The event was co-hosted by Children with Disability Australia and the Touched by Olivia Foundation.

Around 3,000 people attended the event, including Mr Angelo Tsirekas, Mayor of City of Canada Bay, Mr John Sidoto MP, Member for Drummoyne, John and Justine Perkins, of the Touched by Olivia Foundation and families and children, who were entertained by the Special Olympic Dancers and a superhero stage show.

At the event, Senator Mclucas announced funding to support the work of the Touched by Olivia Foundation to develop nationally endorsed inclusive playground guidelines. The Foundation was also recognised at the National Disability Awards on 22 November at Parliament House, as a finalist for the Inclusive and Accessible Communities Award category.

Other announcements that were made on IDPwD included the Government’s announcement of a new agency to lead the Commonwealth’s work to design the launch of a National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and the launch of a dedicated NDIS website.

Relevant media releases

• Sign up and stay in touch on new National Disability Insurance Scheme website
• Designing a National Disability Insurance Scheme
• Playgrounds of all abilities: Olivia’s legacy

Transcripts

• Prime Minister’s speech to the National Disability Awards
• Jan McLucas celebrating International Day of People with Disability

View the Pin, Pose, Post gallery and all our wonderful contributors supporting International Day of People with Disability by wearing the IDPwD ribbon and sharing what the day means to them.

The importance I placed on maintaining a strong vision was reinforced when I learnt that my son has a disability too. I adamantly refused to allow him to be labelled. My own experiences taught me that labels are restrictive and lead to stereotyping. If he was labelled his potential would be capped. He inspired me to become more active in the disability sector and try and defend and promote the rights of people that are more vulnerable and marginalised. I became an active member and eventually the president of People With Disability Australia (PWD). I believe through a collective voice we can make a difference.

My son motivated me to become involved in disability advocacy and PWD provided me with the opportunities to fulfil those goals. Whilst I was president of PWD, I was actively involved in many areas of advocacy, including the development of the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities. I was able to use my life experiences as well as the experiences of my family and friends to help enrich the text so that it could be used as a tool to make a meaningful difference in the day-to-day lives of people with disability. Since my term ended at PWD, I have been studying Law at Newcastle University and will complete my degree at the end of this year and then…. who knows what’s next. I do know I will continue to be involved in disability advocacy—it’s not only fulfilling but I’ve made lots of wonderful friends along the way.

The idea is simple—people are invited to find a personal photo which means something to and share it online, with a text description, or with audio. Maybe they vividly remember the moment the photo was taken, or what was happening outside the frame, or maybe the photo speaks volumes about a particular time in your life. ABC Open producers work in regional centres around Australia to help people learn the skills to get involved.

More than 50 IDPwD ABC Open projects have been produced as part of ABC Open for IDPwD and these projects are being showcased as part of events for International Day in 2011.

The event, hosted by the Hon Jenny Macklin, Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, and Senator the Hon Jan McLucas, Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Carers, celebrated and acknowledged the achievements and contributions that individuals or groups with disability make to our community, and recognised individuals or groups within our community who have contributed to the disability sector.

Find out who the recipients are …

Most of my adult life I have been active lobbying for the rights of disabled people and my rights.  I have been disabled and ill all of my life being born with abnormalities to my brain’s circulatory system and I also have Multiple Sclerosis with a range of other complicated health problems.  I have not let it stop me doing what I could, despite being so ill.  I feel that disabled people in Australia get a pretty raw deal, especially if they are without any family support. 

Because of my disabilities and illness I have not been able to work outside my home most of my life.  This has brought home to me how woefully inadequate the government support is for the disabled community and especially the Arts area of it.

Many people visit my home to see my artwork and the extremely detailed dollshouses I make as a hobby.  At the moment I am working on a Baroque Italianate Palazzo resplendent with murals and frescoes painted by me.  It will be huge and quite magnificent and add well to my already huge collection I have made.  I have made many of the furnishings and hand stitched the carpets.

My philosophy is to never let my disability or illness take over my life or control it more than is absolutely necessary.  Life is for living to its fullest and not to be wasted.  My disability only changes the way I live not control it.  You can see me on the ABC website in a couple of articles about me from the old “Stateline” now called 7.30 ACT.  The connection through IVIEW is listed below:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2010/10/08/3033693.htm

The ArtAbility Officer Caro Roach has been very helpful in my art life of late and I am very grateful for her help.  I certainly would not have had as many opportunities without her help and I am very grateful to her.

I can be contacted to see or buy my work on Maureen.caelli@gmail.com

As a person with lifelong experience of blindness I believe that chances start early and inclusive education is important.  These views were formed through my early experiences attending a school for the blind but then entering the “ordinary” stream where I excelled. I am thankful for this opportunity which culminated in successful completion of two university degrees, one in Arts and one in Law.

For 29 years I practised Law in the public and private sectors. I was also active in the blindness and broader disability movements in leadership roles at the local, national and international levels.

In 2010 I retired from the Australian Public Service and am now the Executive Officer of People with Disabilities ACT Inc. PWD ACT promotes and supports the collective interests of people with disabilities. We work to bring about an inclusive society by: advocating for the removal of all attitudinal, physical and social barriers which prevent people with disabilities from participating fully in community life; working to improve policies, programs and practices in our society which support people with disabilities to have the best life possible; and collaborating with other ACT disability advocacy organisations to improve outcomes for people with disabilities. You can find out more about PWD ACT at www.pwdact.org.au

I have a passion about consumer representation of people with disabilities and quality service in the ACT which included a period as Chair of the ACT Disability Advisory Council where I helped drive Council work on service quality and also supported work to improve our presence and access in the ACT and Region. 

I am also focussed about building employment opportunities for people with disabilities which is perhaps one of the most pressing and difficult areas of life for some blind and vision impaired people.  

I am also currently President of Radio 1RPH a radio station for people who are print handicapped.  I have been delighted to see print Handicapped radio thrive and expand and am proud of our work to expand into Wagga Wagga and Junee.

I am a member of the Rotary Club of Canberra Weston Creek.  I believe that Service Clubs offer young people generally great opportunities for friendship and personal development.

The other passion in my life is my work with my wife Wendy to assist and fundraise for the people of East Timor and it was a delight to visit the region for the first time last year and see the outcomes of our work on the ground. It has been good to see this work recognised through the Awarding of a Centenary Medal in 2002 and an Order of Australia medal in 2009

I’d urge any person with a disability to take all opportunities that present themselves, and make the most out of every day.

In October 2009, Katie had the chance to realise her long held dream of being a choreographer when she was invited to choreograph and present a dance to celebrate the opening of The Belconnen Art Centre Exhibition Artist/Proof on the International Day of People with Disability. This gave her just a few short weeks to select a song, choreograph the routine and teach it to the three girls from the Dream Team who would dance with her.  The performance was very well received and Katie has been invited back to do two new dances for the Gala opening of ‘Perception’ on Friday 2^nd of December 2011.

In April 2010, Katie was part of the ACT team of athletes to compete at the IX Special Olympic National Games in Adelaide; over four days of gruelling competition she won 3 gold medals and 1 bronze medal and was declared the Australian National Champion for the 50m Butterfly. She loves to represent her state at this level of competition and has a dream of representing Australia in a World Games. Hopefully she moved another step closer to realising this dream in September 2011 when she competed against swimmers from all over Australia and the Pacific Region at the Down Syndrome Down Under National Games held in Noosa, winning gold and silver medals.

In January 2011, Katie was a part of the team that competed in the FFA Futsal National Championships; she had never taken part in this form of sport before and was one of only two girls on the ACT team.With her usual determination, she trained hard and practiced her ball skills every day.

In June 2010 she faced one of her most difficult challenges, to audition for a part in a film to be produced in the ACT. This involved an acting audition and interviews with the writers, producers and the director, followed by five weeks of long rehearsal sessions. The confidence and professionalism she displayed throughout the making of the film, the subsequent radio, newspaper, television interviews and the Q & A’s impressed everyone who worked with her. The movie ‘Beautiful’ is now being used as a training resource within the ACT as well as countries in Europe and the US. It will be shown at international film festivals and Katie and her co-star Peter Rossini have been invited to do another Q&A when it is shown at the ‘Other Film Festival’ in Melbourne in 2012.

Katie hopes to make many more movies and will begin acting classes in 2012 to enhance her skills and improve her chances of gaining more roles.

In April 2011 Katie was invited to take on the starring role in the PATH Families Network, Facilitator Training program. Production of the DVD involved 4.5 hours of filming before a live audience, an experience that was intense and quite confronting but the program organizers were delighted with the result and her professionalism throughout the evening.

For the last few months Katie has been preparing a contemporary dance piece with the renowned choreographer Liz Lea, Artistic Director of Canberra Dance Theatre, this will be performed at ‘Short and Sweet’ a competition being held at Canberra Theatre from 14^th -18^th November 2011. This mentoring project was initiated and funded through the auspices of Caro Roach the ArtsAbility Officer for the ACT.

In 2007 the unemployment rate was 63% for people with vision impairment or who are blind and 34% for those with postgraduate qualifications (Vision Australia 2007). It is tempting to restrict this story to having a job for 21 of the last 22 years but that would leave out the most important part of my life.

As someone with low vision, I had been unable to gain work other than as a cleaner after I graduated from university in the mid 70s when my fully sighted colleagues were quickly snapped up. In 1981, I began a Master of Arts until I could no longer read print by 1982.

From the late 1980s employment was made more accessible by PC screen reader technology and Commonwealth government support. In 1990, at age 38, I won my first full time job after becoming totally blind in the mid-1980s.

Since starting work at Salisbury City Council in 1997, part- and later full-time as Access Officer, management has given me many career development opportunities and accommodated my appointment to the SA government’s Ministerial Disability Advisory Council (2007-12).

I could have continued in my Master of Arts degree if my wife Cathy had become my volunteer reader and admin support. We put our energy into parenting instead.

I was told by a social worker in the early 1980s that I had been irresponsible starting a family as this would condemn the children to live in poverty. Given the lack of adaptive technology then and the unemployment rate even today this was a statement of probability. But this also reinforced society’s low expectations of a blind person. Our two children did grow up in poverty until 1990. But my wife Cathy made sure that Joel and Lucilla were not impoverished in other ways: ensuring they had a sense of their own worth and had some power to influence family activities and decisions.

She had to learn about being married to, and parenting with, a blind person. She also mentored me as a parent. Yet these adaptations made by a spouse are not recognised nor supported by any Government.

After my initial fear of being solely responsible for a 15 month old, I learned how much very young children can initiate play and include a blind parent in their everyday activities. I shared some housework and over time became our son’s companion on his many journeys on buses and trains. In 2007 he was appointed SA Youth Ambassador for Road Safety.

While I spent evenings and weekends with Joel, our daughter Lucilla had her mum to herself and learned exponentially. She was Dux of her high school and decided to study Dietetics after initially starting in Medicine. During her uni years she was made the National YMCA Young volunteer of the Year.

Cathy and I now live in our mid northern suburb house with our daughter Lucilla, an Accredited Practising Dietitian. Our son Joel and his partner Megan live in the house they built in the Adelaide Hills where he is Senior Statutory Planner in local government. Cathy volunteers in a number of crèches, increases her fluency in the international language Esperanto and we remain active in our spiritual home, the Edmund Rice Network.

Michael is a Disability Community Leader for International Day of People with Disability

The idea for Blind Courage began in a campfire talk between Crossmaglen dairy farmer Jason Bake and his brother-in-law, Coffs Harbour City Council asset manager Craig Smith.

Jason has lost 93 per cent of his sight through the degenerative eye condition retinitis pigmentosa.

He first noticed his eyesight problem when he was a teenager at night-time football training.

He had to give up footie, but he didn’t give up dreams of trekking the highlands where Australian soldiers stopped Japan’s advance in 1942.

“Diminishing eyesight made the challenge tougher, but I wanted to do it more than ever,” Jason says.

“Craig turned the dream into Blind Courage – a team trek to raise money for Guide Dogs, whose people give incredible free support to thousands of Australians with impaired eyesight.”

The team was soon joined by Armidale Aboriginal liaison officer Steve Widders, who has lost 95 per cent of his eyesight with cone dystophy.

Steve says that failing eyesight increased his vision of ways he could use his other abilities.

The Blind Courage group grew to be as big as a football team before it left for the 10 day trek in June this year. It included Guide Dogs instructor Matt Wood, Coffs builder and former rugby league player Peter Phillips, indigenous business facilitator Christian Lugnan, and Melbourne film maker Meagan Kae, who is working on a documentary about the journey.

They trekked with both Aboriginal and Australian flags, and took time to commemorate the Aboriginal soldiers who died on Kokoda, as well as the sacrifices of all Australians, New Guineans and Japanese.

“The Kokoda trek helped me realise my own value as a person,” Steve says.

“It helped prove to myself that I can overcome any disadvantages of failing eyesight.

“I believe in myself, and I turned my adversity into an advantage.

“My motto is we all die, but we don’t all live.”

The team had trained in techniques for step-by-step guidance for Jason and Steve through the many tricky parts of the trail.

It turned out to be hard work, but Jason says he only landed face-first in the mud four or five times a day during the 96km trek.

He says New Guinean guides saved him from countless more falls, but his bruises were insignificant beside the elation the trekkers shared with the highlanders’ songs each evening.

Jason was still singing those songs to his cows just after his return when he was selected for a NSW dairy business award by judges who did not know about his diminished eyesight.

Steve also quickly moved on, winning a heat of the ABC television series Strictly Speaking, and planning a Walk Widders journey from Brisbane to Sydney next year to highlight the need for awareness of the health issues of Australian men.

Blind Courage has exceeded its $30,000 target to raise funds for Guide Dogs NSW/ACT to train a dog to be named Kokoda. Donations can still be made at www.blindcourage.net

Steve and Jason say they hope their trek shows that people with failing eyesight should not exclude themselves from everything they want to do.

They can be part of teams that can live their dreams.