Whilst Tom Cruise may have inadvertently shot himself in the foot when he told 60 Minutes’ Peter Overton to “put his manners back in”, these words from a 2005 interview have stuck with me and maybe shaped me a little.
When someone is inappropriate, oversteps the mark or is blatantly rude or controlling, why do so many of us not confront them or let them know that they should put their manners back in?
How can we bring about change, chisel at ableist attitudes, improve behaviours, and educate people on the errors of the ways in which they interact with those of us living with disabilities, if we do not stand up for ourselves and say “enough is enough”?
Next Thursday (7th March) we’ll be running a free presentation around “when do you stop being nice?” and in it we’ll unpack some of the issues that peeve our presenters off and learn some of the tools that give us the power and confidence to stand up for ourselves and teach others to behave and respect who we are.
So if you’re over the stares, fed up with people assuming that their take on being kind matches our wants and needs, or want to give your fake smile a break, join us on March 7th.
6:30pm NSW/VIC/TAS/ACT
6:00pm SA
5:30pm QLD
5:00pm NT
4:30pm WA
Share your experiences and pet hates (if you want).
Learn some skills and tools from our qualified counsellor that could help you to overcome situations and people who need to understand that kindness isn’t just about the feel good factor for the giver.
To register for this FREE EVENT go to:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYldeyvrTIuEt2SPv2LMizx1idioznOlP8z
We hope that you can join us for this event.
Feel free to leave your fake smile at the door.
Sick of the stares?
Over answering inappropriate and unwanted questions?
Fed up with dealing with idiots who think they know more about you and what you need than you do?
Had enough of dealing with rude people with a smile on your face?
On Thursday March 7th we’re going to be hosting our “when do you stop being nice?” presentation.
Hear from others about their experiences, their pet hates and how they navigate a world with people who just need to butt out. Learn how to deal with people who just need to put their manners back in and when it is okay to just say it as it is.
6:30pm NSW/VIC/TAS/ACT
6:00pm SA
5:30pm QLD
5:00pm NT
4:30pm WA
Learn some skills and tools that could help you to deal with the stupidity or misunderstanding of others when being nice is just not an option.
During the presentation, qualified counsellor Dorte Dyrbye will provide support, tips and resources to assist you in overcoming situations and people and putting yourself first.
To register for this FREE EVENT go to:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYldeyvrTIuEt2SPv2LMizx1idioznOlP8z
This is going to be a good one folks.
With Australia being struck by Mother Nature from all sides in terms of severe weather conditions, flooding and fires, do you know what to do in the case of an emergency?
University of Sydney, in conjunction with Queenslanders with Disability Network, has prepared a Person-Centred Emergency Preparedness (P-CEP) Toolkit – an all-hazards approach to enabling emergency preparedness.
Co-designed and tested with people with disability, P-CEP provides a template that allows people to self-assess their preparedness, capabilities and support needs. Through this, personal emergency arrangements can be developed and guidelines put in place to allow for emergency support need management plans and support network action plans to be clearly defined and instigated in the lead up to, during and after a disaster.
No matter where you live, having a plan in place could be a lifesaver and ensure that you are kept safe, comfortable and as unaffected as possible during times of upheaval and challenges.
For more information and to take the first step towards being prepared, go to:
On Sunday 4th February the second Physical Disability Awareness Day was successfully held.
We had a wonderful turnout of people at the online DisabiliTEA and had a lot of fun and laughs.
In-person events were also held at a number of Australian sites, giving people the opportunity to catch-up with friends (both old and new), to raise awareness of physical disability and to celebrate our community.
Next year we will be celebrating the third Physical Disability Awareness Day (Sunday 2nd February 2025) and we hope that you will join us to recognise and help grow this important event.
The online DisabiliTEA will continue and we hope to increase the number of live catch-up venues for people to meet face to face.
If you would like to host an event local to you, please let us know by emailing promotion@pda.org.au.
We are also looking for people interested in being part of the organising committee. If this sounds like something that you’d like to be involved in, please let us know by also emailing promotion@pda.org.au.
Together let’s make Physical Disability Awareness Day a recognised and celebrated day for everyone!
South Australian residents living with a physical disability are invited to attend an online forum to provide feedback to better understand the issues surrounding disability housing in South Australia.
Round Table Conversations, led by Krystal Matthews, will be facilitating a group forum around disability housing on behalf of the SA Government’s Housing Authority on Wednesday 28th February at 6pm SA Time.
All feedback will be anonymous, and participants will be paid $50 (in the form of a Prezzee gift card) to attend this 1 hour session.
Feedback will involve answering questions about the participant’s housing journey, including personal experiences, housing aspirations, barriers experienced, and ideas around assistance in maintaining or seeking secure and safe housing in the future.
You do not need to be in public or community housing to participate. You may still live with your parents, in a private rental, Specialist Disability Accommodation, or own your own home.
To register your interest, go to:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0pduusqD8uHtVkIn2CED4wm9u73VwW60qs?os=ipad#/registration
On Sunday 4th February Physical Disability Awareness Day brought together the disability community for the second time.
Providing an opportunity to highlight, celebrate and recognise physical disability, face-to-face events were held in Hobart, Melbourne, Perth and Ipswich (QLD) with an online DisabiliTEA once again proving popular and bringing together Australians from all over.
It was truly a great opportunity, a lot of fun and wonderful to see the growth in interest and support for this very important day.
Thank you so much to those who helped to organise and run these events, those who attended the events, those who supported and promoted the events and those who helped to grow and strengthen Physical Disability Awareness Day.
We look forward to running the third Physical Disability Awareness Day on Sunday 2nd February 2025 and invite everyone to get on board with helping to plan and steer the day into the future.
To register your interest in being involved in the organising committee, please email promotion@pda.org.au.
#PhysicalDisabilityAwarenessDay
Following last year’s first ever Physical Disability Awareness Day, the interest, excitement and community that has grown from our inaugural online DisabiliTEA has been phenomenal – with individuals and organisations both in Australia and internationally getting on board to grow this important event.
For the first time this event will be run globally and, mindful of the many timezones that are potentially involved, this event will involve a number of virtual and face to face catch-ups.
We’d love to have you join us!
The online Australian DisabiliTEA will be run via Zoom, uniting all corners of Australia with the disability and wider communities meeting to share stories and to have a cuppa together.
Run at the following times, this event is scheduled to allow for maximum involvement across the nation.
2pm NSW/VIC/ACT/TAS
1:30pm SA
1pm QLD
12:30pm NT
11am WA
To be involved in this fun event you must register by going to:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcqdeivpzktE9cIxAOgWw0oQZO9bQkSNhTP
Once you have registered, you will be emailed further details.
So grab your best china or most loved mug, a cookie or slice of cake, brew up your beverage of choice and join us at our virtual DisabiliTEA.
A number of face to face events have also been scheduled, including Stroll & Rolls around local parks, morning and afternoon teas and a book launch. Everyone is welcome.
Those who register and attend an Australian Physical Disability Awareness Day event (including the online DisabiliTEA) go in to a draw to win a $50 gift voucher (one voucher per location).
If you are attending one of our Roll & Stroll events, and as the weather may be hot, we recommend that you bring water, a hat, sunscreen and snacks if required.
To go in to the draw to win a $50 gift card (one per each Australian planned event), please indicate which event you will be attending by registering at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/7FJ36MV. If you register and are then present on the day, you could win a prize.
Melbourne
Bicentennial Park, Scotch Parade, Chelsea VIC 3196
From 12pm. Meeting at the BBQ area near the Children’s Playground and Toilets. Look for the PDA Banner.
The event will include a Stroll & Roll around the park. If you prefer, you can hang out for a chat, a bite to eat (BYO) or just explore the park facilities (including accessible Frisbee golf). At 2pm the Physical Disability Awareness Day’s online DisabiliTEA will take place and allow a link up with other Australian States/Territories at their events where we can share stories and laughs at this virtual afternoon tea.
Park is wheelchair friendly with facilities including:
Hobart
Montrose Foreshore Community Park
825 Brooker Hwy, Montrose TAS 7010
Look for the PDA Banner.
From 1pm and concluding at 3pm
Stroll & Roll event along the foreshore. However, if walking or rolling isn’t your thing, come along with a picnic, make new friends, enjoy the company of others who share your journey.
Ipswich, QLD
Ellie Jane Support Services
4a/126 Brisbane St, Ipswich QLD 4305
From 1pm and concluding at 3pm
DisabiliTea – followed by fun activities, prizes and a book launch.
Register at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/7FJ36MV
Perth
King’s Park and Botanical Gardens
Fraser Ave, Perth WA 6005
Stroll & Roll event – loop around lake
Look for the PDA Banner.
10:30am start time at Vietnam War Memorial (on May Drive). Ending at Zamia Café.
Wheelchair access available in most buildings, restaurants, cafes, BBQ areas and parts of Kings Park’s bushland. Picnic tables located within BBQ and parkland precincts are accessible for visitors in wheelchairs and often include a concrete extension for wheelchair seating.
Accessible height drinking fountains
Accessible bathrooms
Accessible parking
Register at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/7FJ36MV
https://www.bgpa.wa.gov.au/visiting-disability
Where possible, we want Physical Disability Awareness Day to be inclusive of everyone wishing to be involved and to celebrate the physical disability community.
So, wherever you are, why not join us to celebrate the second Physical Disability Awareness Day?
If you would like to hear more, please don’t hesitate to email promotion@pda.org.au or visit
https://www.pda.org.au/physicaldisabilityawarenessday/
As a woman of a certain age, I have noticed a change in the way I am perceived.
I have always been disabled. Had mobility aids since birth and always thought the primary factor for the discrimination I encountered was related to my disability. Well, welcome to the new age of being older.
I am now seen as an elderly lady on a mobility scooter. Not a disabled woman on a mobility scooter.
So, like a slap of reality, I am now encountering age discrimination.
I have white hair – trendy cutting edge white hair, but still white hair. This labels me as old.
Where in the past I put down being sidelined because of disability, now I can add being aged as well. I am simply too old to be relevant.
They say age is a state of mind. Well hell, my mind is sharp and active and connected to happenings of the world.
I go to hip festivals and dance with the young ones. I’m a cool person aye, BUT I am still old(er).
Not old enough for a senior’s card but, when I am, I will wield it like a badge of honour. Unlike many of my peers I will be blessed to have reached old age.
You might be reading this and think, go you, living the life. However, there is a more sinister side to the intersection of age and disability. There is a hidden cost to growing older. According to NDIS National Quality and Safeguard Commission research (2023), people with disabilities are 5 times more likely to die of preventable illness than the general population and die predominantly much younger than the general population. 49% of all people with disability who die early have physical disabilities.
The intersectionality I now have to navigate in my life is age and disability. Well, I’m not going down without a fight. There is plenty of fight in the old dog and I’m ready for it and it seems my life depends on it.
I need to be proactive in my own healthcare and I can. I need to be vocal at my GP and my specialist about my needs and expectation of their care for me.
Discrimination in the healthcare system is real for people with disabilities. A study by Roger’s et al (2015) reported that 1 in 17 people with disabilities that present for medical treatment feel discriminated against. Anecdotally this is much higher.
We are often ignored, not believed or misdiagnosed. I have a bloody loud voice (my croaky voice) and I will use it to make sure that everyone receives the care they need and deserve in this, our lucky country. I’ll be doing this education one clinician at a time. Hard work, but guess what? You can do it too. Think of all those other people with disabilities unable to articulate their needs. Our work will help them. Let’s smash that discrimination.
I’m not a granny on a scooter. I am a warrior on my electric steed, waging war on ageism and ableism. Adding another bow to my quiver of “what needs to be torn down” in our society.
Image: selfie of a woman (Tammy the blog’s writer) wearing glasses, with a trendy white hairstyle, wearing a pink t-shirt with “volunteer” printed and a pink/orange neck scarf. By her side is a younger woman wearing the same t-shirt, sunglasses and a baseball cap. She is Michelle, Tammy’s support worker. They are working at Hay Day’s recent music festival in Hobart. Other people are interacting behind them.
I have a burning desire to be included and to experience as much as I can before I pop the perch.
I am disabled. I use wheels to get around but, in this day and age of anti-discrimination and inclusion, this should not stop me from doing everything my heart, energy and pocket desires.
And so, it was with this motivation behind me that I applied to be a volunteer at the Hay Days Festival in Hobart. This festival brings together some of the most cutting-edge artists locally, nationally and internationally. I wanted to go! I am a big fan of Genesis Owusu after seeing him perform at Party in the Paddock 2023.
Yeah, an old chick like me loves Party in the Paddock, with my most memorable moment seeing Lilly Allen and singing along with her song “F##k You” with about 4,000 other people a few years back. I may be disabled, but I’m not dead and I love to get amongst it. Maybe a result of being an older mum with a younger adult child or just being hip. Who knows?
Financially the cost of a ticket to the two-day festival was not going to break the bank, but it did mean that I was going to have to cut some of my other activities to attend. I could have paid, but there might have been other things I would have to miss out on to compensate.
And so, with this in mind when my daughter said she was applying for paid work in the bar at Hay Days I thought, well why not see if I can volunteer. I have skills. Heck, I have a degree and a couple of grad diplomas. I’m smart. I could be useful and then get a bonus ticket for free. Well not free, but free for doing work. I work for the ticket, a 6-hour shift in fact.
And so I applied. I made it clear on my application that I was a wheelchair user and disabled. I made it clear that any jobs offered to me must be suitable for me to do in my chair. I made full disclosure, let the dice roll on my application and hit send.
A few weeks later I received a reply. I was in! They wanted me. I say this in a surprised way because, let’s be honest, discrimination is real. It still happens to people with disabilities and, to be brutally honest, people are often scared to give people with disabilities a go.
Even though I worked in education for 33 years, they didn’t know me. They didn’t know what I could do and there is still so much unconscious bias and fear in our world directed towards people with disabilities.
So, I rocked up on the first day. I scoped out my workplace for the next day and then settled in for a day and evening of absolute sheer bliss. I even bought a baked potato from a food vendor with some sign language skills. (Oh, that’s another thing: when things are really loud, I can’t make my voice project for people to hear me, so I sign. NOT a barrier, but certainly something to be accommodated).
I checked out the loos. Look, to be honest, that was an issue. 4,000 people could use any of the toilets at the festival, but I could only use one. The accessible toilet was so accessible that it seemed to be used by the 4,000 abled bodied people too. Not a great thing in terms of cleanliness – especially for a person with a disability who has to touch everything in the loo to get on the pot so to speak. The ‘ableds’ (abled bodied people) can just squat over the seat, make a splash, leave a cup or two in the loo for extra obstacles, leave some toilet paper strewn around, touch very little and leave.
Unfortunately, not so easy for folks with chairs and wonky legs and dodgy bits, who have to touch all the grot left behind by those unnecessarily, and unfairly, using the facilities meant for those of us with true accessibility needs. To be honest, I only went to the loos once a day, holding on for as long as possible, minimising the need by drinking less so I didn’t have to go more than once. On day two I went and the nice ambo folks next to it had to fish a cup out of the actual toilet and help me negotiate it. Thanks legends. You folks go above and beyond as vollies (volunteers).
On thing not so great about attending many events is that, as a person in a chair, we sit about navel height to everyone else. So imagine trying to see an act at a concert if all you can see is the person in front’s bum. Hemmed in by a sea of bums is not my idea of a good time, but hey each to their own.
But there is NO bum viewing for me or other persons in wheelchairs at Party in the Paddock or Hey Days. We get a viewing platform that has us positioned above the sea of bums and provides us with a clear view of the stage. It also mitigates the risk of some drunk dude or dudette landing on our laps, or accidentally crashing into us whilst vigorously dancing to the bands. This is so great. That’s accomodation and I for one really appreciate this.
I bopped and bopped to Genesis and The Jungle Giants and PNUA, squawking along to, “Stay Blessed”, “Rakata” and “Cold Heart”. It was bliss. Best night EVA! (Well, one of them).
The next day I rocked up (rolled up) to my shift at 11.30am. Signed in and collected my vollie t-shirt, so pumped that I got a uniform. So I forgot to mention that when you get me as a vollie, it’s a two for one deal. I come with my very own support entourage. My support worker Michelle. So Michelle and I rolled over (well she walked) to our workstation. Our duties for the next 6 hours were to check tickets using a scanning thing (much like my old Job checking in books as a librarian) and then I would strap a wrist band on to the owner of the ticket. In the next 6 hours I touched so many hairy, skinny, and largish wrists that I could do a thesis on the human genome variation and how it affects wrist diversity. (Maybe in my next life, I’m really not that invested right now).
Before starting the shift, we were briefed on what to do what to expect and then sent forth to work. I loved it. Bopping between customers, bopping with customers and strapping on wrist bands. Even though I could not really have huge conversations with people when the music started. I could sign/gesture enough to make myself known.
The only real thing that hurt my fragile ego was when I said, “I bet I’m your first disabled volunteer” it was a “yes” reply. But why I wondered. The next was being told that when I was being considered as a volunteer, event management presented me to my team leader as an offering which she accepted with a “yeah I’ll take her” like I was a risk. Man, I have mad skills and you all should be looking at the person and not the disability.
Apart from that small infraction of ableism, the whole experience was just awesome and I would do it again. (Just please fix the toilet situation).
What I’m also advocating for is that, hey, if you have a disability and think you can do something with expertise and skill, go for it. If you are skilled and able then it’s not a charitable offering to allow you to work. It’s equality.
My time as a volunteer at Hay Days was the best, most excellent experience and your’s could be too.
Image: a selfie of a woman with grey hair, wearing sunglasses, a pink shirt and orange/pink scarf and a huge smile backstage on the lawn at a music festival. Two men are standing in the background.
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