Creating Accessible Teaching and Support

Andrew Denton  In terms of people's responses to you outside of your industry. People are often awkward with those who are different.

Female voice 1 Oh look we've had weird stuff, people bow down to us on the street it feels like an omen or something.

Female voice 2  It's like being prayed to. I don't know how to respond to. I've had this discussion; it's like being famous but without the perks.

Female voice 1   Without the money, without the money and the perks. People come up and they will ask you personal questions that, you kind of think, would you ask them that?

Andrew Denton  What sort of things?

Female voice 1  Like what size shoes do you wear? Like, they'll come out with some really intimate stuff like, "so do you have sex?" Occasionally, a bit and it's hard because you're kind of  going, "I don't want you to not  know because I don't want you to, but why should I have to answer these questions and be out there?"

Andrew Denton  Why do you think people are asking those questions though

Female voice 1  Because people have weird ideas, its part of the reason Emma and I don't describe ourselves when we are describing ourselves as dwarfs but well say a short person or short statured. And I think it's because when you actually look at the terms used to describe people of short stature, they're associated with magic, fairy books, mischief you know so

Andrew Denton Oh, I see so pixie, elf, all that stuff.   

Female voice 1   Yes, and I think people actually bring a lot of that when they first meet us and they kind of, not everybody like the majority of people are sort of, you know, handle it fine but every now and again you meet someone that you just kind of thinking God I don't quite know how to deal with  this?

Andrew Denton  Because you're small do people expect you to some how  expect you to lead child's lives. Is that what they think of you?

Female voice 1  I think so

Female voice 2   Maybe, they kind of ask you, what kind of a house do you live in? I mean it's like you haven't got a gingerbread house or something like that or how big is your bed? And I'm thinking I just don't use the bottom half I mean like it's just you know, it's just interesting

Female voice 1  You're right; you do get this kind of fairy connotation. It never ceases to amaze me which is actually kind of nice.

Andrew Denton  So it's kind of entertaining?

Female voice 2  Sometimes

Female voice 1  Well! it depends because it's I think that because you sometimes get bombarded with it that it takes a lot of energy  to deal with that and to go, okay and I think the key is to really recognise when something is your problem and when something is someone else's issue. And to not take it onboard but that's a fairly intellectual decision and not always easy to actually do particularly as a young woman growing up and that kind of thing can be tricky.

Andrew Denton  Well because you often respond to things emotionally not intellectually

Female voice 2  Yes, true

Andrew Denton  Every time you walk out the door you're faced with a world that's going to respond differently.

Female voice 1   That's the thing is that when you talk about it and, you know, I remember a friend of mine who, a fairly ordinary young woman and she got a zit and she's like "God everyone's going to be looking at my zit and I'm like you're out there with me on the street, they're not going to be looking at you at all and it's true, I mean like you are actually getting stared at and I think that's why I attribute it to; in a way it's like being famous but without the freebies.

Andrew Denton Is that also tiring? That you just can't be yourself?

Female voice 2 Yes it takes energy.

Female voice 1 That's why it was so nice when Kiah and I met each other because we don't have to deal with that when we are together.

Descriptor. Jolanta Lapiak signs (using Ameslan American Sign) her presentation. Her presentation is translated as follows: - 

Aristotle the father of philosophy mentioned that as many of you know when there's no speech there's no thought. So again, especially for deaf people saying if I have no speech then I can't think. Because the whole point of logo centrism is that you must have speech to have thinking and thought. It's very much a hierarchical approach to take on as a framework of thinking.

So around medieval times people believed that Earth was the centre of the universe and the sun rotates round the earth that is what people believed. So if I look at that in parallel to speech being the centre of language as the universal language. So speech is the centre of the universe.

We have the sun that is worshiped and the Gods that worshiped the sun and looked up to the sun

And that logo now becomes the centre of the universe and over here we will have a blind spot, in the blind spot there are others that are in the blind spot and those are the margins that are in that area. The minorities: Black people, deaf people, blind people, homosexual community, and all of that is a minority. So the logos were the centre of the universe. And the rest of people in these margins were referred to as ‘the others'.

Another quote ‘hearing of course is unique among senses in that its medium is also the medium of language'. So that when we look at all of the senses we have; the five senses that we have, there are other things that do not relate to language. Hearing relates to language but the other four senses do not relate to language at all. Touch however, is part of language but all of the other senses are overlooked.

Looking at babbling in children or babies in particular, vocal babbling; we know that support for pre-linguistic development and looking at it as it applies to ASL babies that use ASL and they found that there is manual babbling that very much parallels that of vocal babbling to the T. So when the studies of both groups looking at critical stages, left brain development right brain development and looking at babbling things that are scaffolding over time over language acquisition be it vocal babbling and manual babbling, there are critical stages where the brain basically has its own internal time monitor where it turns on like a switch be it vocalisation or manual babbling. There is an internal switch that the brain controls to turn on the developmental stages. Modality isn't critical it's internal to the child's timing.

We look at different countries and the sign languages of different countries; they're different, there's diversity based on identity and people that use the sign languages from a logo centrism perspective. Especially with what's happening now with Cochlea implants in Ontario, the medical practitioners, those prominent in that field are actually forbidding the use of ASL when they are implanted. And yet, how odd is it when we know that there are people out there, there is a movement of having hearing babies learn sign language.

You know they are saying that it's going to boost their linguistics are performance or their fluency and there's such a movement in that area and yet, with deaf babies that are implanted, they are not allowed to use ASL now isn't that logo centric.

What we need to look at is, not looking at the disability, say, for example, in this case both deaf and then linguistic ability secondary. We need to change this paradigm and look at it as linguistic proficiency and fluency foremost and deafness as secondary perhaps. And then everybody has the right to choose regarding the modality of the preference, again looking at linguistic rights first and foremost regardless of the perspective behind being deaf or deaf identity. So when we look at the case of implanted children and exposure to language, they could have exposure in ASL or spoken language that would be the option that parents would provide for their child. It's a linguistic right but again that linguistic right foremost and less of a pathological viewpoint or modest viewpoint.

So minority is powerful, if we look at the percentage of people in the world; the population, minority can be very powerful.

Minority is a word; it's a word that's used to label groups of people, so again I'm going back to the old idea of emphasising the words that we are using when we look at language; we all have language; we all use a language; lets not emphasise the word ‘sign' or the word ‘dis' and consider dominance and control, consider all kinds of things that are happening around you at the same time.

Male voice - Anthony Bartl

[Description of images on screen : 

Motorised wheelchair, driven by Anthony Bartl, going past shops and down an alley. 

Anthony in hoist sling being manoeuvred by carer from bed to wheelchair.]

Anthony Bartl: Hi I'm Anthony.

In 1986 at age six while walking home from school I was crossing a busy suburban road when a car hit me and I was rushed to hospital. Once I arrived and my injuries were assessed they were shown to be catastrophic. I had suffered a broken spinal cord; had massive internal bleeding; my liver was lacerated and my left kidney so badly damaged it had to be removed.

Once the spinal cord is broken at a certain level, everything below that point ceases to function. This is why I can't move and why I need a carer to help me get dressed and to get up in to my wheelchair, but everything above the injured point does work which is why I can move my head and I am able to drive my wheelchair with my chin.
The brain and the spinal cord are the only two places in the body that the body can't repair.

Having a disability means that after waking up I can't just jump out of bed and run out the front door. One of these tasks is to have splints fitted; there are a few reasons for this. I can't support myself or hold myself upright due to my disability. As a result I require a chest brace so when I sit up in my wheelchair I won't just flop over. I also wear leg and arm splints. Similarly because I don't move my body anymore; I can't exercise. As a result I need to have my limbs stretched by my carers in order for my limbs to remain flexible.

As I am physically unable to do some things for myself I need the assistance of a carer. Therefore, I have someone with me 24 hours a day seven days a week to help me with whatever I can't do myself. Although my disability is a big part of my life, it isn't everything.

Two of my passions are writing and the Hawthorn Football Club, I won these footballs in a raffle and they take pride of place here in my bedroom. This article was published in the Age in 2005. I am very proud of it as it was the first lengthy article I've had published in a major daily newspaper.

I am currently studying a Bachelor of Media Studies at Latrobe University in Bundoora.

I use a computer to look at emails; to study on the internet and to write. I use a stick in my mouth; known as a Mouth stick to type on the keyboard.

The Internet is a great help for study, I use it to read electronic books, journal articles and newspaper articles online.

Always having my own carer to drive or my own personal chauffeur means that when I'm drunk and out at a pub I don't need to worry at all about getting home again.

Seriously though, having my own car provides a lot of freedom, it means I don't have to wait for an accessible taxi to arrive at my place or face the uncertainty of waiting to see if a low floor tram or bus will arrive.

Now I am on my way to give a disability awareness talk at Bentleigh Park Secondary College.

In 2006 I approached Mooney Valley City Council's Metro Access officer, proposing to speak to school students to raise awareness of disability issues.

"All right good morning everyone, I'm Anthony this is Kim; she will be helping me today. Now I wanted to talk to you a bit about the three kinds of disabilities, the three disabilities someone can get? The first one is hidden so this means you can't see just by looking at someone but if you start talking to them or see how they move then you will soon find out that they have a disability. So the first one's hidden and there are two forms of hidden disability they are intellectual disabilities or Acquired Brain injury disabilities acquired brain injury is when there is damage to the brain."

Through doing these talks I am also aiming to reduce misunderstandings or stereotypes of disability.

It's exciting giving these talks because I am part of the reason why public perceptions about disability are being changed.

To relax and have fun I am just like any other young living life to the full person. I like going out whenever I can to see friends; go to the movies; to go to the pub to see bands and more often than not ending up on the dance floor by the end of the night.

I like to think life is something to be enjoyed. If I didn't enjoy myself; life would just be a bitch. As a result I think you only live once, make the most of it and enjoy it, and enjoy it while you can.