On Our Own Tracks

How society’s ever changing attitudes have impacted on my personal life…

Disabled… has a disability… being in a wheelchair… As someone who has been part of the Disability Sector literally since I was born I have joined society’s questioning of the meaning of these words and phrases constantly. It is when I think back to my childhood, around twenty years ago, that I am able to see how the definitions of these phrases have changed overtime.

I must say, the period in which I have witnessed the most positive change to the definitions of these terms, along with the attitudes attached to them, has been within the last 10 years. This change initially started with companies within the disability industry itself reevaluating the way they responded, appreciated and reacted to every single one of their clients. The interesting part of this movement is that the ideas of valuing each person with a disability started to successfully filter out into the community. Fortunately, for us being the raw representatives of the disability community within the public, this has meant that:

There are now modified facilities such as workout equipment in parks, purpose built for wheelchair users, located right next to equipment for the abled bodied users (For more information click here on Free Outdoor Fitness)

• Building and providing equipment such as ceiling hoists, beach and pool wheelchairs in public facilities (For more information click here on Have Wheelchair Will Travel)
• Having natural locations modified to accommodate for facilities such as accessible boardwalks
• A mass of welcoming arms along with ample encouragement with us participating in certain events such as the Colour Run
• And just general acceptance throughout the wider community.

For me personally, I have had the opportunity to witness and enjoy this societal change in so many ways. Although I have witnessed this in lots of ways including within education (see in my blog How I found a way to living my own educational dream), places such as the snow (see in my blog Exploring our Australian Winter while having fun just like everybody else!) and in my local neighbourhood there are three specific places where I felt the most accepted, welcome and particularly equalised. These three places have been on the boardwalks at both Merimbula and Urunga, at The Night Colour Run last year and in the town of Byron Bay.

Whenever I have thought about access and disability acceptance it has always been the facilities in my local community and in the area I’m visiting which has always made life the most easiest. It is when I have always found the little thing such as a pool chair at my local swimming pool, accessible workout equipment in a park near me or a wheelchair friendly boardwalk at the place I’m visiting that has made my day to day living extra livable. I feel that this is because all of these have been placed so subtly in amongst our community that they are able to give their users ample assistance while also subtly introducing disability as a ‘normal’ part of our community. As well as doing this, I definitely feel that the introduction of facilities such as boardwalks provide us with experiences like safely being able to enjoy the ocean while being directly in amongst it. It is by enjoying these accessible experiences that I feel that I can be apart of my society just a little bit more and I am able to improve my wellbeing, health, social interactions, interactions with my environment and so much more.

The other two places in which I have experienced the same ‘freeing’ feeling has been at the Colour Run and in the magical town of Byron Bay. Firstly in the case of the Colour Run I was lucky enough to participate in their night event early last year along with three of my amazing friends who gave up their own Saturday nights to support me. Along with the generosity of my awesome mates the other thing I felt grateful for is the warm welcoming and acceptance from the event organisers themselves. They were just beyond amazing, from making sure that me and my friends had appropriate front line positions within the race to having every single staff member chatting to me just like they did to everyone else.

The last place I feel I really need to mention is my most favourite and the most magical town of Byron Bay. Throughout the past few years I have been incredibly lucky enough to have visited this amazing town twice now with one of my fantastic best friends Emma. Each time I go there I always come back feeling extremely inspired by the love, passion, drive and complete acceptance that absolutely everyone in the town has to offer. So much so that I have been lucky enough to return from each trip feeling absolutely incredible and inspired to direct my life in a completely brand new and amazing way.

So, all I have to say is that if you happen to have any form of disability at all why not do all that you can to get out into your community and the rest of the world and see what you can find and discover for yourself.