Disability Care Australia and Community Participation

One of the driving themes behind the NDIS campaign and now the introduction of Disability Care Australia is the desire for people with disabilities and their families to participate in all areas of life and to have the same freedom to fully participate in society.

There are many places, events and activities which people with disabilities have felt excluded from. Either through the inability to physically access like beaches, pubs, swimming pools, restaurants, art galleries, theaters; or poor access to education and learning supports; limited access braille services and hearing loops, the cost and limited funding for assistance dogs, including guide dogs; cost and delays in home modifications and mobility aids and lack of funding for appropriate support care.

             

The introduction of Disability Care Australia does more than ensure people with disabilities and their families receive the correct types of supports and equipment to meet their needs. It brings Australia into line with UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities.  People with disabilities as standing up and saying, I simply want to be counted in!

Many have mistaken the NDIS campaign for another grab for 'entitlements' or 'welfare'! The popular myth: people with disabilities are content with being 'spectators' in society, this is certainly not true in my case nor my friends withe disabilities.  The majority of people I know with disabilities are either engaged in study, community, full time employment or are small business owners like myself. People despite the barriers;  lack of support and community attitudes go out and crave their way into the community.

For me one of the larger challengers of Disability Care Australia will be to reshape our view of 'disability'.  That is to challenge the traditional view or stereotype of disability, to see the abilities, talents and skills that people with disability, to explore new possibilities for people with disabilities and admit past attitude have limited the people with all disabilities.

I personally do not believe we have begun to explore the possibilities that people with disabilities and their families can enjoy with all that advances in medical science; technologically, communications and methods of education have to offer.  The education system continues to allows the labeling of students with disabilities and the schools the attend.  There is no need for the would "Special" to be used in the name of a school.  Just because that school caters  solely for the needs of students with disabilities.  The idea that having a disabilities makes as "special" or "different" is outdated and continues to feed myths and inappropriate attitude to those who deal with disability as part of their daily lives.

Complying with UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities. means taking a mature attitude. To treat all people the same.  We need to treat adult with disabilities as adults and require more of them and ourselves.  Individuals need to be treated according to the physical age not the intellectual comparability we mentally assume them to have.  For so often our assumptions are incorrect.

If working with young people with high support needs taught me one thing, time and time again it is how much I underestimate people with intellectual and behavioral disabilities is they deliver so much more than I require of them and the always give a 110%

Means people with disabilities and their families want to be part of every aspect of the Australia way of life and enjoy everything that our beautiful country has to offer. For we too come from the land down under!