Don't Call Me 'Brave'! Breaking down images of disability
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International
Day of People with Disabilities 1999 Susan
Halliday |
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Today is International Day of People with Disabilities. It is a day for acknowledging those among us whose daily lives include the realities of a disability.
For Elizabeth Hastings, whose work we are commemorating today, the realities of her life involved a level of dependence on others that she dreamt of being free from.
The theme of this year's International Day of People with Disabilities is ACCESSABILITY, a concept that goes hand in hand with independence.
Let me first tell you a little bit about Elizabeth. She was born in England, and at the age of 6 months contracted polio or 'infantile paralysis'. Initially she lost all power of movement and the doctors doubted whether she would survive. Her temperature then dropped and a degree of movement returned to her small body. Elizabeth's legs however were almost completely paralysed, the muscles in her trunk were badly affected, and she was left with a weak shoulder, a weak arm and a paralysed hand. Despite her perseverance with remedies and several operations, Elizabeth needed to use a wheelchair to get around.
When Elizabeth returned home to her family from hospital at the age of 2-years-old, her parents built a bedroom and bathroom downstairs as she would be soon too heavy to carry. Her father also made her a 'gadabout' to move around - it had a wheel at the front and two at the back and was steered by a tiller. By the time Elizabeth was 4 she could take herself down to the local kindergarten. The home made gadabout made the kindergarten accessible, so Elizabeth could get herself to the kindergarten without relying on others.
Elizabeth was a sociable, bright child. She spent her 8th birthday on the ship to Australia and won a fancy dress competition as a jack-in-the box. She later said wheelchairs came in very handy for hanging props on!
At the age of 15, after 6 years at a special school and some tedious operations with long recovery times, Elizabeth started at a girls' school.
"For the first time in my life I mixed freely and as an equal with ordinary, non-disabled people. It was wonderful! I was able to study chemistry, physics, biology.I loved the doingness of science.I joined in wherever possible, singing in the choir, holding watches while the others went swimming, planning the 'socials'."
Elizabeth wanted access to the same activities as 'ordinary' people. She said
"My family always treated me as ordinary, and took my academic capacity for granted. Outsiders, however, always treated me as different, and were surprised when I didn't behave like a child. At university, for the first time in my life I was in a world where age, sex, colour, creed or disability were of no importance."
These two speeches, Finding Your Own Shape and Transition, are about a search for self-acceptance; a difficult journey for any of us. If I can attempt to sum up Elizabeth's message in these speeches it is to look beyond the disability to the person.
Accessibility for people with disabilities can be improved in many ways.
Yesterday I launched the BIG PRINT BILL for Telstra. It means customers who are visually impaired can now request their bills in big print at no extra cost making the service more accessible. Many will no longer need to rely on someone else to read the bill for them.
Accessibility is important. It can mean the difference between being included or excluded.
As individuals we can also improve accessibility for people with disabilities. In small ways. Assisting where assistance is needed (without going overboard), treating people with disabilities as people first. As Elizabeth said "that is basically all any person wants".
One of my staff, whose brother is intellectually disabled, breathes a sigh of relief when a newly-introduced person treats her brother as an ordinary person, without speaking unusually LOUDLY or sloooowly.
People with a disability are often attributed with qualities such as 'courage', 'bravery' and 'determination'. For many girls and young women these are unwelcome words. What about 'interesting' or 'loving' or descriptions that reflect internal qualities such as intelligence, sensitivity, empathy, a sense of vision or creativity?
Currently there are 13,499 students participating in the integration program across Victoria. I commend the Education Department's commitment to providing all students with disabilities and impairments access to high quality educational opportunities.
As Sex Discrimination Commissioner and Acting Disability Discrimination Commissioner one of my main tasks is to promote understanding of peoples rights and responsibilities when it comes to human rights.
I firmly believe that to be exposed to the real-life experiences of others is one of the most important ways to learn and progress. For students with disabilities, to work and socialise alongside others encourages the process of getting to know, respect and value difference. Imagine how dreadfully boring life would be if we were all clones of one another!
I note that the theme of the Pascoe Vale Girls' integration program is 'inclusive education' and that provisions for wheelchair access have been made where possible. I would have been interested to listen to your guest speaker at last year's International Women's Day Breakfast, Dani DiToro. Dani was the winner of the Australian Open Wheelchair Tennis Championships. Like Elizabeth Hastings, she probably too had the courage to 'jump off the mountain'.
The speeches I am launching today were written and delivered by Elizabeth Hastings.
Another wonderful Elizabeth, who I note features in the Pascoe Vale Girls' Pastoral Care Workbook, is Elizabeth Kenny. Sister Kenny was a nurse who after spending WW1 working on ships carrying sick and wounded soldiers to Australia, devoted her working life to the treatment of children with poliomyelitis (infant paralysis) - the same disease that caused Elizabeth Hastings muscles to be, as she called it 'permanently relaxed'.
Sister Kenny set up her own clinics to treat polio here in Victoria, Qld, NSW, England and later set up 'Kenny Clinics' in the United States. Sister Kenny received many honours and was granted permission to enter and leave the States whenever she wished. Her methods started a lot of research into polio and brought the disease to the attention of governments and the public.
Although the incidence of polio is now controlled by vaccine, there are still many people with varying levels of impairment from the disease.
Elizabeth Hastings did wonderful work as one of the original members of the Human Rights Commission from 1981 to 1986. She was particularly well known for her work around International Year of Disabled Persons 1981. In 1993 Elizabeth was appointed Disability Discrimination Commissioner to administer the new federal Disability Discrimination Act 1992.
Working tirelessly, Elizabeth was keen to ensure that people with disabilities were always seen as people first. Responsible for challenging entrenched mindsets that portrayed people with disabilities as 'different' or 'recipients of charity' she did much to progress government, business and community views about people with all different types of disabilities.
Elizabeth was a very sincere, determined person with a great sense of humour. She regularly faced challenges that many of us will never face. Having devoted much of her life to improving the lives of others with disabilities, Elizabeth sadly lost her fight with cancer in October 1998.
It is an honour to launch this package of material in recognition and memory of Elizabeth Hastings, on behalf of the Disability Discrimination Unit and the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission.
It is paramount that young Australians come to terms with the importance of valuing difference.
