celebrities are aiming to be professional dancers but to entertain, as is the judges role:

McKenney ….  said it was his duty to judge as he did and to “entertain the audience”.

My major critiscm however seems to have been largely missed and goes beyond the last show.. It is this. There is no need to remind the audience at the start of every show that he has an obvious disability. We know that. We get it. With one in 5 people in Australia estimated to be living with some form of disability and more recent figures indicated that the roughly the same percentage have a mental illness, the chances are good that Gerrard is not the only one on that stage and certainly not in the audience. The treatment he has recieved from the start has made me cringe every time and I am not the only one. The last thing needed is further embarrassment for the individuals or the broader community.

With those percentages set to increase, perhaps we need to move away from singling people out and focus on true intergration and dare I say; inclusion?

Possibly Related Posts: