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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
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on the Vision Australia and reading radio networks. This is the Powerd news rap. It's the 29th of October and months almost over. Where has that gone? Where has the year indeed gone? We're reading articles from the Powerd dot media website, and of course, joining me fresh from the community broadcasting association of Australia's awards is Emma Myers, how are we going? Good, Sam, how are you I'm pretty good. How did the awards go for you? Or how did actually the conference, I should say more, which is usually the more important thing. Yeah, it went really well. And there were things in disability related content. And speaking of which Vision Australia actually cleaned up at the awards this year, with no less than three awards being watered to content, and indeed, my colleague Peter Greco was signed on to the honor list, which was pretty well well deserved. Let's put it that way. I was wondering where the word heard that name before. Now it made sense, indeed. All right, so we've got a
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I suppose you could both call them good news stories, but it started with a bad news story. So we'll start out with the
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news that. Well, there was a new hashtag trend on Tiktok. Maybe you can tell us about that. Yeah. So the trend itself was a hashtag which read hashtag, blind kid challenge, and pretty much when that means that people, predominantly children and their parents were imitating or rather mocking the blind community by acting like they were blind or had low vision, for sheer entertainment, and that's just disgusting. It made me sick to my stomach, and really got me fired up, because there's been trance like that in the past, where people have been packing epileptic fits and walking and talking like myself, and so I really felt for mermaids of the blind community impacted by This. Well, it's been said that we are the last group that people can comfortably bully. That's the comment that I've heard. But I've got a different spin, and what I think is all right, if they think it's fair enough to mock us, we should be allowed to jump on a stage and actively mock racial stereotypes. I mean, I know you've got, you've got the black face on now, at the moment as well. I mean, and you're rehearsing your black and white minstrel show? Oh, yeah, definitely. And I'm also getting my mother's goalie walk out. So, because this is what it comes down to, is I put this to one of the volunteers of Vision Australia radio when we were sort of talking about it, and I said, and he's comes from Sri Lankan, Sri Lankan background. I said, What would happen if there was a hashtag that said acts like a Sri Lankan? And he said, No, that's racist. And I said, like, Well, yeah, it's just pretty much the same thing. So what happens if we just did blackface challenge? Exactly. So anyway, those of you who are who are listening via podcast, you will get to hear the initial story that Emma put up, and we'll come back a little bit later and say what happened next.
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Many people who are blind or have low vision are calling on social media giants to embrace stricter guidelines and protections against circulating harmful content in the wake of a new trend gaining popularity online, the viral social media hashtags blind challenge and blind kid challenge prompts users without disability to imitate or rather mock Members of the blind community in the name of entertainment, audience, viewership and social media engagement, according to guide dogs New South Wales, A C T, Powerd media spoke with General Manager of social change at guide dogs New South Wales, A C T, Tamara seerant, who says The trend is a step backward for the blind community. People are just disgusted. She explains. It really is a reflection of ignorance, unfortunately, but it's also disregard for people who are blind or have low vision. According to Vision Australia, 2.5% of Australians are blind or have low.
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Vision, while approximately 77.9%
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of the population use social media, as reported by meltwater, blind Australian of the Year 2024
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Courtney waybeck, who is also the reigning Australian women's BT singles tennis champion, issued a statement via guide dogs, about her experience as someone with disability, impacted by the callous challenge people who are blind or have low vision live full, capable and independent lives joining forces with guide dogs. Ms way Breck called for strengthened protections for people with disability and ensure removal of harmful content from social media platforms. Turning our experiences into a social media challenge completely misses the reality of what we can do and the strength it takes to navigate the world without sight. Ms WayBack explains guide dogs, general manager for social change, Miss sirant gave advice on how people can report the discriminatory practice from the ground up via their respect is more important than views. Campaign page. We have put on our campaign page a call to action for people to be able to jump on it, there is clear information on what the issue is, and some template letters on who to write to raise awareness, to their local MP or even the E Safety Commissioner, the guide dogs New South Wales Act employee argues the need For protections against discriminatory behavior online, there is a need to be able to support the E Safety Commissioner in being able to hold platforms accountable when it comes to this kind of discriminative behavior. Miss stearin believes social media is a real opportunity for connection, creativity and inclusion, not an avenue for mocking people. It's so important that we start thinking about what we are doing online and how we create a community that is respectful, inclusive and kind. Guide dogs at New South Wales and a CT told Powerd media that social media companies have been made aware of the blind challenge and blind kid challenge, and are looking into the issue.
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What happened next? Well, guide dogs, New South Wales, ICT, got in touch with you. You put the story up, and then what happened? Well, then within a few hours of the story going live, Tiktok actually got back to guide dogs, saying that they were combing through their content, actively removing all the videos associated with the disturbing hashtag, and that they've Now come out and flat out, banned the hashtag, which, if you know social media companies, they don't necessarily like being told what to do. So this was a refreshing outcome for social media and the disability community. Well, at least they got rid of it. However, you can actually still find the odd remainder on YouTube, because I actually buy some yeah as well. So yeah, it's because what is it? Once you post it on the internet, it's there forever, pretty much. And that's a good thing and a bad thing. It's kind of a good, salient reminder of what not to do really, all right, so that's, as I said, a good news and a bad news. So we will, once more, go back to Lexi Osborne with the rest of the news. Thank you, Sam. Those with the disability community will be breathing a sigh of relief after social media giant Tiktok agreed to cause to ban a disturbing hashtag trend gaining traction online, the harmful Tiktok challenge, blind challenge and blind kid challenge saw users without disability mocking people with disability by way of exaggerated imitations of individuals who are blind or have low vision in order to boost their audience, viewership and social media engagement, according to guide dogs New South Wales and a c t, a spokesperson for guide dogs New South Wales, A C T, contacted Powerd media shortly after the initial story was published. The representative says that tick tock responded to the request, claiming in an email to have banned the hashtag blind kid challenge and removed hundreds of videos they deemed to violate their policies. They also said their enforcement action is continuing as they review content in relation to this that they deemed might violate their community guide.
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Guidelines, guide dogs, New South Wales Act, General Manager of social change, Tamara seerant, says they contacted the social media company in the wake of the harmful hashtags beginning to circulate on the popular platform. As soon as we heard about it, we contacted the social media companies, and we've been told that they're reviewing the issue. She says we made sure it went to the communications and trust and safety team so that they can address it directly. The blind kid challenge isn't the first viral social media trend to cause distress among the disability community. According to epilepsy action Australia. Epilepsy action Australia, a leading epilepsy support organization, explains that back in 2020 the hashtag seizure challenged encouraged young people pretend to suffer or die from a fit accompanied by jaunty pop music and dancing. In a statement released via the web, epilepsy action, Australia's CEO Carol Ireland stressed that living with epilepsy is no joke. Mocking or bullying anyone with a medical condition should simply never be tolerated on any platform. She says, We are here to protect and support people, that includes advocating to ensure this sort of content is stopped.
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People with disability living in New South Wales could soon have their rights enshrined in a state based Human Rights Act. On Thursday, the member for Newton greens, MP, Jenny Leong, will introduce a private member's human rights bill, which is based on successful implementations of similar legislations in other states, including the ACT Queensland and Victoria according to the Human Rights Act for New South Wales Alliance,
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over 100 organizations and individuals have backed the move via a collaborative statement released this morning, calling on all state politicians to support the establishment of a public inquiry into a Human Rights Act for New South Wales
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people with disability. Australia's Deputy CEO, Megan Spindler Smith, argues that existing human rights frameworks in New South Wales do not provide adequate protection or stop the violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation experienced by the disability community. We need a human rights approach that ensures people with disability are not forgotten or left behind when we talk about human rights, an act under which we are equal and fully protected is the right way forward for our community. The effectiveness of Human Rights Acts in jurisdictions such as the Act have already proven successful. A prime example of this is the experience of an individual living in a residential facility who had the battery taken out of his wheelchair due to the staff safety concerns. According to the Human Rights Act for New South Wales Alliance, the man's advocate asserted that this breached his right to freedom of movement protected by the A C T's Human Rights Act. The statement read in recognition of the man's rights, the facility worked with the man and his advocate to find other less restrictive ways to ensure he was able to move about freely but safely. Community Legal Centre's New South Wales Executive Director Sarah Marland, believes human rights should be at the heart of government, from the development of legislation to the everyday decision making that can profoundly impact an individual's quality of life. Amnesty's polling has shown that 75 per cent of people support protecting everyone's human rights in law. We call on the New South Wales Government to legislate a Human Rights Act so people in New South Wales can challenge human rights abuses, right wrongs and create a fairer future for everyone, said Miss Marland. As for now Green's MP, Miss Lyon is calling on New South Wales parliament to refer the bill for a comprehensive community consultation. If you would like to know more, go to human rights for nsw.org
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The link will be available in the podcast notes. And now back to Emma and Sam. Thank you, Lexi. All right, now there's a little bit to digest with this one, and that is the State Disability Discrimination Act. I always assumed that we already had one. Well, yeah, it's interesting. So did I so.
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So, so we know that there have been calls to enact a federal Human Rights Act for ever,
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because we don't have one at the federal level. But I was under the impression that all states and territories must have had one, but in reality, only three states and territories have an actual human rights act.
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Who are the lucky states? Yes, so the lucky states and territories are
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the ACT Queensland and Victoria, right? So the rest of us aren't really covered by any form of Human Rights Act. And pretty much, we just have to assume, well, I hope that the Disability Discrimination Act fills in the slack. The story you told in the article was a fascinating one where someone had their battery in their wheelchair confiscated because it was considered unsafe for the staff. Yeah, so pretty much, I will say it is in an aged care residential area, but for realtors, they had their bad tooth removed, and the explanation given was that staff were afraid for the individual safety as well as theirs, and so whenever someone wasn't with him, they'd just take his batteries out so he couldn't move. His advocate actually went into bat for him. And some, some other solution was, was found out. That's, that's what it comes down to, though there was another solution that actually satisfied everybody. And it just goes to show, like people just don't understand how vital. I mean, I mean they essentially took away his legs and his ability to even go from A to B, even if it was towards the end of a table, indeed. All right, well, with that cheery note, that is a wrap for this week. What other things are you working on today? So this week, we had a protest to Parliament House, which was calling for an end to NDIS cuts, and so I'll have some content around that for you in the coming week. And
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as for the rest, well, it's a mystery. Well, all I can say then is goodness gracious me. Goodbye for now. Bye. You can find these articles and more by going to Powerd spelt P, O, W, E, R, D, dot media, along with the podcast of this show, the Powerd news rap was brought to you by disability media Australia. This show was produced by Sam Rickard in the Adelaide studios of vision, Australia radio. Sam.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
