You can do the full consultation on the Attorney-General’s website. I started out trying to do this but I just couldn’t, it’s too long and therefore not accessible. I was going to say that’s ironic but really it’s par for the course. Instead, I decided to contribute by filling out the survey designed by […]
Author: Vanessa Smith
Profile vs standards
I found a note I’d emailed to myself a few months ago: There comes a point where people seem more invested in their public profile and palatability than their standards and why they started talking about a topic. I hope that never happens to me because palatability starts to undermine the value of their […]
What people really want with inclusivity
People don’t want to be inclusive, they want to feel like they’ve been inclusive. They want the positive warm and fuzzies without the action. I saw a post on a social media site (I refuse to link to it and I’ve blocked the user) about feeling lied to (by omission) by a date. […]
Burnout tips are bullshit
I’ve been burnt out in the past few months because chronic illness is unrelenting – I barely scrape by when things go perfectly so when things are even slightly off-kilter for months at a time, it bloody adds up. I was googling tips for burnout and came to the conclusion they’re all bullshit. Tips […]
If we’re a “burden” why won’t you help us?
Recently an article was published by ABC news about how chronic health conditions are impacting productivity. Naturally the word burden was use multiple times in the article. I assume this is an economic framing that relies on a charity and/or medical model approach to disability. But the biggest problem I have with this article […]
Stop shuffling, start designing
NDIS and foundational supports come up a lot in my life, mainly due to my job. And I’m kind of sick of it. Not only is life under the NDIS only a reality for a small percentage of people with a disability, I feel like we’re rapidly losing the opportunity for foundational supports to be […]
Why I won’t do media for chronic illness
I thought I already had this blog post in my drafts, but apparently not. I guess I’ve just said it around the internet in a few places or in messages and thought I’d drafted it. Given today’s Guardian article it seemed timely to finally gather the ad-hoc comments I’ve made over the years into a […]
Is there still an opportunity to do foundational supports well?
Recently in an interview for work I said “this can all be summed up by saying there’s still an opportunity for foundational supports to be an amazing service for Australians with a disability” (audio version here, version with transcript here). And to be fair to myself, that is technically true. When they haven’t […]
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How many degrees does it take to overcome ableism?
In public, disability and employment is often talked about in terms of entry level employment only. Within a report published by WWDA there was an interesting comment: “Employment supports tended to be catered to entry level jobs and were not tailored to people’s capabilities. Those with physical disabilities or chronic conditions reported the only […]
Advocacy to Greens re RACGP
I’m planning to document and collate more of my advocacy on this site. Mostly so that others can use my words as a template to save them energy (though my words are never perfect nor are they the only words you can use). I’ll collect the links on one page eventually but for now they’ll […]