All Abilities Inclusion

For outdoor enthusiasts who also happen to be parents, taking the kids camping for the first time is an almost-intoxicating experience. Seeing their eyes light up at a night sky full of stars or the dancing flames of a bonfire can reignite your sense of wonder at the natural world all around us.

For that reason and a host of others, like nappies and sleep schedules, most parents don’t introduce their children to their love of nature by taking them camping in a national park. A much more common (and practical) approach for the first family campout is to stay close to home — literally. Backyard camping keeps you in proximity to a bathtub, chicken nuggets, and a warm, comfy bed, just in case things go awry.

Source
Backyard Camping for Kids with Disabilities
Home Advisor

36 Fun Summer Activities for Kids Who are Blind or Multiply Disabled
(Wonderbaby.org)

Games for Blind Boy Scouts & Cubs
(Inquiry.net)

20 Outdoor Activities for Blind and Visually Impaired Children
(World Eye Cancer Hope)

Inclusive Outdoor Games For Deaf Children
(Pentagon for Learning & Play)

Group Games For Deaf And Hearing Children
(SoundAdvice)

Games for Deaf Boy Scouts & Cubs
(Inquiry.net)

Autism Camp Australia (ACA) has developed a program which includes a range of activities to improve the health and wellbeing of participants. The program caters to young people, aged 7-14, living with Autism Spectrum Disorder levels 1, 2 and 3 and their families.

ACA’s mission is to improve the health and wellbeing of autistic young people and their families through the provision of accessible and supported respite-break experiences, therapies and life skills development.

Sailability Queensland operates to provide a safe and fun environment where people with a disability are accepted and encouraged to participate in the sport of sailing.

Here is a list of all the Sailability clubs operating in Queensland

• Brisbane – Graceville
• Bundaberg
• Capricornia  
• Darling Downs 
• Gold Coast – North 
• Sunshine Coast 
• Tin Can Bay 
• Whitsunday’s 

iFly Indoor Skydiving All Abilities Night is a unique event that makes the dream of flight a reality for those in the special needs community. This program has been custom designed for those with physical and cognitive challenges to create an environment of support and inclusion, while focusing on making what seems impossible, possible. If you have someone in your life who is unable to participate in able-bodied activities but still wants to be challenged and push their limits, this is the perfect event to join.

Please note: All Abilities clients can access the site at any time. We have trained instructors always on site, so people do not need to be part of an all-abilities event to experience iFly.

Ambulatory Able Games
(Inquiry.net)

100 Fun Engaging Activities
(A Love for Special Learning)

The 2023 Year of Accessible Tourism in Queensland includes:

• $10 million Accessible Tourism Queensland Fund
• $1 million Awareness and Capability Program
• $1 million Visitor Experience Development initiative.

The Accessible Tourism Queensland Fund will support small to medium size tourism and events businesses to develop or enhance accessibility for people of all abilities.

Funding through the Awareness and Capability Program will go towards extending the Accessible Tourism in Queensland project, which will include the remaining tourism destinations across Queensland – Bundaberg, Capricorn, Gladstone, Mackay, Southern Queensland and the Whitsundays – which will complete state-wide assessment of tourism infrastructure accessibility and tourism business capability.

Read More

See also: TEQ Year of Accessible Tourism 2023 Fact Sheet 

To support Queensland’s tourism industry to become more accessible and inclusive to all visitors, the following resources have been developed by Get Skilled Access (GSA) and TravAbility on behalf of the Department of Tourism, Innovation and Sport.

• Accessible communication and brand guidelines
• Activity access information template
• Venue access information template
• Built environment checklist
• Five online learning videos
  • Module 1 – Defining disability, accessibility and inclusion
  • Module 2 – The language of disability
  • Module 3 – Inclusive mindset and universal design
  • Module 4 – Misconceptions and unconscious bias
  • Module 5 – Business case for accessible tourism

Go to the Accessible Tourism Toolkit webpage:

Access doesn’t mean paving pathways!

Designing for access in outdoor spaces doesn’t mean paving pathways – a reckoning with assumptions about who wants to spend time in nature.

Source: Antonia Malchik, High Country News (May 13, 2019)

Accessible Trails

“The beauty of hiking is that it is for all abilities. There isn’t a person with a disability that we couldn’t take out on a hike”

People with Disability

Information from the Queensland Government

Parks and Forests

Park Accessibility

Find a park – wheelchair access

The Disability Inclusion Fact Sheet provides the outdoor recreation industry with introductory practical information to increase offerings for people with a disability.

If you’re a disabled entrepreneur considering a new venture, these organisations are there to offer help. They include specialist business funding, opportunities for grants, as well as local resources, advisory bodies and the possibility of mentorship.

In Australia, people with disabilities have a higher rate of entrepreneurship (13 percent) than those without (10 percent). Although those are encouraging statistics, disabled entrepreneurs still have to overcome numerous barriers that able-bodied business owners don’t have to think about.

Thankfully, there are a growing number of resources, tools and funding options that can help disabled entrepreneurs overcome the economic and social challenges they face so they can launch and grow their businesses successfully.

Read More: What Business Resources are Available for People with Disabilities?

Source: AABRS

People with a disability should receive the same physical, mental, and social benefits from participating in sport and physical activity as those not having a disability. Under law, Australians of all abilities should have access to sport and physical activity opportunities.

Persons with a disability include individuals with physical, sensory, intellectual, psychiatric, and/or other health related disabilities.

Key Messages

1. Disability should not exclude someone from participation in appropriate sports and physical activity.
2. Organisations dedicated to policy, advocacy and program delivery to persons with disability have an established role within the sport sector.
3. Stakeholder organisations use needs-based and inclusive strategies to engage persons with disability, encouraging them to be physically active.

Source : Persons with Disability and Sport

The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is a new way of providing individualised support for eligible people with permanent and significant disability, their families and carers. The NDIS is the insurance that gives us all peace of mind. Disability could affect anyone – having the right support makes a big difference.

What is the NDIS?

NDIS for Participants

NDIS for Providers

Disability Action Week is held annually in September with the aim of empowering people with disability, raising awareness of disability issues, and improving access and inclusion throughout the wider community.

Inclusive and Accessible

Improving access to natural places by providing better information

Providing Assistance
Adaptive equipment for bushwalking
Assistive techniques

Building inclusion through the power of language

Language is a powerful tool for building inclusion (or exclusion) at work.

The way we speak to each other creates a culture in which everyone can feel valued, respected, and one of the team (included), rather than under-valued, disrespected, and out of place (excluded).

What is Inclusive Language?
Put simply, inclusive language is effective language – it is respectful, accurate and relevant to all.

• Respectful
  Inclusive language involves knowing about and showing respect for all members of our team and workplace
• Accurate
  Inclusive language gives a more accurate view of the real world by reflecting social diversity rather than perpetuating stereotypes. It avoids making false assumptions about (or stereotyping) people based on their age, cultural background, disability, gender, Indigenous background or sexual orientation and gender identity.
• Relevant
  Inclusive language reflects Australia’s diversity, is meaningful to a wide audience, and enables everyone to feel that they are being reflected in what is being said. To feel included, we need to ‘see’ and ‘hear’ ourselves reflected in the language used at work.

Download Words at Work

Source: Diversity Council Australia

Inclusion Guide & Self Assessment Resource for Camps and Outdoor Activity Providers

This Guide is a practical resource to support operators in the planning, design and  development of inclusive camps and outdoor businesses. The resource is underpinned by the concept and principles of Universal Design, assisting business operators to develop strategies that enables people from diverse backgrounds to function independently and with dignity during a camping and outdoor experience.

Author: Maree Feutrill
Source: Australian Camps Association

A Universal Design approach to developing inclusive camp programs

Presentation by Maree Feutrill, YMCA Camp Manyung at the Kids Outdoors 2030 conference, 2015

This workshop will introduce delegates to the Principles of Universal Design and their integration to camp program. The purpose of this approach is to enable all people, regardless of age or ability, to participate equally in the camp experience.

YMCA Victoria, in partnership with the Victorian State Government, are currently using a process to apply universal design principles and philosophy to design of camp programs, adventure activities, camp facilities and flexible teaching methods to create an inclusive camp environment.

Various case studies of universally designed camp activities will be used to illustrate how adventure activities can be accomplished in multiple ways to meet the needs of a broad range of campers with different abilities.

A practical resource to assist the planning, design and development of inclusive sport and recreation facilities.

The concept of Universal Design is to simplify life for everyone by making the built environment more usable to as many users as possible.

It is separate from accessible design as Universal Design is based on the equitable use of a facility and social inclusion and not the measurement of accessible design features and meeting minimum legislative requirements.

Applied holistically to a building without an alternative for different groups, Universal Design addresses issues of having a different approach for different users, which not only improves and simplifies the way a facility is used but also eliminates user segregation to maximise participation by users of all abilities.

A practical resource to assist the planning, design and development of inclusive sport and recreation facilities.

A practical resource to assist the planning, design and development of inclusive sport and recreation facilities.

Design for Everyone Guide (Victorian State Government)

Sport and recreation settings

• Camping Areas
• Skate Parks
• Shared Trails
• Play Spaces
• Sport and Recreation reserves

Source: Sport & Recreation Victoria

Adaptive MTB Advancements
Helping paraplegic riders return to the sport they love

For the first time in 16 years, Renee Junga is considering a return to competitive downhill mountain biking.

In 2006, she suffered spinal injuries when she crashed at the Mountain Bike World Championships at Rotorua in New Zealand.

“I got a bit too keen, overshot a jump and fell on my head and sustained a spinal cord injury,” Junga said.

Now, finally bike technology has started to catch up, with adaptive three-wheeled bikes being produced where the riders can be strapped to their seats.

Read Full Story on ABC News

When you’re managing a long term health condition, being active is about finding what works for you. We are Undefeatable – a great resource from the UK

Includes Ways to Move – We Are Undefeatable

Builds off-road ‘wheelchair’ for wife

Disabled folks are often restricted from enjoying activities like hiking, trekking, and camping. Heck, most daily activities like visiting a mall or going to the supermarket can be incredibly difficult if a building is not compliant with the American Disabilities Act’s standards for accessible design. So, after the YouTuber JerryRigEverything, or just Jerry, created a “wheelchair” for his wife so they could do adventure activities together, he realized everyone should have access to his invention.

The couple doesn’t call the creation a wheelchair at all, instead, they simply refer to it as The Rig. It’s available for purchase right now, but here’s why it’s so awesome. “Personally, I love my light blue Rig,” wife Cambry shared in a video demonstrating the product. “We’ve put over a thousand miles on it and it’s taken me places I never in a million years thought I could go, like on a hike to a waterfall in Hawaii or up a canyon on packed snow.”  Read More

Source: Upworthy

A set of new gender-inclusive guidelines have been handed out to sports clubs across Australia in a bid to accommodate transgender athletes.

The guidelines, developed by the Australian Human Rights Commission alongside Sport Australia and the Coalition of Major Professional and Participation Sports (COMPPS), look to create and promote “inclusive environments in sport at all levels, from community to elite, across Australia”.

Guidelines for the inclusion of transgender and gender diverse people in sport (2019)
(Australian Human Rights Commission)

A new report from the Activity Alliance in the UK shines a light on non-disabled people’s attitudes on inclusive activity with disabled people.

Recommendations

• Increase public awareness of disabled people, especially in relation to being active. This must aim to challenge perceptions and create a more accurate and diverse picture of active disabled people among their non-disabled peers.
• Embed inclusivity in many more opportunities so disabled and non-disabled people can be active together.
• Celebrate and share experiences of inclusive activity with representation for all impairment groups.

Read More

I’m not your inspiration, thank you very much

Stella Young

Some choice quotes:

I was teaching in a Melbourne high school, and I was about 20 minutes into a year 11 legal studies class when this boy put up his hand and said, “Hey miss, when are you going to start doing your speech?” And I said, “What speech?” You know, I’d been talking them about defamation law for a good 20 minutes. And he said, “You know, like, your motivational speaking. You know, when people in wheelchairs come to school, they usually say, like, inspirational stuff?” (Laughter) “It’s usually in the big hall.” And that’s when it dawned on me: This kid had only ever experienced disabled people as objects of inspiration.

You might have seen the little girl with no hands, drawing a picture with a pencil held in her mouth. You might have seen a child running on carbon-fiber prosthetic legs. And these images, there are lots of them out there, they are what we call “inspiration porn.” And I use the term porn deliberately, because they objectify one group of people for the benefit of another group of people. So, in this case, we’re objectifying disabled people for the benefit of nondisabled people. The purpose of these images is to inspire you, to motivate you, so that we can look at them and think, “Well, however bad my life is, it could be worse. I could be that person.”

And that quote, “The only disability in life is a bad attitude,” the reason that that’s bullshit is because it’s just not true. No amount of smiling at a flight of stairs has ever made it turn into a ramp. Never.

Stella Young died unexpectedly on December 6, 2014. She was 32.
She wished to be no one’s inspiration!

In 2012, Kyle became the first quadruple amputee to climb – actually bearcrawl – the 19,340 feet to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro without the aid of prosthetics. His 10-day ascent was widely covered by the press, followed on social media, and raised money and awareness for wounded veterans as well as Tanzanian schoolchildren. Upon his return, Kyle won his second ESPY (Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly) award for Best Male Athlete with a Disability.

Vision-impaired skier Debbie King finds a way to hit the slopes of Mount Buller

Seasoned skier Debbie King grew up on the slopes of Victoria’s Mount Buller and thought she might have to give up the sport she loved when she suddenly lost her vision overnight.

In 2008, Debbie was diagnosed with Optic Nerve Head Drusen and lost her peripheral vision, leaving her with just 15 per cent of her total sight.

A few years later, Debbie returned to the slopes but found it difficult to negotiate the crowds.

“When I lost my vision I’d been attempting to ski at Mount Buller and it was just becoming far too dangerous,” Ms King said.

People weren’t aware that I couldn’t see them and there were a few close calls.

Paul Pritchard climbs Tasmania’s Totem Pole 18 years after it nearly killed him

Paul Pritchard nearly died trying to climb the Totem Pole in 1998.

Eighteen years later, he has returned and successfully conquered the slender sea stack on Tasmania’s east coast.

Mr Pritchard was one of Britain’s leading climbers in the 1980s and ’90s, travelling the world to scale new heights.

“To go where no-one else has ever been.”

Mr Pritchard said he saw a magazine article in the late 1990s about Steve Monks, the first man to conquer the Totem Pole.

“I thought, ‘My gosh, that just is amazing. I’ve got to do it’,” he said.