Opinion Piece
ACCESS ALL AREAS
A day in the life of someone with a disability.
This is based true life, thus names and specificities have been substituted/omitted.
Sara is a young, vibrant, well-adjusted chick, living the life of a normal 30 yr old full-time city worker. She pays the rent, generally loves what she does and especially loves spending weekends at the local Indie-cinema, either balling her eyes out or laughing her guts out.
Sara also has a disability. She is dependent upon her wheelchair and communication device everyday, both at work and home. She also requires assistance from attendant care workers, that she manages herself- employing them, creating a roster, and training, as other attendant care organizations do not provide attendants before 8am, which is hopeless considering Sara is supposed to start work at 8.30am!
6.15am:THE DAY BEGINS!
Sara wakes bleary eyed ready for her attendant to arrive and help get her ready for work. Her attendant Claudia rings to say that she won't be able to make it in as she is ill and throwing up everywhere. Sara is stuck, and gets a list out to call all her other attendants (of which there are 6) to see who can fill in the very late late notice shift!
6.50am:
Attendant Tina arrives after the wake-up of a madly ringing phone and begins with regular procedures such as making breakfast, getting out medication, washing up, making lunch and showering Sara. She also has to ring a taxi so Sara can get to work on time.
(Needing to ring a cab is now a regular routine since the state bus company runs like an un-oiled clock... along with the fact that there has been a population boom in the area Sara lives, making it impossible to get on a wheelchair accessible bus in the morning. Not only are they full by the time they get to her stop, but there aren't that many to begin with.)
7.55am:
The taxi company rings to say that the wheelchair taxi will be half an hour late. This is due to high demand and increased traffic in the area. Sara and Tina wait.. and wait.. and wait... and are exhausted from rushing around!
8.30am:
The taxi arrives and Sara heads off to work, despite it being start time already. The traffic is thick, like the pollution it creates, and Sara is even more late to work!
9.10am:
Sara finally arrives, only almost one hour late for work.
There is a memo on her desk stating there will be a work meeting/dinner coming up and the venue needs to be decided. Since Sara is in a wheelchair, the organising committee needs to phone up various places to find out whether or not there is disabled access.
Last time they did this, upon arrival they found out there was one single step to the function area that the meeting was held in. After wait staff and co-worker helped lift her and her 100Kg chair over the step, the organizers vowed to check the venue thoroughly next time...
...THE DAY GOES ON...
5pm:
Sara's co-workers are going out for drink to celebrate someones birthday and Sara is invited. They leave work in search of a pub, only to find that all have a one step entry and no disabled access. Sara, who is unfortunately used to this, gets frustrated and ends up leaving her mates to have fun and goes home so as to not be a burden and ruin the fun.
Next Day (SATURDAY)
[MORNING THINGS SUCH AS BREAKFAST AND SOME CLOTHES WASHING ARE DONE WHEN THE ATTENDANT ARRIVES]
[ATTENDANT LEAVES AND SARA IS LEFT TO RELAX FOR THE DAY...AT THE MOVIES!]
Sara arrives at the local cinema to watch a flick she's been waiting 2 weeks to see! She likes this cinema because it is the only one close to the area that actually has a lift for her to enter. But to her dismay it is broken today, as it was last week... and her attempt to try and forget about last night has failed...she goes home upset.
END
It may seem like every possible negative thing that could happen was brought up. But in actual fact, there was more to add, but I didn't because it would seem like I was making it up!
There are many things such as access to buildings, malfunction of technologies (communication device/ wheelchair), sprung social occasion, planned social/work occasions that impact upon the flow of the day for someone with a disability. This can lead to negative emotional effects on the individual, which impacts not only upon their work performance, but important social interaction. This has a snowball effect and affects all aspects of the individuals lives and the people around them including family, friends, work and attendants.
My point here is to highlight the things in daily life that seem and do go unnoticed, which can severely impact the life of a person with a disability. To be honest, even I hadn't thought about that one step that leads to most buildings/shops until I started working in disability.
I think if people aren't confronted daily by the issue of disability then it slips their mind. I use the word confronted because it is an issue that I think is misunderstood and needs greater public awareness.
Although there was a campaign out this year called "Don't dis' My Ability", it has come and gone, and where is the issue being raised now?
According to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission (HEROC) there are:
- almost 4 million Australians with a disability
- approx. 50% of over 55 yr olds have difficulty in their mobility, hearing or vision and,
- by 2050 more than 25% of the Australian population will be over 65
If Australia is an aging population, and generally people at the moment haven't opened their eyes properly to the issue of disability, how are we possibly going to cope?
Since vision, mobility and hearing are all associated with disability, an issue already falling through the cracks of ignorance, then don't you think it's time we heard about this everyday and not just during one week every year? Had you thought about this before reading it? Probably since you are active enough to have read it, but what about all those people who hadn't even thought about checking this website or other informative websites and aren't already involved in this issue?
In regard to disabled access, there are actions already taking place within Federal Parliament. There are however complications that have arisen:
- The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) states that a person with a disability must be able to gain access to any building the public is allowed to enter or use, have access
to any goods or services or facilities- which applies to both govt and private sectors.
- The problem that the Australian Building Codes Board (ABCB) has with this is that no specific technical details have been provided by the DDA to overcome the issue of
access in already established buildings.
- The other problem too is that if it is financially un-viable for an existing premises to build or provide or improve disabled access, then they are not required to provide it.
Financial distress must be proven in court if an individual has lodged a discrimination complaint against the company/ service. This is known as "unjustifiable hardship".
- Both the ABCB and DDA are sorting this problem out as I write this (as I am informed), so that there is increased access to existing premises that don't already provide
sufficient disabled access.
For a hint of good news though, current construction of public/govt buildings must submit their building proposals for examination into the planning of appropriate disabled access. This can only be passed if disabled access matches the requirements set by the ABCB.
For further information please visit:
http://www.abcb.gov.au
http://www.hreoc.gov.au
www.pwd.org.au
www.dircsa.org.au
www.accessibility.com.au
Please note that the information I have provided may be subject to inaccuracies, although my best efforts to provide correct information have been taken.
Please do not hesitate to message/email me if you feel I have been mis-leading, unfair or just completely wrong, as I will be happy to hear from you (unless you're really mean, then I probably will get upset!)
If it this has proven to be helpful or you have further information then I am extra happy!! ^^
[B] So the next time you're out and about, see how many premises have that one step entry to them, and you'l be amazed that you never noticed it before! Places to look are at cafes, hairdressers, clothing/retail, pharmacies, the doctor.. etc..
