This year marks my twentieth anniversary of public speaking and disability education. In that time the subject I get asked to speak on the most is the empowerment of people with disabilities.
The two main principles I have come up with regarding empowerment are to treat each person as an individual and take a holistic view of a person's life because in my experience it is only by doing those two things that you can truly empower a person with a disability.
In order to make these two principles a reality you have to take a person centred approach to support delivery. It starts from the CEO at the top and the great front line soldiers that are each individual support worker.
It is important to recognise that no two people with a disability have the same life and needs.
The support worker should help create an environment where the client and support worker work together and people are given the space and opportunity for choice and control in their own life.
It is important to realise that people with disabilities often face barriers in daily life. The barriers can be physical, social attitudes, and financial.
Lack of access to the environment is the number one barrier faced by people with disabilities and while the community attitudes have improved in the past forty years, negative attitudes can still have an impact on whether or not people with disabilities feel capable of living an independent life.
It is important to note that as a support worker we are not asking you to fix the barriers but just to simply support us to overcome our challenges.
The best way to do this is to have open and active communication with your clients.
Another unfortunate barrier that people with disability face is not always being able to get the needed level of funding.
It is true the NDIS has helped hundreds of thousands of people with disability gain access to funding and support not previously available.
One of the difficulties however is the conflict between the reasonable and necessary framework and what we know we need.
Aside from the barriers we have talked about, empowering someone is about choice and control. Making sure people with disabilities are aware of their human rights and how to access them.
My final lesson in these words is make it real; don't just tick the empowerment box.
Many people say that I am lucky that I am able to advocate for myself and they are right but do not forget that lucky is a matter of perspective.
Lucky Perspective
Having a disability is neither good or bad, it depends on which side you fall of the lucky perspective.
Day to day struggles to empower myself mean I need to take stock and remember I'm lucky to live.
You have the funding to support your disability;
From Mister Government's perspective that makes you lucky.
Does he have to wait for someone to put the food in his mouth,
Or listen to the beeping of the machine as the assistive technology goes south?
A request for funding support is not made from greed.
What you say isn't necessary is what I know I need.
Filling out funding forms wastes many ticking clocks.
If you are supporting someone with a disability, please don't just tick the empowerment box.
People with disability shouldn't just be considered as unlucky and in need of the support you give.
Having a disability is neither good or bad, it depends on which side you fall of the lucky perspective.
Chris Van Ingen 22/02/2024
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