Stonnington Sounds Podcast: Summer 2015 - Transcript
Anne Brown: Welcome to Stonnington Sounds, a quarterly podcast providing you, our Stonnington residents with community news, things to do and places to visit.
Your announcers are David Camp and Anne Brown.
NDIS Certainty for Victoria
David Camp: The National Disability Insurance scheme has been signed off by Victoria and New South Wales in a bilateral agreement on 16th September 2015. The NDIS will be available in Stonnington from 1 April 2018, and will be operational across Victoria by July 2019. To assist and encourage early planning and preparation for the NDIS, updates on the progress of the roll out will be included regularly in Access News.
What is the NDIS?
David Camp: The NDIS is a new way of providing support for people with disabilities in Australia. Assistance will be tailored to individual goals, aspirations, strengths and needs. Individuals will have more choice and control over when, and from whom they receive the support. Support funds must be clearly related to the individual’s disability, and should contribute to increased independence and participation in the community. It must not duplicate a service provided elsewhere, for example medical services that are funded through Medicare.
Who is eligible?
David Camp: If you are under 65 years of age, live in an area where the NDIS does or will provide support, and meet access requirements, you may be eligible to receive NDIS funded support. Visiting www.ndis.gov.au to use the access checklist will be a useful starting point to determine your likely eligibility.
How to prepare for the NDIS?
For providers
David Camp: ‘Providers’ is the term used to describe an individual or organisation that delivers support or products to an NDIS participant. If you are a new provider, you can learn more about registering, or about how to prepare for the NDIS in your service area by contacting the National Disability Insurance Agency on 1800 800 110.
For participants
David Camp: A ‘participant’ is anyone who accesses support which is funded by the National Disability Insurance Agency. For people preparing for the NDIS might be thinking about what is necessary to live a healthy, happy, safe and fulfilling life. Individuals should think creatively about this, as the types of support required will be very different for everyone. Contact The NDIS hotline on 1800 800 110 for more information on how to prepare.
International Day of People with Disability
Anne Brown: The International Day of People with Disability (IDPwD) is celebrated on 3rd of December each year.
IDPwD is a United Nations sanctioned day that aims to increase public awareness, understanding and acceptance of people with disability and celebrate the achievements and contributions of people with disability.
This year, the City of Stonnington is proud to be hosting a screening of the Access all Areas Film Festival on Monday 14 December 2015. All films shown are screened with Open Captions and are rated G or PG. The event is scheduled to take place between 10am and 12pm at the Malvern Banquet Hall. Bookings are essential for seating, venue capacity and catering. For more information, to register or to advise of access requirements, please contact Council’s Access and Inclusion Officer on 8290 1192, or email .
Festive family fun and carols for all at Central Park
Anne Brown: Free Christmas fun for the whole family! Head down to Central Park in Malvern East to experience roving performers, face painting and craft activities for the kids, with a brand-new Christmas performance by slapstick comedy duo Trash Test Dummies, commissioned specifically for Stonnington.
A special kids program runs from 5-7pm. Children’s activities include Facepaint by Children, decoration making with SmartArt, storytelling and craft activities with Stonnington Libraries, and visits from Santa. There will also be an interactive children’s dance performance by Dancing Queen Parties.
Carols performances will follow at 7.30pm. Theatre legend Chelsea Plumley will be hosting the evening concert which includes an impressive line up of artists: Andrew Strano, Bert LaBonte, The Candy Topps, South of the River Choir and Stonnington City Brass.
In recognition of International Day of People with Disability, the whole event will be Auslan interpreted and Santa can sign too!
Sing in the Festive season in the City of Stonnington.
Access to Public Transport
David Camp: The City of Stonnington is committed to promoting sustainable transport options, such as walking, cycling and public transport. Everyone should have the opportunity to use sustainable transport; however access barriers can prevent some people with disability from using public transport. One of the initiatives is the Companion Card.
The Companion Card can now be used on all Victorian public transport services in metropolitan and regional areas. Cardholders can travel with their companion at no extra charge on all train and tram services, and city and country bus services. The Companion Card is issued to people with disability who require attendant care support to access community activities and venues, and entitles the cardholder to a second ticket for their companion at no charge. This initiative is administered by the Department of Health and Human Services. When using the Companion Card on public transport, companions receive a “flash pass” and do not need to touch on or off using a myki.
Guide Dogs Victoria and Yarra Trams Celebrate International White Cane Day
Anne Brown: Guide Dogs Victoria joined Yarra Trams and Public Transport Victoria to mark International White Cane Day on the morning of Thursday 15 October.
To mark the important day for people who are blind or have low vision, a tram featuring white cane awareness artwork was unveiled.
The joint "Opening Doors" campaign has seen the tram on Melbourne's streets for the six weeks following the launch, with accompanying materials educating passengers as to the access needs of those using white canes.
Three tips for travelling with blind or low vision public transport users
Stand aside: clear space for someone travelling with a mobility aid (a white cane, a Guide Dog etc.), look around to check their path is not blocked by bags or legs blocking aisles, that the doorway is clear. If you’re sitting in a priority seat, vacate it.
Approach: if you think someone may need a hand, walk up, greet them and identify yourself.
Ask: ask them if they’d like some help, but don’t be offended if they don’t need your assistance. You might have just made someone’s day by offering to lend a hand.
You can find more information at www.guidedogsvictoria.com.au
Finding accessible film sessions
David Camp: Improvements continue to be made to increase the accessibility of movies and the cinema experience. With many films now offering audio description and closed captions, more people than ever can now enjoy going to the cinema, including the iconic Village Cinemas Jam Factory on Chapel Street.
Once you’ve decided which film you want to see, you can find out whether the session is accessible via the cinema website. Screenings which support closed captions will display a ‘CC’ icon next to the session; those with an optional audio description will display an ‘AD’ icon. Alternatively, you can call your local cinema and ask for information about accessible film screenings.
Once you’ve booked your ticket, either online, over the phone or at the box office, you will need to ask for the closed caption or audio description device directly from the box office. You may require identification for the box office to hold until the device is returned. The box office attendant should show you how to use the controls on the device.
All Village and Hoyts cinemas now also accept the companion card; allowing an extra ticket at no cost (there may be a charge for the 3D glasses if viewing a 3d film).
Planning accessible events
David Camp: The City of Stonnington advocates for planning events in an accessible and inclusive manner. A comprehensive guide to hosting accessible events can be found on the website, stonnington.vic.gov.au. You can contact the Access and Inclusion Officer on 8290 1192 for more information on how to make your event or business more accessible. Good access benefits people with prams, older people, people with a disability, mental illness, or temporary injury. Ensuring your event is accessible for everyone means a more inclusive event and a better turn out for your organisation.
Defiant Lives: local filmmaker shines the spotlight on the Disability Rights Movement
Anne Brown: Sarah Barton has been writing and producing films since she graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts in 1992. She was awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship which saw her travel to the UK and the United States to interview activists and those involved in the Disability Rights movement for her upcoming new film Defiant Lives. Ms Barton is also a member of the Access Stonnington Committee, an advisory Committee which provides feedback and advice to assist Council to improve life for people with disability and create a more accessible, inclusive community. Sarah joins us now to tell us a bit more about this exciting project.
Anne Brown: Tell me a little bit about yourself, you’ve lived in the Stonnington area for some time, is that correct?
Sarah Barton: Yes I’ve lived actually within a very small block in Windsor for most of my adult life, there was a Melways map number or something and I’ve just stayed on that map, which is a bit boring of me but I try and be interesting in other aspects of my life. But yeah I moved to Windsor in the 1980s and I can tell you it’s changed a lot since then.
David Camp: Can you tell us how your film career started, and what led you to focus on disability rights for many of your films?
Sarah Barton: Sure, well look, when I studied at the VCA I thought I was going to have a career as a Director of Drama because that was what I was interested in, and then very soon after graduating, SBS put an ad in the trade magazine looking for documentary ideas and I’d met a woman who was actually doing a mail order business, this was the 90s I’m telling you. She was doing a mail order business selling sex toys to people with disabilities and I thought there was a germ of an interesting idea there, and a germ of a documentary. So I pitched this idea to do a documentary about sexuality and disability to SBS quite soon after I graduated and without any kind of contact or short listing, interviewing or anything they just rang me one day and said “yes, we’d like to commission your film”.
So that sort of thing never happens now, it just never, never happens. But it was one of those moments in my career that just really got me going. And, that film was called Untold Desires and it’s actually still very popular and a lot of people still refer to it. That was made in 1994 and 1995, and won a lot of awards and really set me on a path of making documentaries.
I made a couple of other films and then in 1999 my daughter was born and we realized soon afterwards that she had Cerebral Palsy and I felt like that was perhaps a moment for me to go back and do more things about disability. So a couple of years after that a friend and colleague of mine encouraged me to get to work on a show called No Limits which was on community TV for many years. So I did that, and then following that I started developing this documentary about the disability rights movement.
Anne Brown: So what do you think are some of the biggest challenges or opportunities for the disability rights movement to move forward?
Sarah Barton: Look the thing that I want to address with the film is really to get the mainstream world to better understand that disability rights is a movement and that is has objectives, and what those objectives are. So it’s really about raising awareness among people who perhaps don’t have very much cause to think about disability, to think about the way that they do things in their life that in fact are, you know, what we call able-ist.
We talk about racism, we talk about bigotry of other kinds and this phrase ‘able-ism’ is sort of rising certainly in disability circles so I’m sort of aiming to really bring some of that knowledge and information out of that kind of, world that I spend a lot of time in talking to other people about disability rights, and really get them out and get people thinking “Oh, okay, the way that I do that is actually quite able-ist and I could be more inclusive”.
And I think that’s a really important first step for people to understand. Not only, I mean we have a lot of awareness campaigns about “See the Person, not the Disability” all these dreadful kind of things that really don’t do very much, and what I want to do is get people to think systemically, you know like what do I do – that step outside my shop, that’s a real barrier for people, or the fact that all my sort of retail counters are too close together and someone in a wheelchair or a scooter has no way of navigating my shop. That’s just you know, because we’re talking City of Stonnington I’m trying to do simple examples, and I think a lot of people just haven’t got a clue about how to begin.
So the idea of the film is to give people tools and ideas and a new way of thinking about disability. It’s not so much about what the diagnosis is, it’s really not about what a person’s dealing with in their personal or health area of their lives, it’s actually about how they interact with the world and how the world greets them, whether it’s patronizing or whether it’s inclusive.
David Camp: Can you tell us a little bit about your new film, Defiant Lives?