Stand and spin. Okay, can you come forward? Nina, up stand, come forward. Good girl, and
you sit. Okay, there we go. Good girl, stay there, okay?
Have you ever tried to hide your disability?
No
Uh, good luck to us with that
Yeah no, that's not gonna happen
No, doesn't work
So, can you, do you, listen to music?
Since I had my second implant, my world has just reopened to music. Spotify is just the
best thing in the world.
If you woke up tomorrow without your disability, what would be the first thing you'd do?
Oo okay
I'd go to the movies
genuinely!
Go for a run, I don't know, that sounds so cliché
Throw away all my medication
How did you choose your chair? Is it like shopping for a car?
Yes, absolutely. You can customise everything. You basically get to choose, depends on how
much money you have to spend I guess, which is very similar to a car.
(Are there any 'everyday' events that you avoid?)
I don't necessarily like turning up to lectures early or on time, I try to arrive late because
I don't want to have to deal with the waiting, the agitation and anxiety associated with
waiting for something to start
I tend to avoid going into coffee shops at peak times because of the number of people
in there, and the amount of noise because the more noise, the less I can hear and the
less therefore I can see.
New Year's Eve or Mardi Gras, anything where there's a parade going on and you have to
kind of squeeze your way to the front and there's people pushing from behind
(Do you prefer people to acknowledge or ignore your disability?)
I guess yeah, I like it when people sort of go, 'oh you might be hearing impaired, I'll
make sure you can see me before I start talking' or that sort of stuff
If I'm standing on a street corner looking really really lost, come over and ask if I'm
okay, that's really good. But some people are just not sure if they should do that or not.
Has your disability impacted your relationships?
Yes it has, before being diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, I had a relationship where
at one point my girlfriend came home from work where she was helping an autistic child,
and said, 'you know what, I'm pretty sure you've got that'. Up until then, she was
a bit frustrated with my anxiety, with my quirks and ways of communicating.
I've been in a relationship now for just under two years and like its never kind of
been an issue, like it was a case of well, this is who you are, and this is, you know,
our relationship and its been great and it wasn't ever a something we needed to address
as like a 'well we can't possibly be in a relationship until we talk this through'
Do you prefer to hang out with people who also have a disability?
I don't mind, it doesn't make a difference to me. I kind of like to see people with a
disability, no matter what it is, being included.
Prefer? No, but I'm not not going to. I don't instinctively find someone in a
wheelchair and be like, 'let's hang out'
I like hanging out with people that also have similar problems to me because they understand
what it's like to go through.
Do you have a tv?
Yes, a very big one, and it's still not big enough.
What are the worst examples in media, tv, movies etc, of portrayals of people with disabilities?
I was watching something the other day that had a character in it that was totally blind
and it sort of like was portraying, and it was a comedy so I understand you have to do
these things, but it sends out a bit of a wrong message. He was finding that he wasn't
he was reading a brail book and it wasn't making any sense and then the sighted person had
to come to the rescue and blow off the sesame seeds.
I'm going to say Artie from Glee
Oh yeah
I can't stand him, as a portrayal, he's got his great singing voice, he's talented
and everything, but they gave him training wheels on his wheelchair and push handles
and made him dress nerdy and dorky.
Boston Legal and there was a guy with Asperger's on there and he always held his hands on his
lap, and he'd talk to people in a weird way, he'd run around and be quirky
and to that extent its not necessarily realistic, in my perspective.
What do you do for exercise? Do you go to the gym?
No, no I don't. Do you?
I do actually, I have a specialised trainer who specialises in disability training.
[What does a guide dog actually do?]
With her I can go into a strange building and ask Nina to find the lift or find the
counter or find the steps. She gives me confidence with what I do. I don't think I'd be here
at this University teaching and doing what I do unless she was onboard.
Are your other senses heightened?
Perhaps. I do a lot of seeing with my eyes. I'm trying to always look at the face.
I can hear things at the side of me, and the back of me, but I like to look at the face.
[What stigmas surround your disability? How do you deal with them?]
Dangerous or lazy... but I think that's not true so if someone treats me a way that I don't
like because I've told them about my mental illness, I'll not be their friend anymore
or i'll just try not to get affected.
What myth do you want busted?
We can still do all the things we want to do. Might be a bit harder to do them but a
lot of the things that I've always sort of wanted to do just take a bit more planning
but they can still be done.
That people with disabilities are separate, you know that they're different, they're
somehow in a different category of humans. We're all human, so yeah, the idea that
we're separate and different is something I'd like to see ditched.
For most people blindness is black blind, no eyesight, no nothing. Not all of us are
going to have guide dogs not all of us are going to be obviously low vision. So it's
sort of understanding that we are individuals as vision impaired people, we're not just
one definition.
Are jokes about disability ever OK?
They are when we say them.
I think it's one of those things, I think it's funny if we say them.
Not to me, not to my face.
Yeah.
How do you tell if a blind parachutist is about to hit the ground?
The harness on the guide dog goes slack.
What's the biggest perk of living with a disability?
Cutting lines, I do it all the time.
A good night's sleep, and if you have young children who wake up frequently
in the the middle of the night, well you know...
Total manipulation of like: 'oh excuse me can I just get past here?'
and like running into people's ankles just because they're in the way
and then they're the ones that apologise to me!
Having a dog that you can take anywhere.
[What's your biggest challenge in participating in student and campus life?]
I've never done studying full time, I've always done up to about three subjects
and that's gonna be a real challenge.
For me it's all of the little things, like, 'oh watch this video to learn how to do this thing,
except we haven't captioned it so you know, enjoy that'.
[What's one thing everyone should know about people living with disability?]
What people should know is that acknowledge what they may or may not know.
That we're people.
Be nice to everyone because you never know what they're going through.
I want everyone to know that we want to be included not excluded.
That's better, that's better. I'm going to change my answer, that's better!.
[What's your favourite hobby?]
Drinking wine,
and actually my eyesight improves after a glass of red.
I am a huge foodie. I love food.
Have you ever tried to hide your disability?
When I applied for my first job, I told them during the interview that I had a hearing loss.
but thankfully, he didn't worry about it, he still gave me the job.
Doesn't work now with a guide dog though. I can't really pack her up and put her in my backpack.
I've spent more of my time hiding my hearing impairment that I have been being open about it
to be honest. Or certainly hiding the extent of it. But I've never been shy to
be like 'oh yes, so I'm hearing impaired, I wear a hearing aid, you know. You don't
need to change anything, we'll just proceed as normal'. But I didn't want to get discriminated against
Always.
My disability is, I try the best to hide everything that I've got, to be as
normal as possible.
Yeah, me too. Me too.
Everything from meeting people through to interactions at uni
through to interactions at work
I'm constantly trying to hide my disability through little things and trying to improve
myself to make myself more normal.
I censor myself a lot just to make sure that I'm socially acceptable.
Is it right or wrong to ask if I can help you, is there a best way to do so?
I think it's okay. I mean, don't jump all over me every second when I'm trying to do things
and is there a best way? I don't think so, just try not to make it too in my face
- or patronising, like: 'do you need help'.
That's always fun when you get that one.
Just be like, 'hey can I give you a hand', just normal polite human interaction.
Don't be rude about it, don't be in my face, that's all.
I think that it's always right to help, but I think the key bit there is not assuming.
Asking. There's nothing wrong with being like, 'oh hey, I know you've got a hearing
impairment, is there anything you need from me? Is there anything I can do?'
I get that sometimes and I'm like 'oh that's lovely.'
But if it's: 'oh you're hearing impaired, I'll help you', that's not actually helpful.
I would say that if the person noticed someone that's agitated, that they're looking
like they're anxious and they're agitated, then I would ask, it would be nice if someone
took it upon themselves to come over and say: 'how are you doing, are you okay?'
Have you met any others on campus living with disabilities? How?
Well just now with Gordon, and I've met friends in social work and I've told them
about my mental illness because I've had some troubles recently and they were really
supportive as well as some of them opening up about them experiencing depression or anxiety
and other mental illnesses.
Well I have, because I've been really involved in the University's Disability at Work Network,
so I've met a lot of staff through that have various disabilities.
But something I want to make really clear is that literally everybody, not matter who you are, has met
somebody, or multiple people with a disability, because a lot of disabilities are invisible.
So the answer to this question for everyone is yes.
[What would the ideal university look like for students living with a disability?]
That we all have disabilities so we're all equal.
Inclusion.
So instead of not including some people because they behave differently
you include them in everything that you do. So the social stigma associated with, not necessarily
snobbishness but it would be a utopia if every university student
got along with each other.
I guess for me it would be a university that's focused on accessibility as the norm.
Not having to have special rooms that are accessible or not having to make an extra effort to get something
captioned or not having to make an extra, like a university
where accessibility is really built-in.
I think Sydney Uni is pretty good. Ideal I guess, lifts everywhere? Maybe a few more bathrooms?
- parking spaces! -yeah
I think it's more of a cultural thing really in a sense that ideal would just
mean that there's never any question about the fact that students with disabilities are
totally integrated into the culture
the University actually has a Disability Action Plan
which has been so successful that they're actually exporting it to other universities
in Australia and overseas.
I'm Pia, I study social work and philosophy in the Bachelor of Arts.
My name is Gordon, I'm a student at the University of Sydney.
I'm Sheelagh Daniels-Mayes. I started at Sydney University in January this year as
a lecturer and researcher in Aboriginal education.
I'm Andrew. I'm a student here at the University of Sydney.
I do the international and global studies degree.
and I'm also a staff member and work for the Faculty of Engineering
as an industry placements officer.
Hi my name is Laura. I am a student. I am majoring in neuroscience under the Science Faculty.
My names Sarahjane Thompson, I'm a trainer here at the University of Sydney
in student administration.
My name is Jennie Brand-Miller
and I'm a Professor of Human Nutrition at the University of Sydney.