Connecting to Community – Safe and Accessible Transport

Thank you to everyone who joined us.

You can watch the full recording here: https://youtu.be/B0ZFlGp2uaA

Summary

• The event started with a panel discussion between the host Elly Desmarchelier and panellists Todd Wither, Emma Myers and Jared Simkus. They are all people with disability who shared their ideas on safe and accessible transport.
• Then we heard from Dr Lisa Stafford who is an expert in accessible transport. She talked about her research about transport for people with disability and why It’s important for people with disability to be able to use transport.
• Lisa said lots of people with disability think transport is difficult to use.
• This means lots of people with disability miss out on seeing doctors, taking shifts at work or seeing friends because they cannot use transport. 
• Everyone agreed transport needs to be more fair and safer to use.
• Then there was a 10 minute break. 
• After the break, we were joined by Quang Ngyuen, and Noah, his support person. Noah talked about Quang’s role on the Accessible Transport Advisory Committee and how he helps make transport more accessible for his community.
• Then we had an open discussion with questions from the audience about transport with all of our panellists.

Resources

Learn more about Lisa’s work here.

About our panelists

Todd Winther
Todd is a disability advocate who lives with cerebral palsy. He cares about politics and disability rights. He hopes his experiences helps others feel like they can advocate for disability rights, too.

Emma Myers
Emma is a writer, actor and disability advocate who lives in Canberra. She is the first Disability Rights and Political Reporter at Powerd, where she works. She cares about sharing stories of people with disability through the media.

Jared Simkus
Jared is employed by Speakout as a community educator currently working on a new project called Respect our Ability. Jared is also currently participating in a reference group for a National/International transport company. Jared’s only mode of transport is public transport. Jared enjoys attending monthly Self advocacy group meetings and has previously delivered road to success training and been part of voice-overs created by Speakout.

Quang Nguyen
Quang is the Chairperson for Council for Intellectual Disability and has been recently been on the Disability Council at ATAC (Accessible Transport Advisory Committee). He was a part of the trial runs when the new SouthWest Link train replacement buses were being rolled out during the new metro train upgrades.

Dr Lisa Stafford
A passionate leader and advocate for inclusive communities, cities and fair transport. She has over 25 years of experience in research, education, and community planning. She drives change by bringing together disability inclusion, urban planning and transport. Lisa is also dedicated to using inclusive methods that ensure everyone’s voices, especially children and those with complex communication needs, are heard in research and planning. Read more here.

And our host, Elly Desmarchelier

Elly is a sought after speaker, writer, event facilitator and disability rights campaigner. You might recognise her as the national spokesperson for the Defend Our NDIS campaign during the 2022 Federal election. You can check out some of her work here.

About The Disability Dialogue

Who We Are

The Disability Dialogue brings people with disability together to talk about issues that matter to us.

Our Values

• We create a safe space for people with disability, their families, friends and supporters
• We believe people with disability are experts in our own lives
• We are led by people with disability

Our Partners

The Disability Dialogue is a joint initiative of:

• DANA
• Inclusion Australia
• Alliance 20
• Melbourne Disability Institute

We are funded through an Information, Linkages and Capacity Building (ILC) grant from the Department of Social Services (DSS) and also acknowledge the support of the Community Broadcasting Foundation.