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My name is Sue Salthouse and I am 63.
I do see barriers, for me being broken down
when a government or an organization is willing
to listen to what my access needs are and to
take steps to address that by making an
environment more accessible.
In my life as a wheelchair user, I have noticed
that people do go out of their way to offer you
help and I can’t think of specific things in my
life that have broken down barriers but I do
know that people are very responsive to you
pointing out or showing them how to include
people with disabilities.
I think it’s extremely important because we have
been neglected for too long. We were like a third
world nation sitting inside the Australian affluence
and it’s time that we addressed that and that means
changing attitudes.
I think that men and women have very different
experiences of disability and that this hasn’t
yet been focussed on within the disability sector
in this country or even internationally but the
convention on the rights of persons with disabilities
did recognise the multiple discriminations that women
with disabilities experience.
Women with disabilities have the same carer roles and
same difficulties getting into the workforce as their
non-disabled friends but there are extra challenges
when you have to manage your equipment needs and your
access needs and your transport needs as well as
getting your children into child care and getting
the shopping and the meals done. So I think on that
very practical level women experience disabilities
very differently.
I think the one thing I would do would be to say to
people ‘Give us a job’ because employment empowerment
is really important for everybody with disabilities.
I hope for the next 20 years, that we will keep on the
pathway that we’ve started for disability reform in this
country and that I hope those reforms will give
individuals more choice in how they live their lives
and will give those individuals better economic status
and through that, more participation in the community.
It’s not deliberate negativity, but there are.. We have
to admit that adjustments need to be made and that
supporting a person with disabilities in the workplace
takes effort on everyone’s part because we have
different participation requirements.
But I think that once you get a willingness to do that,
that it can happen.