The main goal for the podcast in 2022 is to make International Day For People With Disabilities have more impact.
Find out what Peta has been working on to achieve this goal.
Listen to the previous episode about this goal, here
Find out more about the amazing Prue Steveson:
Connect with Peta:
Instagram @petahooke
The website: www.icantstandpodcast.com
Email: icantstandpodcast@gmail.com
Episode Transcript:
Peta [00:00:02] Hello and welcome to The I Can't Stand Podcast. The podcast answering your questions on what life is like when you have a disability. My name is Peta. I'm your host. I have cerebral palsy and I love to answer your questions. If you have a question, I would be delighted to answer it for you. You can ask me by my Instagram, which is @petahooke. You can ask me via email icantstandpodcast@gmail.com. Or you can ask me via my website icantstandpodcast.com. Okay. Without any further ado, let's get into it.
[00:00:54] So I want to give you an update on the International Day for People with disabilities. Many people in the disability community celebrate the day and it's very important to many of us. It gives us a voice on the microphone, pun intended, and it allows mainstream media to give us a voice for the day, allows us to jump on stage and let the general public know the issues and also a better understanding of what it's like to live with a disability. So at the start of the year, the first episode of 2022, I set the intention with you all to say that I'm going to try and make International Day for people with disabilities the actual day on the 3rd of December to have more impact. Many of you know this story already. So I'm going to make it super quick. But. A lot of you said that you wanted to help, which blew me away and was so. Well, for lack of a better word, helpful. So helpful in allowing me to hear other perspectives and more insight on what it is to live with a disability for other people. We created a working group and through those discussions I created a few surveys for me to better judge what making an impact would be for you guys when it comes to International Day for people with disabilities.
[00:02:41] The top four ideas that came out of the last couple of sessions were the following. One to hold a celebratory breakfast and hopefully have that breakfast in multiple locations of Australia. Two to have a solid disco, hopefully in multiple locations of Australia. Three to do an online sort of zoom 24 hour event have guests. People with disabilities and you know celebrate the day together as a community but also allow people who don't have a disability to engage and learn from the community.
[00:03:32] The fourth idea was the idea that we have decided to go for. So I hope you like it. The fourth idea is to engage a business. To encourage them to think about becoming more inclusive in both practises when considering their customers, their disabled customers, and also thinking about how many people are employed with a disability in their organisation and how to make. Being employed in that organisation. A more equal opportunity for people with disabilities. As I've said on this podcast before, access, inclusion and employment are really big issues for the disabled community. Not only are they my big passion areas, but it also seems to be the big passion areas of people I interview on here on the podcast. And also the working group agreed with me and said, this is really big issues facing the disability community and it would be really great to try and encourage an organisation to step out and illustrate that they're working towards. A more inclusive workplace and a more inclusive place for disabled people to engage with that service, product or brand.
[00:05:13] Now that we've settled on an idea, I have been working in the background trying to figure out how I take the next step. I really wanted a physical thing to represent what we as a community are trying to achieve. Something that physically represented the fact that we as a disability community are trying to become more included and how much we don't experience equality. Some of you probably won't believe me when I say that. I don't want this movement to be about me. Yes, I would. I would love the promotion of the podcast. That's just being honest. But really, I want real change to try and be started. And I also want to highlight other people with disabilities and their work and their talents. While I haven't approached any organisation yet, I'm really shooting for the stars. I'm sort of thinking places like Woolworths or Coles, Kmart or Target, places that don't have many barriers to people with disabilities and the general public to engage with. There are many locations throughout Australia and therefore there's also likely to be more exposure to the idea that we're trying to communicate. Now I might jump on this podcast in a couple of weeks time and say, No, go, you guys. We're going to have to go back to the drawing board and think of other organisations. But you know, you don't know if you don't try. And if I'm going to try, I'm going to try with the options that have the highest exposure first.
[00:07:24] When keeping in mind that I'm going to approach these organisations in the next week or two, the physical item that I think would be aligned with their brands would be something like a tote bag that has a lovely print on the front that are along the themes of inclusion, access, employment. Those sorts of things have the hashtag International Day for people with disabilities. So I then the general public who haven't heard the podcast, would maybe have a bit of a Google and try and understand what we're trying to do here. Now, that brings me to a very exciting announcement. I really want to highlight a talented, disabled person in this effort. And I am very excited to announce that Prue Steveson, the autistic artist, has agreed to create something on the front of the item that will be produced hopefully by Coles, Woolworths or Target.
[00:08:42] Now, if you don't know Prue, I will put all her links in the description. She's an extremely talented person, and I'm just so thrilled to say that we have got her on board. So Prue has asked me to ask you something. She wants you to tell us what are the access tools that you use to engage in the community? What are the terms and what are your disability perspectives that you'd love to be represented within her artwork? I've always said that this initiative is because of you. The community is listening now and that isn't going to stop any time soon. Prue and I are both really on board in making sure that you all feel represented within her piece of art, that that's going to be hopefully on a tote bag or some item that is similar.
[00:09:53] Prue is full of ideas of how we think we can represent what we're trying to do for international Day, for people with disabilities. And we both really want to make sure it's while illustrates the challenges of having a disability. We really want it also to have a somewhat positive viewpoint. As difficult as it is to have a disability at times. I really do think by presenting a positive, at least a little bit positive point of view, the mainstream and the general public are more likely to listen to our perspectives. And yes while that might be frustrating to think, well, why should I have to sugarcoat my life for other people to be willing to listen and understand? For me, it just goes to show you attract more people with honey than vinegar. And if it means that I have to put a joke or two in the middle of a very difficult challenge of having a disability, then I will. I'd prefer people to be listening to me. Then? Not at all. So I hope that in the next couple of weeks we will really have some exciting updates for you. But I really, really want you to think about what are the access terms, access tools and disability perspectives that you think should be represented within Prue's art.
[00:11:48] Thank you for listening to this week's episode of the podcast. I hope you enjoyed it. I know it was a quick one this week, but I am so excited of the progress that we're making. If you did enjoy the episode, could you please leave of writing and review on Apple Podcasts or hit follow on whatever platform you're listening on? It all helps more people find the podcast. Until next week. Have a good one, guys. Bye.