It's really great to hear a good news story coming about as a result of people with disability traveling with airlines.
'My chair is my legs, handle with care'
Here special guest John McKenna writes about his experience on a recent trip using Qantas. “When that has pups I’ll have one” as he pointed at my wheelchair.
A nice change to the normal “Wow how fast does it go?” I’ve just arrived in far North Queensland and I must admit I love the spirit and personality of the locals. Apart from the warmth and friendly people, the highlight has to be so far knowing my wheelchair traveled safely, thanks Qantas.
John transferring to his seat using the Eagle Lifter
It’s all about the preparation and signage that makes it easy for the
luggage handlers who have to work with variety of mobility devices. Other travelers in wheelchairs sometimes however prefer to have their
own chair at the plane’s door when getting in and off the plane which
can make it hard to prepare your chair for transporting of course.
My experiences with the staff at Qantas who communicated with me in a
very respectful way as they introduced and used the “Eagle Lifter” to
transfer me in to my seat on the plane.
The Eagle Lifter will soon be an option for passengers using Jetstar.
You really can’t miss that we have an election coming up on 7 September to decide who will be our Government and local member for the next few years! So how do you make your voice heard and ensure things that are important to you and your community are put forward?
Before and after the election is a great time to speak or write to candidates in your local area (electorate) and raise issues important to you. A good idea is to speak to candidates from all the political parties. That person you speak to could just be the person who puts your issue before Parliament some day in the future. This is how things like the NDIS started - by people talking to politicians and telling them a better system was needed for people with disability.
Ways can you vote There are a number of new initiatives that will assist voting to be more accessible to everyone in our community. At the 2013 federal election, voters who are blind or have low vision will have three voting options:
New telephone voting option Voters who are blind or vision impaired can telephone the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) call centre and cast a secret vote from any location, without attending an AEC office.
Voters must register to cast their vote by telephone. Registration for telephone voting starts two and a half weeks before election day and ends at 12 noon AEST on election day.
To register, voters need to call 1800913993. When a voter calls to register, they will be asked to select a PIN. Once registered, they will receive an acknowledgment letter at their enrolled address. The registration number can also be received by post, email, SMS or through a phone call. Assisted voting at a polling place Voters may choose to cast a vote with assistance at a polling place. A blind or vision impaired voter may choose an assistant to help cast their vote. The assistant reads the contents of the ballot paper then completes the ballot paper according to the voter’s preferences.
Assisted postal voting Voters can cast a postal vote with the help of an assistant. The assistant may complete the ballot papers and envelope, but the voter must sign the envelope or make a mark as a signature.
Polling Place Voting On election day you can go to your local polling place and complete your vote. To find out where your nearest polling place is you can search on the Electoral Commission website by suburb. It will also have a wheelchair symbol next to the listing to show that it is wheelchair accessible. Polling places open at 8am and close at 6pm sharp.
If you’re not able for some reason to make it to a polling place on election day, then you can ‘pre-poll’ your vote at a pre-poll voting centre or divisional office in the lead up to election day.
How to Vote - Practice Voting If you haven’t voted before, or you think you might need a brush up on how to do it, there is a Practice Voting Tool available on the AEC website.
On election day you will recieve 2 pieces of paper - one for the House of Representatives which is green. The other will be a big white sheet of paper which is the Senate Ballot paper. The practice voting tool lets you practice on both of these ballot papers and will check to see if you’ve done it correctly!
For the House of Representatives you number 1 to 8 (1 is your first choice and 8 is your last choice) next to the Candidate’s name.
For the Senate Ballot Paper, you can choose to vote in two ways. The first way is ‘above the line’ where you put a ‘1’ in the box for the party or group of your choice. By doing this you’re allowing the order of your preference to be determined by the party or group you’re voting for.
The second way to vote on the Senate Ballot Paper is ‘below the line’ where you can choose to fill in every box below the line in order of your preference. You must put a ‘1’ in the box beside the candidate who is your first choice, ‘2’ in the box beside your second choice and so on, until you have numbered every box. You must number every box for your vote to count. The AEC has also put together this useful video in Auslan, captions and audio. It gives an overview on the ins and outs of voting
To find out more on how to vote on election day you can visit the AEC’s website at www.aec.gov.au call 13 23 26or email info@aec.gov.au. If you are deaf or have a hearing or speech impairment you can use the National Relay Service (NRS)
TTY users phone 133 677 then ask for 13 23 26
Speak and Listen users phone 1300 555 727 then ask for 13 23 26
Internet relay users connect to the NRS then ask for 13 23 26.
Accessible Arts (AA) is the peak arts and disability organisation across New South Wales.
AA promotes and provides opportunities for people with
disability to participate in arts and cultural activities either as
audience members; through attending galleries, theatres, museums and
festivals; or as participants in art, drama, music, dance and multimedia
activities; and by developing as professional artists.
AA has produced a great resource for performing arts venues to use in considering how to make their venues accessible to all in the community, including people with a disability.
The areas of consideration include:
Improving access to venues
Marketing and Publication to the disability sector
Training performing arts venue staff
Anti-discrimination legislation compliance for venues
The Focus on Ability Short Film competition is now in it's 5th year and asks people to submit short films in the 3 categories of 'open', 'schools' and 'corporate'. The brief is to 'focus on ability'. Voting is now underway to decide who will take out the major prize of 2 return tickets to Hollywood to study for 10 weeks at TAFTA’s film and television school, including accommodation and $3000 spending money.
So if you have a few spare minutes, check out some of the great entries via the link below and you can also vote for your favourite film in the people's choice: http://www.focusonability.com.au/FOA/films.html Voting closes 11th August at 11.59pm. There will be an
awards ceremony on the 15th August in Sydney. For more info about the
evening and tickets please contact Amie on (02) 98332500.
If you missed out this year on entering, perhaps get your thinking cap on for next year's competition ;)
We all make them, yet sometimes we need reminding of what our rights are around making decisions. We came across this great video produced by Speak Out Advocacy in Tasmania - who are an organisation working in advocacy for people with a disability.
This video talks about what decisions are and what rights we have around making them. It's designed to teach young people with intellectual disability about choice and decision making.
