Powerd NewsWrap 30th July 2025

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on the Vision Australia and reading radio networks. This is the Powerd news wrap. G'day. I'm Sam Ricard. It's the 30th of July, 2025 we're presenting articles from the Powerd dot media website and joining me across the other side of the counter and still annoyed because in excess was number one in the hottest 100 is Emma Myers G'day. Emma said I was annoyed with in excess being the top one, but certainly not my favorite. I reckon red right hand by Nick Cove. And the bad things number one, well, we've learned more about each other than haven't we? Okay, it's been a quiet week, in a way. Now, one of the articles that we was presented on the Powerd media site was about disability pride. Now we made the choice not to read the article itself, because it was promoting something that has now happened, as opposed So, yes, all the tenses were wrong. Maybe you can tell us a bit, little bit about disability pride, though. Yeah, so Disability Pride is similar to gay pride in that we are celebrating the disability community and who we are as a community individualism and how it's not as much of of a barrier as society may think, and that's well and truly worthy. I mean, it's nice to have people out there showing that we're not necessarily normal, but we are not abnormal either. I mean, one is normal exam Exactly. That's the whole point. And Gay Pride is about showing people's acceptance, acceptance of who they are. Exactly yes, and so, yeah. I mean, maybe something like that, like this for the disability community, is also a good point anyway, but moving right along to something that's sort of similar, and that's our first article. You did this quite some time ago, though, yeah. So I spoke with a young author and disability advocate who's released a book about her guide dog. It's essentially a children's book detailing what to do and what not to do when approaching a guide dog from the guide dogs perspective, this is really valuable, because as someone who has got a few friends with guide dogs, this happens quite often. People will sort of go, you know, hey, hey, hey, and it's like, that's the worst thing you can possibly do because the dog's working. Yeah, they're doing a job. And wouldn't do that to a person to concentrating on saving someone's life. Well, you wouldn't do that to a police dog either. No. So yeah, there's obviously something in people's minds that is different. Oh, it's a gorgeous Labrador, so we want to sort of call attention to it. So No, and I did agree with what she had to say, that at least children do tend to accept when they're told, No, don't touch the dog when it's in harness and things like that. It's the issue, but it's kind of a reward to those kids to say, Okay, this is why. So that's good. So we'll head over and listen to these two wonderful news stories read by our news reader for the week. Mike scandred Smith, over to you. Mike, thank you. Sam. My name is Jemima. Is the delightful new picture book by disability advocate and blind person Olivia Muscat. This is Olivia's debut book, and it offers a thoughtful and engaging way to teach both children and adults how to interact respectfully with guide dogs, whether on public transport or out of the city. The book is beautifully illustrated by Alison colpoise, adding warmth and charm to its important message. Olivia lives in Melbourne with her guide dog, Jemima, and when she's not writing, such as his children and occasionally performs on stage. It's called My name is Jemima, and it's a children's picture book, and it is about a guide dog. It's a day in the life from her perspective, and what being a guide dog means, and why when we say, oh, that that dog's working, some reasons why we don't

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talk to them and look at them lovingly in the eyes or give them a pat when they're on harness. But it, I hope, is done in like a fun,

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sticky kind of way that's an enjoyable story to read, as well as doing some sneaky educating. Fuck.

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Did you think about putting Braille in the book itself, like we do on money?

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I did think about it. I thought about it a lot.

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I went back and forth on it a few times. And I just want to point out that this book like I'm going to have some alternative format, Braille copies made. But in terms of

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I've been doing disability stuff in the art space, in the book space, for quite a while, and I'm still not seeing

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the types of representation and the rate of change that I really want, and I think a lot of people really want,

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and to me,

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putting Braille in every edition of a book that's about a guide dog and is about blindness, pretty much, that's not the step forward in terms of representation and accessibility that I want it to be. I don't want my book to have Braille in it just because it's tangentially linked, and I'm also blind, and that sort of saddens me in a way, but I stand by that choice.

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I've it does come with an alternative format in that it has an audio book in every edition,

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but Braille is still this weird, mysterious thing to a lot of people, and I didn't think this was the right book for that.

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What experiences have you had of children coming up to you with Jemima? I think kids are much more understanding. I think a lot of adults ignore what I ask of them. Oh, please don't you can't chat to her or give her a patch she's working. There are lots of adults who seem to think that doesn't apply to them. When I ask kids are actually better at that, but I think the experience I have more often, and what inspired the book, is that kids will ask, because, of course, they will ask, Jemima is adorable, and usually I'm like, trying to get somewhere or trying to talk to someone, and this is like an aside that I'm just like, oh, sorry, thanks for asking, but she's working right now, and that's the end of that conversation.

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And they don't really get the follow up as to, what do you mean she's working? What does that mean? And but why can't I pat her, or why can't I say hello? And you usually don't have time to give all those reasons, which is what I've tried to put into the book, is that conversation that I rarely get to have with kids. How long have you had? Jemima, we will have been together for eight years,

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which is a long time. And yes, so the guide dogs, they go off and they get puppy raised for a year, and then they go do their training, which from what I can gather, is five or six months,

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and then there's a matching process. And that can be long, or that can be really quick. Mine was really quick. And I think because I'd been on the waiting list for a while, and I think that as Jemima was going through her training, they already had me in mind as a match for her, and then we had to do

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four weeks of full time training together. She's my first dog, so I had to learn guide dog mobility as a skill, as well as bond with her and create that bond that makes her want to make sure I don't run into a pole or something.

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So it's very much about team building. What's something that you'd want everyone to know about, guide dogs? I think the thing to remember is

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the blind person is actually in charge of what's happening. Guide Dogs aren't a GPS that you actually have to be aware and on the ball and know where you're going, as the person attached to the dog dogs are there to make sure you get there safely, you still have to know how to cross a road, and I think that's a really common misconception.

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More Australians with disability are being urged to pick up a special key which grants them access to over 1000 safe and secure public toilets across the country. The master locksmiths association of Australasia, the peak body for locksmith services, developed the master locksmith access key, the mlak over 30 years ago, as a way for the.

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Disability community to access clean and accessible public amenities. The key can also be used at changing places, facilities, liberty, swings and other facilities. Across Australia, more than 2 million Australians live with profound or severe disability which affects their core mobility function. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, due to this, the master locks with association is urging local councils and state governments to install more secure, accessible toilet facilities for people with disability. Master locksmiths, President Martin coot explains that while using a public toilet is easy for those people, those who with physical disability, often can't use general toilets. He went on to point out that accessible toilets without specialized locking systems are prone to being vandalized or used for other criminal activities.

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Unfortunately accessible public toilets, because of their privacy, are often targeted by those doing drugs with wrong intentions and are often unhygienic, says Mr. Coote. He says the Association wants to ensure that disabled toilets can be accessed by those who require them. Eligibility for the nlak is restricted to people with disability or have written authority from a doctor disability Association Community Healthcare Facility, or the owner of a building with an accessible toilet, according to master locksmiths association of Australasia.

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Francis cupkey Smith is a director of regional Disability Advocacy Service, which operates in regional New South Wales and Victoria Ms. Cupkey Smith lives with disability, and says the mlak key has made a huge difference in her life. It gives me a secure and reliable access to public toilets and facilities when I need them, without the stress of asking for help or worrying if a door will be locked. So said Francis cook kiss Smith, once the key is purchased, it's yours for life, and the mlak can be fully subsidized by the NDIS Mr. Coot says. Mr. Coot claims more people with an MLA K will encourage councils to install more mlak toilets. We join with disability groups and call on councils and others who operate a public toilet to install more so that people with disabilities can have greater access. And now back to Emma and Sam. Thank you, Mike. Now

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I'm in two minds about the final story there, because, yes, it's nice to have a nice clean restroom to go to, but

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yeah, it's seems like a sort of another form of pulling the disability community apart from the able bodied community. I don't know. I mean, what's your input as a wheelchair user on this topic? I mean, look, I've been in public toilets that have had drugs, actually in the toilet that they've tried to flush down. I've had poo all over the ground, and then I've just had to wait for able bodied people to walk out of a disabled toilet. Now I'm not saying that that's the bad thing. If you're in the disability community, you can kind of spot the people with invisible disabilities, and that's fine, but then you you can also spot the people who just could not wait their turn, and so go and use a disabled toilet. But in saying that, I learned her victory, and when I need to go, I need to go. There are times where I cannot wait for someone who has the master key to unlock the bathroom so I can relieve myself. So you write them, I am in two minds. I don't have an obvious disability, and quite often, say, in a busy place, and I can't actually find the actual toilet in general, and it's like, oh, there's a disability toilet. Okay, in theory, I'm entitled to use the thing, so make sure I'm quick. But that's kind of where I stand there, and I don't, I wouldn't ask for a key or anything like that there, because it says that extra sort of step now. So before we go, we finish on this relatively positive episode. We've had cataclysms and discrimination in the last couple of stories. What have we got to look forward to next week, the disability discrimination Commission has responded to the Queensland Government's decision to build six new segregated schools. But on a lighter note, I'm also attending a disability conference tomorrow, and it's talking about how we can make the world a better place for our kids.

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Community. Well, that is a wrap for this wrap. See you next week. Bye, when you can find these articles and more by going to Powerd, spelt P, O, W, E, R, D, dot media, along with podcast of this show, the powered news wrap was brought to you by disability media Australia, and the show was produced by Sam Rickard in the Adelaide studios of vision, Australia radio,