Physical Disability Australia, as Australia’s peak body for people with physical disabilities, has grave concerns about the constitutional and human rights implications of the Government’s proposed National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) Amendment Bill.
In response, PDA joins other Disability Peak Bodies in calling on members of the Senate to vote “NO”.
To read our organisation’s position on this issue, go to:
This Wednesday (21st Aug 2024 at 6:30pm AEST), Physical Disability Australia invites you to attend a free online information session around the new Housing Roadmap.
Presented by the HousingHub, this online event will explore the Housing Roadmap, explain how to use it, and give an insight into supports available to those looking to begin their housing journey.
As Australia’s largest disability housing platform, the Housing Hub is the trusted, go-to website for those looking to access the accessible housing market.
Over the past year, Housing Hub has worked closely with people with disability and their supporters to redesign their information resources around the disability housing market.
Their upcoming information will be run via Zoom with accessibility options available (please share your access needs when you register).
To register for this free event, go to:
If you have any questions, please email the housing options team at housingoptions@housinghub.org.au or call their Advice Line on 1300 61 64 63.
We look forward to you joining us for this information session.
I was fortunate to win a trip to Vienna in February 2024. It was to attend the Zero Project Conference1 at the United Nations. It’s a global conference for people with disabilities to share ideas and innovative solutions to barriers. As a woman with a physical disability and a power wheelchair user, I had won because of a video about my pointer stick that I use to help me do everyday tasks. The judges thought I was an innovator for inventing a simple solution which had a profound impact on my independence.
The conference organisers wanted me to fly in the day before, stay the four nights, and fly home the day after the conference. “Do you know how far Austria is from Australia?” I asked. They may sound similar, but the two countries are on opposite sides of the world from each other, plus there’s a seven-hour time difference. Fortunately there was an Australian (who now lives in France) on this Zoom call, who agreed it wasn’t fair to make me fly 17 hours each way for only four nights. They agreed I could stay longer, as long as I flew in and out of Vienna and paid for the extra nights myself.
So how many nights did I want to stay? I checked my annual leave balance at work and found out that I could go for three weeks.
My flights and accommodation only got confirmed four weeks before I left. So it didn’t leave much time to plan my trip. One thing I really wanted to do was ski in the Austrian Alps. If I’m going to go in winter, I may as well go skiing. Yes people in wheelchairs can ski! I’ve skied twice before: once in Japan and once at Mt Buller in Victoria. It is so much fun that I recommend it to everyone. Even though I hate the cold, it’s worth it.
I made some inquiries before leaving, and booked a tentative date with a disabled ski school in a town called Schladming, three-hours by car from Vienna.
When I arrived in Vienna, I asked the hotel staff to research some accessible transport options for me to get there. They came back to us a few days later: a taxi costing €930 (over $1,500)! Plus if I was to stay overnight, I had to pay for the driver’s accommodation, dinner and breakfast! I said no thanks.
My ski booking was moved to the Sunday after the Zero Project Conference, which gave us more time to plan. First thing was transport. Amy, my support worker, didn’t mind if she had to drive us there. But it meant going up the day before and returning the day after. It was too far for a day trip. If someone else was driving we could have done it in one very long day.
We made numerous phone calls and got lucky with Hertz in Vienna. They had one wheelchair accessible vehicle for hire, was available for the weekend, would allow Amy to drive it (but needed to pay extra as she’s under 25) and would cost about €250. A bargain compared to the taxi.
With transport sorted, we needed accommodation for two nights. We called the Schladming Tourist Centre and asked them to find something for us. After two days they hadn’t found anything, and the weekend was fast approaching. We spent that morning on the phone, calling every place close to the ski school. On our fifth or sixth attempt, we got lucky: a wheelchair access room with two separate beds, available for the two nights and not too far from the ski school. We couldn’t believe we got transport and accommodation sorted at last.
But a few hours later Hertz emailed me to say our hire car had technical problems and is off the road! And it wouldn’t be fixed before we needed it. Yep. Just when we thought we could relax and look forward to the trip to the mountains.
So it was back to square one. We called a lot of disability transport providers but none could help. In desperation, I tracked down the lady who booked my airport transfers. Her name was Eva and she was at the conference. Maybe she could help?
Unfortunately we’d already tried the company she used and they weren’t available. “But I might know someone who has a van,” Eva said. We left it with her and asked everyone we met at the conference as well.
That night we emailed the hotel to say we had transport issues and couldn’t confirm the booking just yet, but would be in touch soon. On the Friday we still hadn’t heard back from Eva, so we found her at the closing ceremony of the conference. She made a phone call while we waited in front of her.
Her friend of a friend had a wheelchair van we could borrow – for free! We couldn’t believe our luck. The only catch was that we had to go to a country train station to pick it up, and have it back by 3pm on Monday. Easy, or so we thought.
With transport sorted, we emailed the hotel straight away to confirm our booking. At 10pm, and as we got into bed, I received a reply from the hotel. It read: “You no longer have a booking with us as you did not confirm in time.”
Oh dear. (Not exactly what I said at the time but too explicit to write). It was as if the universe was against us going skiing. We tried calling the hotel but there was no answer, so emailed them asking if they had another suitable room available. I was only going for two nights and wasn’t taking my shower chair anyway. As long as the room was accessible and had two beds, I didn’t really care what the bathroom was like. Not at this late stage when we were leaving the next morning!
We had an email from them in the morning with a choice of two rooms. I chose one, clicked on the link that said “confirm” and a webpage opened that said “thank you for confirming your booking”. All sorted, I hoped.
We finished packing, pushed the hoist down to the station, found the train we needed and bought our tickets. Only we missed our connecting train as it didn’t have wheelchair access (plus we didn’t know where we needed to go or where the lifts were). Some of these stations were huge with changing platforms so you have to check the display boards (like at the airport).
We found staff that could help us get on the next train, but we were late picking up the van by about an hour and a half. Especially since we couldn’t even find our way out of that station!
We met up with Mr Harrer, who didn’t speak much English. Amy and I had started learning German on Duolingo only 10 weeks prior, so weren’t very capable of communicating with him. But he’d brought a friend with him and she could be our interpreter.
After removing some of the back seats so I could fit, and folding up my hoist, Amy was handed the keys. Our dream of being in the mountains was about to come true.
It was Amy’s first time driving on the wrong side of the road, in a left-hand-drive vehicle (we didn’t tell Mr Harrer that). It was the little things, like having to use your right hand to change gears, and the indicator switch on the opposite side that confused her the most. I kept guiding her to stay within the lane and which lane to go in when turning. But two hours later we arrived at the hotel surrounded by snow. We had no idea that they’d had snow the night before – the first after about four weeks with none! It was amazing timing for us.
We entered the warm reception and the lady asked “Can I help you?”
I told her my name and she looked confused. “You didn’t confirm your booking,” she said.
I showed her the confirmation I got on the website on my phone. Turned out there was a glitch in her system and she didn’t receive a notification.
“Well, do you still have a room available?” I asked.
“Yes,” she replied, much to our relief.
She had housekeeping prepare our room while Amy got things out of the van. In my rush and desperation to book accommodation, I never asked about clearance under the bed for my hoist. I could see in the photos that one bed didn’t, but the other was a sofa bed. All sofa beds have clearance, right? I’d thought. When we got up to the room and checked, I was wrong. Neither bed had space underneath for the hoist legs to go under. How would I get into bed and out again safely?
We decided to go down for dinner and leave that problem for later. But putting it off wasn’t going to solve the problem. After dinner, Amy sat on both beds and decided she wanted the sofa bed as the other was too soft. Even though the sofa bed was the easiest to get me onto with the hoist. The other bed was built into the wall so couldn’t be moved or raised. I did consider sleeping in my wheelchair, but this was an expensive hotel so wanted to sleep in their bed.
We moved some furniture around to make space, but still couldn’t get close enough. One piece of furniture was a large wooden coffee table, and just happened to be the same height as the top of the mattress.
“What if we hoisted me onto the table, then slid me onto the bed?” I asked Amy. She sat on the table to make sure it was sturdy. It might actually work, we thought. We put the hoist side-on to the bed, I drove underneath and she hoisted me up. Then Amy moved my chair back and put the table underneath, and covered it with the duvet and my poncho which was slippery on the outside. She lowered me onto the table, disconnected me from the hoist, then ran around the other side of the bed and pulled me with the duvet. It worked! We were excited but exhausted, and to think we’d have to do it again for both mornings and nights. But we had a way which worked, and our reward was to ski the next day.
There was no way I was going to be late for my ski booking at 11am, so we set the alarm early. We had no idea how much longer it would take to get me off the bed again. When Amy got up, she opened the blinds. The view took our breath away. It was 7am, and the sun had just touched the top of the mountain range we could see, highlighting the snow. There was still snow on our balcony balustrade too. It was like waking up in a fairy tale book; we thought we were dreaming. It’s the kind of scene you’d only see in a calendar or on a postcard. And here it was, right outside our hotel window, on a trip that almost didn’t happen. It made us forget all about our problems and go out and enjoy the day. We had made it.
Melanie in her sit-ski with her guide Sevie
1See https://www.youtube.com/live/8e1bqt419RY?si=FKVOIIMggk-2DHIL for the live stream of my presentation at the conference in Vienna.
The Department of Social Services is calling on all Australians to provide feedback on the current disability strategy, via a questionnaire until September 6th at 5pm AEST.
The aim of this feedback is to create a more inclusive Australia through a a review of Australia’s Disability Strategy, ensuring that it is working as planned and to understand if improvements need to be made.
A discussion paper has been prepared by the Australian Government outlining information to inform Australians when submitting their feedback on the current disability strategy. This comes in multiple formats (including a standard, easy-read, low-formatted and Auslan video and transcript) and can be accessed by going to
www.engage.dss.gov.au/ads-review/review-of-australias-disability-strategy-ads-discussion-paper/
To be involved in the review, complete the questionnaire by going to
or by emailing your feedback to ADSReview@dss.gov.au.
It is hoped that this feedback will lead to an updated strategy geared at improving the lives of people with disability, and looking towards a more inclusive and accessible community and society for all Australians.
Australians with disability, their family, disability organisations and Australians without disability are all encouraged to provide their feedback during this review.
For more information on Australia’s Disability Strategy 2021-2031, go to
https://www.disabilitygateway.gov.au/ads
Get involved. Have your say.
Together we can steer positive change.
A recent *workplace disability discrimination report from Diversity Council Australia has revealed that some people living with disabilities are choosing not to disclose their conditions for fear of being overlooked for career progression, being ostracised and/or discriminated against by colleagues and employers.
Have you experienced discrimination at work because of your disability or have you made the active decision to not share your disability information because of professional or social concerns?
Do you think that you have an obligation to disclose this aspect of your personal information regardless of its impact to your job? Or do you think that it’s no-one’s business but your own if accessibility arrangements or workplace concessions aren’t required?
We’d love to hear your thoughts.
My name is Bikash Chapagain. 45 years ago (in 1979) I was born in Nepal, a small landlocked mountainous country between China and India. I still remember my childhood memories. Nostalgia always haunts me. It is pretty normal in one’s life, isn’t it?
As a child, my four limbs, feet and hands were a little weak, however, I was strong enough to walk and run. At the age of five, I was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy. At the age of thirteen, I could not walk at all. There was no hydrotherapy treatment in Nepal but with the support of a life jacket, I was able to walk and float in the normal swimming pool (non heated).
Whilst studying my Bachelor’s degree at the age of twenty in Nepal, I read the essay “The Declaration of Independence” by Thomas Jefferson. I used to contemplate and was very much touched by the lines: “all men/women are born equal. Life, liberty and pursuit of happiness are the three inevitable human rights endowed by nature.”
Sitting in my manual wheelchair, I always used to be astonished by these words and what these basic, fundamental and universal human rights meant for my life!
Twelve and half years ago, I received the Australian Government’s Endeavour Vocational Education and Training Award to pursue a Diploma of Community Services Work at Southbank, Brisbane. It was during this time that I discovered a wheelchair accessible, heated swimming pool. In July 2014, I was involved in a terrible motor vehicle accident in front of PA Hospital in Brisbane that put me in hospital recovery for nearly 4 months. For encouragement and motivation in life, I used to attend professional development training and resilience in Brisbane. This helped me to cope with my physical condition, excruciating back pain and challenged mental state.
In 2015, I got 4 appointments via Medicare for hydrotherapy. The hydrotherapist, Michael, inspired me and assisted me to walk without a life jacket and independently (but under supervision). I gained so much more confidence to walk in the heated pool with its comfortable temperature of around 32 degrees celsius. Brisbane Lions Club also gifted me a 7 day pass, whilst PA Hospital’s hydrotherapy and Mater Hospital’s physio also provided me with sessions of hydrotherapy.
Despite my physical disability, I am grateful for the wheelchair accessible infrastructures offered in the heated pool – such as the waterproof wheelchair, ramp and disability friendly bathroom. These gave me the opportunity and ability to access the pool with the assistance of my physio or, on some days, just my wife. I was also able to be independent in the bathroom to shower and to transfer and get dressed.
In 2018, I became an NDIS participant and started getting support workers. In my time with them, it’s always my preference to attend a heated pool, to walk there and to learn how to swim and enjoy playing beachball in the pool. From June 2018 until today, it is with the support of NDIS that I can go to a heated pool almost everyday.
I can now swim independently. Swimming has helped me to better understand my back pain, body pain and how to deal with my stress, anxiety and depression. Swimming is supporting me to cope with and beat my physical and mental conditions.
My two children and my wife are also good swimmers. My own personal experience has been instrumental in living my life to the full, and I recommend hydrotherapy as a great blessing and boon for everyone, from all walks of life – even small kids, elderly people, pregnant women and people with limitations of neuro motor skills like muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy and spinal cord injuries too. I have even noticed that many people with visual impairments, hearing impairments and intellectual disabilities also enjoy swimming. I am so appreciative to have been introduced to swimming and to have it play such a big role in my everyday life and a life that I always advocate and stand for. Swimming has broadened my horizon and widened my perception of life.
I will be grateful for my swimming until I take my last breath. Swimming is my faith, my belief in life. When I stand and walk in water, I call it life. When I swim independently, I call it liberty. And when I relax in water and my skills and amazing buoyancy allow me to float independently, I call it pursuit of happiness.
Together, these attributes bring me achievement, meaningful purpose and help me to live an extraordinary life.
Our Social Hours are one of our fave times and are sure to bring a bucketload of smiles, infectious laughter and some hilarious chats to everyone who joins in the fun.
6pm VIC/ACT/TAS/NSW/QLD
5:30pm SA/NT
4pm WA
Held on the first Monday of the month, our Social Hours are a great chance to have fun, have a laugh, make friends and have an hour that leaves you with a big smile.
We’d love you to join us, but you will need to register.
To do this head across to:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYqc–qqjkjG903J2KoieI9ASVSig7b4mxr
Hope to see you there. 😊
“The Government’s DRC response isn’t just about all 222 recommendations not being accepted.
It’s the words missing around the government’s understanding and agreement that the disabled community deserves to feel equal and as safe as non disabled people.
The disabled community’s combined voices of lived experience were not embedded in the government’s response.
The government has seemingly based its decisions on economics, leaving us stuck in a funding war between federal and state whilst still leaving disabled people at risk of violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation – the very things that the Disability Royal Commission was meant to address and provide protection from.
We are not vulnerable because of our disability. We are held in this place by a public and social landscape that continues to undermine our voices and our human rights and a government that won’t do what needs to be done.
Australia’s disability community has bared our souls and revisited places of horror and experience to provide government with a detailed and true understanding of what needs to be addressed and put right.
Whilst there’s understanding that consultation does not unequivocally equal consensus, the Disability Royal Commission has sadly reiterated that the voices of disabled people have yet again been undervalued.
It is truly disappointing and disheartening to see that the process may have been for nothing, and once again at the expense of Australians living with disability.”
Krystal Matthews (PDA SA Associate Director)
for an on behalf of Physical Disability Australia – PDA
An article from the *Disability Support Guide, has revealed that 1 in 3 Australians living with disability are priced out of the housing market.
Average weekly rental cost is sitting at around $500 dollars a week, and 32% of disabled Australians are reportedly earning less than $383 per week.
With Homelessness Week coming up next week (5-11 August), Homelessness Australia is working to raise awareness of our country’s shocking homelessness rates, whilst highlighting ways in which these numbers can be significantly reduced.
Join the call to government to improve the number of social and affordable housing options in Australia by signing a petition calling on government to establish funding for a minimum 25,000 social and affordable homes each year.
You can sign this petition by going to:
Help is available if you’re experiencing or at risk of homelessness, by reaching out to organisations listed at:
Following today’s disappointing government response to the four and a half year Disability Royal Commission, PDA joins fellow national disability representative organisations to voice our concerns that just 13 of the 222 recommendations were fully accepted and that, following nine long months, many recommendations are still to be resolved across the different levels of government.
This joint statement calls on governments across the board to act urgently on all 222 recommendations and for prioritising the establishment of a Disability Reform Implementation Council, led by people with disability.
To read this statement, go to:
1800 732 674
