Speaker 1 0:00
Welcome to a Vision Australia radio podcast. Love our podcasts. Why not listen to us live, tune in anywhere, anytime, ask your smart device to play Vision Australia radio or visit va radio.org,
Speaker 2 0:21
Vision Australia radio and reading radio networks. This is the powered news
Sam Rickard 0:27
wrap G'day. I'm Sam Ricard. It's the 10th of September. We're presenting articles from the Powerd dot media website, and joining me is the writer of these articles, Emma Myers. Gedde, Mr. Hello.
Speaker 3 0:39
Is it really the 10th of September already.
Sam Rickard 0:42
Yes, it's the year is powering by. You might say. So anyway, we are moving on to, well, it's an inconvenient subject for some, because Surprise, surprise. People with disabilities come in all shapes and sizes and all colors. Really, I know who knew. So this is about a scheme called Black ability.
Emma Myers 1:07
Yes, it's a project run by the University of Melbourne, and it's essentially trying to gather information on what we already know, that disability is intersectional, and we experience disadvantage from all different walks of life, including First Nations and disability.
Sam Rickard 1:31
Well indeed. And I mean, as someone who grew up in the Northern Territory, I'm quite familiar with that, because there are certain conditions that do occur to people living in remote environments and who have disadvantage too and well, it's, it's a credit to those people themselves that they've decided to pick themselves up and study really And funny enough, they expect to have some sort of services when they get to A university. I know
Emma Myers 1:58
how dare they no the services that universities do offer fail to take into account the intersecting identities. And so first nations people living with disability not only have to go to the First Nations services, but they also then have to check across campus to go to the disability service.
Sam Rickard 2:29
And this is it's sort of speaks to all of us, in a way, because, I mean, I don't know about you, but I've had to tell my story on a number of different occasions to get services, just for government, for example. So yes, I would understand this at a university level. And the argument that was put in this article was maybe the services for people who might be considered as a minority group or a special needs group, maybe they should all be in the one section and the one place so you don't have to make the journey across campus.
Emma Myers 3:01
Yeah, exactly, Sam. And the thing is, there's already a student services hub in most universities, but as I said before, the disability services office is kind of hidden away so that no one really knows it's there, because it's such a far way away from the rest of the student hub. And so in essence, people with disability are almost being pulled away from socializing with their fellow students.
Sam Rickard 3:40
And it does speak to a much larger issue, really, and that is yes, making us all feel welcome now no matter who we are, anyway, we will now cross over to the news with another returning news reader. Mike Scanlon
Speaker 2 3:54
Smith, thank you, son, many First Nations, people living with disability could soon see improvements to their university experience thanks to a new $2 million initiative. The project is called blackability. Blackability is a five year program made up of 39 universities looking to discover better ways of facilitating access and success for Aboriginal andor Torres, Strait Islanders, university students and employees living with disability. According to the project's website, the project is being run by University of Melbourne's Dr Sheila Daniels Mays an associate professor of Indigenous Studies. She says intersecting minorities have faced inequality since colonial times. It's a real balancing act to look at the idea of intersectionality and leadership in higher education. Once I got into researching, I realized that as an Aboriginal person, colonization has tried to eliminate me. As a person with a disability, colonization has tried to eliminate me and as a woman, we also get eliminated. By processes of colonization, some of the black ability participants reported being vilified based on their intersecting identities. According to the Associate Professor, we've heard things like, Oh, you have a disability, as well as if Aboriginal is not enough problems, and so you are Aboriginal, and you have disabilities, and you have chronic health conditions, you're too much of a problem for us. Ms, Daniels recalls the Indigenous Studies specialist of recounts the day a passerby made a comment about the lack of wheelchair users on campus as the Disability Services building sits on the opposite side of the university. It's quite ironic. We've got a walkway between two buildings in one of the most photographed walkways. It's called wominjeka, which is the local Aboriginal word for Welcome. Ms, Daniels maze explains, beyond the walkway, what you're confronted with is a massive flight of stairs. So who is welcome? MS, Daniels maze argues that the problem lies with universities not acknowledging the inter sexual needs of students and employees. It's not always offered. You're doing all this extra work before you even get to the classroom as a First Nation student with disability, you talk with indigenous Student Services and talk to the other services about disability. So you've got to tell your whole story. Again, the playability project is working with equity leaders at universities to improve the student service experience, according to MS, Daniels Mays, they all want to do better, but no one knows how to do better, and that's what we're trying to figure out as well, because we have some ideas. She believes that if universities have the capacity, they should combine First Nations disability and international student services into the same area. That is a step everybody could do. MS, Daniels May says, the Associate Professor, says the first step to improve the First Nations disability experience in universities is to recognize thinking of disability as part of human nature, if we can start adopting the First Nations understandings and ways of doing things with people who are different, I think it's good for everybody. Many in the Autistic community remain angry and confused following the recent announcement of the thriving Kids program, an alternative to NDIS support for children with autism and development will develop delay, which is set to begin its roll out next July, Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme the NDIS, Mark Butler claims the move was made to ensure the NDIS remains financially sustainable. In order to curb the growth of the NDIS, Mr. Butler announced the thriving Kids initiative for children with mild to moderate autism and developmental delay. However, the Australian autism Alliance, a disability advocacy group, took issue with the language used to describe those eligible for thriving kids policy must adopt a neurodiversity of forming lens in line with the National Autism strategy. The Australian autism Alliance also stated that all support systems developed for the Autistic community must take a holistic and systemic approach, recognizing autism as a lifelong disability. Support needs may be ongoing, fluctuating and context dependent, as reflected in the National Autism strategy. When Powerd media approached Autism Awareness Australia a triple A CEO Nicole Rogerson for comment, she made a point of reassuring the Autistic community. I know people are going to be nervous. She says, I'm all for judging governments when they do things wrong, but at this point in time, we don't know enough to really judge it. According to Mr. Butler, the NDIS was originally intended to support around 410,000 people with disability, yet the NDIS now supports just under 740,000 and is projected to grow to a million by 2034 for MS Rogerson, the thriving kids announcement was a step the government needed to make to restructure the NDIS. She claims that the thriving Kids program is a great opportunity for those caring for as well as living with autism and developmental delays. We check babies to see that they can hear and see, but we don't do those social and emotional checks. The CEO says the fact that governments talking about doing that with three year olds and then seeing what they need is a really good opportunity, but you've got to get it right. It's worth noting that the director of Autism Awareness Australia is Professor Andrew Whitehouse, one of the developers of the Inklings initiative. Inklings is a proposed program under thriving kids for babies aged six to 18 months who are showing early differences in their neurological development. Triple A CEO and Nicole Rogerson believes people should be more worried about what will happen to the NDIS if the sustainability issue isn't rectified. I. If we don't fix the NDIS and get it set up in a much better position to be more stable and sustainable, we'll lose it all together. And for now, the Autism Awareness Australia CEO says the government must work closely with experts in the field of child development in order to produce a satisfactory program. If you're going to make a big change we need to make sure that we end up designing is actually going to support those children the way they need. Ms Rogers says, I, for 1am, very much willing to work with the government to make sure they get this right and thriving. Kids will begin rolling out on the first of July, 2026
Sam Rickard 10:38
Thank you, Mike. So the gift that keeps on giving and that is foundational supports, or, as we now call them, thriving kids. Or are they different things? We don't know yet, maybe you can explain the second article a little bit more to
Emma Myers 10:52
us. Yeah, so thriving kids is, well, it seems to be marketed under the banner of foundational support. So this is one of the sub headings of foundational support. And to pick a big of the body has called for calm after understandably, the autistic and developmental disability community has been voicing their confusion, their anger, their disability. And so the CEO of Autism Awareness Australia has pretty much come out and said we don't know enough about it to automatically say it could be a bad thing. However, it begs the question of impartiality, because the director of Autism Awareness Australia is also one of the co founders of the Inklings program, which is one of the major things under the thriving kids speller.
Sam Rickard 11:59
And this is something we encounter a fair bit in the world of disability, and disability support is, yes, people wear a few more hats than in a lot of other ranges. So yes, we've got to wonder about this. And my concern still remains that on the surface, it does just seem to be that we don't know any of how this is going to work, and the key stakeholders have not known how this is going to work. The federal government is throwing out these ideas, and we're all scrambling for answers because we don't know that's that's my opinion, anyway, but I mean that I did like the glass half full approach, though it is like, okay, more of an understanding, more more looking into early developmental practices with children, with some with it, with a diverse neuropathy, as it were, that's a long word for me. I did understand what they were trying to say, and that is okay. We don't know how this is going to go, so this might be a good thing.
Emma Myers 13:08
I think we do need to recognize that glass half full approach as he is headed because realistically, when has the government ever announced anything that they've been sure of what it's going to look like in the realm of its ability,
Sam Rickard 13:26
this thing called the NDIS, they weren't expecting it to turn out the way it did by a longshore No, that is a wrap for this rep for next week. Well, Emma, I do believe you got to finally talk to the new member for Dixon. I did
Emma Myers 13:41
finally, and she's absolutely incredible. And so I spoke with early France, and we talk all things disability and politics.
Sam Rickard 13:51
You can find these articles and more by going to the Powerd spelled P, O, W, E, R, D, dot media website, along with the podcast of this program, the Powerd news wrap was brought to you by disability media Australia. This show was produced by me Sam Ricard in the Adelaide studios of Vision Australia radio. Bye, for now. Bye, you.
