• Is it accessible and equipped for people
with disabilities?
• Does it have many patrons with a
disability?
• Are the needs of people with a disability
factored in when designing programs?
• Are the needs of this population
considered
when
advertising
or
promoting the facility or programs, both
internally and externally?
• Have you ever considered who might not
be using the facility?
Walking a path unchosen
For a person with an ID, not long after you
are born, you embark on a journey over
which you have little control. Society has
already started to dictate your place and
how you will be treated.
The start of school, when Facebook feeds
fill with proud parental snaps of kids dressed
for their first day, is not such a positive time
for everyone.
If you’re lucky, you may attend a
mainstream kindergarten, but even if this
is the case, your experience is unlikely to
resemble that of the other children and their
parents. If you live with an ID, your school
life will involve not being invited on playdates
and being excluded from the birthday parties
that all the other children attend, something
that breaks a parent’s heart, week after
week, year after year.
For many children with ID though, regular
schools aren’t their destination: this is the
age at which they will start to be segregated
from the rest of society as they are sent to a
special school. By this stage, the battle for
funding is well and truly under way for the
families, who find themselves in a continual
round of special meetings and fights for
funding, as well as for their child’s right to be
educated, included in activities, and treated
with respect.
By the end of primary school, either
mainstream or special, the whole family
has learnt to fight. When you have a child
with a disability, you spend your whole life
in a constant battle for your child’s rights.
It’s exhausting, but there really is no other
option.
If primary education is a challenge,
secondary school poses a truly terrifying
prospect. What options are available for a
child with an ID? Will they fit in? Will they
be teased and bullied? And will the school
provide the support the need? The high
school years can be difficult enough as it
is, but for those with disabilities, it’s a whole
other level. The fact is, many mainstream
schools lack the skills and resources needed
to accommodate people with intellectual
disabilities, and are often not an option.
Choice is very limited, and we, like many
parents in our situation, chose a special
education setting.
Leaving school without year 12 means
university, college and many courses are
not open to you. This makes the prospect
of employment very unlikely. Decades
ago, very few people went to university,
and many jobs didn’t require a higher
education. As uni attendance has become
more commonplace, so have qualification
requirements for many roles. As such, the
low level of education attained by people
with an ID is even more notable – and
employment even harder to come by.
Without a job, people with an ID are also
without money, and as such are much more
likely to live in poverty. In fact, Australia has
a very poor record and is ranked last of all
OECD countries when it comes to relative
poverty risk for people with a disability. As
an Australian, I find this embarrassing.
Both my daughter Caitlin and my sister
work in mainstream jobs, but this really is,
sadly, quite unusual for a person with an ID.
In fact, Caitlin has two jobs, working at the
Our classes offer a fun, safe environment in
which those with an intellectual disability can
enjoy being active and have the opportunity
to move without competition or judgement.
34 | NETWORK WINTER 2019
Department of Premier and Cabinet and
at YMCA, Dandenong – proof that, with
persistence, the barriers can be broken down.
The role of physical activity
You may be wondering what all this has to
do with fitness, with gyms, with you. In order
to understand how to be more inclusive, and
why it’s important, you need to understand
the barriers to education and employment,
the social isolation, and the constant fight to
be included that someone with a disability
encounters.
Throughout their schooling, a child with
an ID will find it very hard to find a sport or
physical activity in which they are able to fully
participate. Many sports are competitive
and age-based, which disadvantages or
excludes them.
Watching Caitlin’s struggles, and bearing
witness to the lack of inclusion in sporting
areas, led me to create inclusive fitness
programs for the fitness facilities I oversee.
Our classes offer a fun, safe environment
in which those with an ID can enjoy being
active and have the opportunity to move
without competition or judgement. I believe
everyone has the right to enjoy exercise and
experience the feeling of belonging that
comes from being part of a team or class.
Progress, but further to go
Life for a person with an ID is a fight, buts
it’s certainly not all negative: there are huge
achievements, happy times and, in many
respects, an ordinary life. They certainly
won’t be feeling sorry for themselves and
they are used to barriers, so much so that
they expect to encounter them.
In the 1950s and 60s, people with IDs
were locked away in institutions. We now live
in more enlightened times, and things have
dramatically improved – but are we doing
enough?
Is it acceptable to isolate people with
an ID into special education settings, away
from mainstream students who don’t get
to grow up with, and learn acceptance for,
them? If all kids went to kinder and school
together, and played sport together, even
if it meant dividing up for lessons, wouldn’t
we all learn from each other? There would
be less being afraid of what to say or do, as
it would become the new normal to have a
society of mixed abilities studying, working
and playing together. If 1 in 5 people in
Australia have a disability, then shouldn’t
20% of our friends, 20% of our members
and 20% of our staff have disabilities?