Welcome to Rolling Through

Photo: J Lumsdaine

In some ways, things have changed a lot for disabled people during my lifetime.

I was one of the first kids to go to an ordinary primary school from my segregated disability school when I was seven.  That was definitely a moment of disability pride!

Now there’s more expectation that kids will go to the same schools together – although it still doesn’t always work out that way.  These days, I can take my wheelchair on the bus and the train … as long as the ramp is working and the train station is accessible.

So maybe it’s more accurate to say that things are changING rather than to say that they have changed.

After all, it was 2020 when I was sitting in my wheelchair in the back lane behind my flat, waiting for the removal van, when someone I’d never met saw me sitting there in a wheelchair and thought the appropriate response was to offer me money.

Saying “hello” would have been appreciated. Casting me in the role of a beggar was insulting.  There’s a lot more room for change.

Why a Blog?

Rolling Through exists to contribute to positive change for disabled people – to give me a place to make my voice heard and to give everyone who wants a more inclusive society another space to come to think and talk about that.

I’ve always enjoyed writing.  Friends say they appreciate what I have to say. so now I’m offering it to a wider audience.

I have previously spent way too long on unemployment payments, applying for jobs I was unlikely to get; because someone else’s skills and experience are a better fit than mine and because so many employers in Australia “don’t feel disability confident”.

Rolling Through is a way to define myself according to the things I CAN do and make the most of my life experience in a way that benefits my community. I’m also using it to generate income so that I always have a plan B.

It’s an opportunity to develop and demonstrate more skills than “how to write a good job application”!  Maybe I’ll contribute to the “disability confidence” of employers, but regardless, I’m Rolling Through.

The changes to the way disabled people are included in our society have been a lot slower than I expected.   Rolling Through is here to give them a push.

What are your thoughts about the changes and the rate of change towards inclusion? Tell me in the comments.