Some of Our Parts

Happy Friday every body!

How are your holidays?

• The Gothenburg Cooperative for Independent Living in Sweden is brewing beer for disability awareness! Cheers!
• While these wonderful songbirds are writing A Song, A City to raise funds and awareness around Spina Bifida.
• Fashion Freaks have a range of wheelchair friendly fashion with patterns that you can sew yourself.
• Wheelchair to waves – nothing is impossible.
• The Australian première of HELLO, a long distance dance project for people with disabilities is on next week at 1000 £ Bend in the city!

It’s been pretty quiet around here.

If you hear/see/know of any great items to share on the Friday round up, let us know!

Unite by Lim Heng Swee

It’s that time of the week!

Hope you’re all enjoying your holidays, wherever you are!

Here’s some disability related tidbits from the grapevine from this week:

• Christina Stephens, the Amputee OT takes on a challenge and puts together her Legoleg!
• Check out this gadget that could help you see with your ears!
• Help get Audio Description up on the ABC permanently! Check out the Blind Citizens Australia website to lodge your own complaint.
• Ableism, much?
• Critical gender theory and art nerds! It’s Sunaura Taylor AND Judith Butler taking a walk together!
• Calling all artists! The Institute on Disability is looking for some creative types for it’s 2014 calender!
• Unfit to plead? An interesting article from Bernadette McSherry, theFoundation Director of the Melbourne Social Equity Institute at the University of Melbourne.
• A Brief History of Down Syndrome
• Why deaf people sneeze silently?

VACATIONS II - Design by Maria del Pilar Botero

I hope you’re all doing marvellous things on your holiday!

Distinguished Monash Alumni, Ron McCallum AO is the Chair of the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and Chair of Radio for the Print Handicapped of New South Wales Co-operative. He is also one of two Deputy Chairs of Vision Australia and in 2008 was appointed as a member of the Federal Government’s National People with Disabilities and Carers Council.

In 2003, he was awarded a Centenary Medal for his role as a labour law scholar and for his role as a disabled citizen in our nation. In 2006 the Queen’s Birthday honours recognised Professor McCallum with an Officer in the Order of Australia for his services to tertiary education, for industrial relations advice to governments, for assistance to visually impaired persons and for social justice. In 2007 Professor McCallum received an Alumni Achievement Award from Queen’s University Canada where he had undertaken postgraduate studies in law from 1972 to 1974.

In 2008, McCallum was elected to the first Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of the United Nations which monitors compliance with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. In February 2009, he was appointed inaugural Rapporteur to the Convention and in October was elected Chair of the Committee. He was re-elected to the Committee in 2010 and remains as Chair.

Watch his inspiring TedX Talk, ‘My Insight Into The Blind Reading Revolution‘, or read his Alumni profile here.

Good morning!

Hope you’re all enjoying your well deserved holidays!

Here’s a little round up of what’s going on in the disability world.

• The Australian Information Industry Association is holding their annual Accessibility Week to promote accessibility in web technology. Register here for the Melbourne program, just for one day, or the whole week (22-26 July)!
• This weekend at the Footscray Community Arts Centre, check out NIS – an interabilities sound/art performance by The Amplified Elephants and the BOLT Ensemble, run as part of the Click Clack Project.
• If you haven’t already noticed, King Kong has hit the Regent Theatre in Melbourne! There is an Auslan interpreted showing on the 3 August at 2pm, and an audio described performance will be at 2pm on 10 August.
• LAST MINUTE: Auslan at Circus Oz – tomorrow at 1.30pm (matinee) or 7.30pm!
• The wonderful Stella Young on DisabilityCare.
• Nathan Letts, a teenager who has been blind for the past four years shares his story while on work experience at a radio station.
• A little disability automotive history…
• Check out ‘Talk’, an award winning short film that portrays t a society in which non-disabled people are a pitied minority and disabled people lead full and active lives. Don’t forget Part 2 as well!

Cloud Cocoa. Photo by Nikole Herriott.

Keep warm, it’s getting chilly out there!

Following the beginning of the government’s NDIS/DisabilityCare scheme yesterday, the news has been fluttering with opinion and ideas about how it will effect individuals around Australia. Here are some interesting articles that might be worth a read.

• Guardian Australia readers respond – read their stories here.
• Jenny Macklin, the Minister for Disability Reform writes here.
• ABC’s Life Matters radio program wants to know what you think.
• Annabel Crabb writes for Ramp Up about the NDIS.
• The Myer saga continues…
• How should it be funded?

Happy Friday, every one!

Hopefully exams are wrapping up nicely, and you’re starting to enjoy your holidays (if you haven’t already started!)!

Here’s a taste of the week’s news:

• Fibromyalgia (try saying that ten times fast) – a previously mysterious condition, has been upgraded to ‘less mysterious’ following a scientific breakthrough!
• Stumps and Spoons? Read up on some disability vocabulary.
• In what might just be the coolest performance ever – Wu Tang performs with an ASL interpreter (Holly) at the Bonaroo festival in Tennessee (read an interview with her here)
• Carly’s Cafe – a beautiful short film about living with non-verbal autism.
• The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History is featuring EveryBody: An Artefact History of Disability in America
• Check out Sue Austin’s unbelievable aquatic art!
• What was the last gig you went to? How disability-friendly was the venue?
• If you’re lucky enough to be enjoying the English summertime on your holidays, make sure you check out the Limbless Knight performing in London.
• Or, for you globetrotters out there – you can hear some audio described tours of London and New York thanks to Visioneyes!

Sue Austin – Free Wheeling

Happy Weekend!

Just in case you haven’t had enough of politics this week, Blind Citizens Australia, Vision Australia, Australian Blindness Forum and the Australian Human Rights Commission have been working with the Australian Electoral Commission to ensure that as many people who are blind or vision impaired as possible find out about telephone assisted voting at this year’s election and how it works.

Create Democracy by Xavier Barrade

There will be lots of information coming out in the next month so keep an ear out! This includes work by Vision Australia and the Australian Blindness Forum (which acts as a peak for blindness service providers) to spread the word to clients of their services.

To help spread the word about telephone assisted voting, Blind Citizens Australia has organised a number of teleconferences on behalf of the AEC.

These will be short 30-45 minute teleconference style information sessions hosted by an AEC representatvie which will begin with a short presentation of what to expect if you choose to cast your vote by telephone, followed by time for questions.

There are a number of dates in July 2013 in both business and after hours.

The first three conferences will be held on:

• Wednesday 3 July at 5.00pm
• Thursday 4 July at 7.00pm
• Wednesday 17 July at 10.00am

Other teleconference dates will also be released based on interest.

To register for a teleconference, please call the National Office on 1800 033 660 or email bca@bca.org.au with the subject line “Accessible voting teleconference”.

Please include your full name, contact phone number with area code, state and which teleconference you would like to join. You will then receive a confirmation email with the teleconference dial in details.

Monash alumni, Chris Varney is an all round, high achiever, having served as Youth Ambassador for World Vision, Australian Youth Representative to the United Nations, among other distinguished positions. Chris also has Asperger’s, and he was invited to talk about his personal support network which enabled him to believe in himself, at the TEDxTalk conference.

In his own words:

Increasingly, I speak publicly on the Autism Spectrum and the need for an ‘I CAN’ approach. I have become very concerned by the stigma surrounding Autism which I believe negatively impacts children and their families who deal with the Spectrum on a day to day basis.

Labels can limit our self-belief. In my experience, I have met too many children and families who have been told they can’t do things. Yet I know these children can do everything they put their mind to and even throw in a little extra! It starts by creating an enabling environment for their different ‘orbit’.

Watch Chris’ inspiring words here.

Read more about Chris’ amazing work here.

Happy Friday, everybody!

Hope your exams aren’t too stressful.

Here’s some links to take your mind off it for a while.

• Planning to check out the NGV’s Winter Masterpieces this year? Check out their Access Tours.
• Devotee – a tumblr dedicated to images of disability and diversity.
• Know an outstanding individual who happens to have a disability? The National Disability Awards are now open for nomination! The winners will be announced on the International Day of People with a Disability, on December 3rd.
• Laser Beak Man, the new production from Back to Back theatre is showing at the Malthouse theatre in mid November. An audio description and Auslan session will be on the 26th November at 6.30pm!
• If you’re headed to New York on your holidays, be sure to check out the Theater Breaking Through Barriers, performing six plays about disability in 70 minutes!
• Get your facts straight on Ableism.

Now… to the weekend, and beyond!

This is an opportunity for anyone aged between 12-25, with or without a disability…!

Ever thought about being on radio?

To talk about issues that concern young people in Australia? – Employment? The National Disability Insurance Scheme? Disability and sexuality? Getting a good education? Finding somewhere to live? Disability and cultural identity? Discrimination and rights? Being newly arrived to Australia with a disability?

SYN FM is hosting a new Disability Advocacy radio show!

YDAS has teamed up with youth radio station Syn Media to run a new disability advocacy focused radio show in the second half of this year.

There will be broadcasting training for participants and then a chance for the new team of broadcasters to be on air in a brand new show from July to December 2013

If you have any questions, please contact Bec from YDAS on 9267 3712 or email ydasprojects@yacvic.org.au.

To be involved, please RSVP by June 28^th 2013.

*Have an issue that you know you and other young people are passionate about, but that doesn’t have a ‘disability focus?’ Contact us, we would love to talk about how you might be involved.