Accessibility For All

On Wednesday the 27th April,  Vivid Property Services had the privilege of being the principle event sponsor for the Facility Management Association Accessibility Education Breakfast, in Brisbane.

The breakfast was an important and emotional conversation.  An opportunity for many, from a range of industries, to reflect on how we as decision makers can ensure we listen, learn, and make changes.

We at Vivid understand the importance of providing clean, healthy workplaces for some of Australia’s most prestigious companies, and we share in the vision of facilities being designed to meet the needs of all building users, regardless of age, size, ability or living with a disability.

Adopting a universal design approach will ensure that facilities can be accessed and used by a diverse population with an equitable level of convenience, understanding, choice, safety, and comfort.

When thinking about accessibility it’s not just about people living with disabilities themselves.  It’s about their families, friends, and carers.

Michelle King has lived in experience in complex disability and health care as a parent and supporter of her 23-year-old daughter, Daelle, who has profound intellectual and multiple disabilities.

Reading about Michelle’s project “Transition to Adulthood” I was struck by how important it is that people living with disabilities have their voice heard.  To quote Michelle, “People with severe and profound intellectual disabilities are not usually able to exercise these rights and responsibilities without support.”  Dan Carpenter, Vivid CEO.

Michelle is a sociologist and lawyer completing a PhD in Law at the Australian Centre for Health Law Research at the Queensland University of Technology. Her work is about the operation of law and regulation in practice for people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities during their transition to adulthood, which includes in the NDIS, Centrelink, banking, healthcare, and guardianship/administration systems. She is a researcher, educator and advocate in disability law, policy, and practice.

Michelle also serves as a consumer advocate on several Queensland and National projects and committees, including on the Consumer Advisory Group of Health Consumers Queensland, as a consumer member of the Adolescent and Young Adult Care Subnetwork of the Queensland Health Child and Youth Clinical Network, and as a consumer advisor for the national research groups, Child UnLTD and CP Achieve.

Michelle’s daughter, Daelle is a young Brisbane woman living with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities. Daelle has Pachygyria caused by damage to one of her genes, which affected the development of her brain in utero. Daelle also has cerebral palsy and epilepsy, which means she needs support with all the things she loves to do in life. Daelle loves art and working with other people. She has presented with Michelle at national academic conferences and to community groups. This is important because people living with profound intellectual disabilities easily become invisible in our society, even in disability advocacy spaces. Daelle may not speak to us directly, but her experience and visibility is vital and important.

Thank you to all of the speakers and guests who shared with us their lived in experiences of accessibility in their daily lives.   A thought provoking discussion that will resonate with many into the future.