Life Ramps for a 'Post-Covid' World

This week, while I continue to contemplate a life with restricted access to safe work (me), safe healthcare (my son) and safe life generally (both of us and so many others living with medical vulnerability, I dived into Australian legislation relating to the same.

I did this, because my very kind and smart neighbours alerted me to the fact that social change can indeed be induced, if not achieved, by highlighting the ways in which the current state of affairs breach actual laws, standards and guidelines.

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As the parent of an adult who has lived his life with disability and chronic health conditions, this is not my first rodeo.

Early in my son’s educational life, we were faced with a situation that I was pretty sure was unlawful.

It involved school attendance, standards set for typical children and what indeed turned out to be overzealous reporting from an ill-informed school staff member.

In the heat of the incident, I felt a very specific range of emotions.

Not the ones that glue you to the spot, unsure where to go next. Not the ones that melt you into a puddle of despair.

What I felt, clearly and profoundly was outrage.

What had happened was wrong, the potential outcomes were wrong, the consequences of just copping the hit quietly and doing nothing were 100% wrong.

So I found a way to fight.

Long story short, I built a complaint for the Australian Human Rights Commission which was ratified and an outcome was reached.

It meant little in some ways (I did not make a monetary claim, though I could have) but in principle, it meant a great deal.

Why?

Because our story now stands as an official fence post on the road less travelled.

Should other families be the subject of an entirely unwarranted report to officialdom, from a school who fail to acquaint themselves with the requisite legislation, there is precedent with which to resolve (and potentially ward off) someone else’s actual dispute.

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So flash forward almost 20 years, I am again feeling the feelings.

1. The fact that people who live with medical vulnerabilities and disability are effectively being asked to risk their already challenged lives to access public space and services is an outrage.

2. The fact that the carers/parents/loved ones of people who live with medical vulnerabilities and disability are expected to continue scaffolding lives without protection in shared public space is an outrage.

3. And let’s face it, the fact that the general population has quietly agreed to cease avoiding a disease with an as yet unprecedented ability to farnarkle the health of anyone it encounters is also an outrage.

But point three is above my pay grade.

Points one and two…?

They are worth fighting.

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I’ve spent a lot of time writing to politicians, begging journalists and generally whining to anyone who will listen that this shit is not OK.

And alone, I’m not making a lot of difference.

But, when I fall asleep each night and worse, when I wake up every morning, the idea that my son’s future is completely and utterly bereft breaks my heart.

And I know we aren’t the only ones in this situation.

Just in my son’s life alone, I can clearly identify specific incidences where his rights as an individual living with diagnosed disability are being breached in ‘post covid’ Australia.

Specifically they relate to his needs in healthcare settings, and in accessing social services and public space.

I know we are not alone in this.

I have met IRL, met online, chatted with, read the stories of many Australians who are in similar situations.

It is not OK now, and as time moves on and this becomes the new normal, it will I predict be even less OK.

If I can stack my son’s 2025 life challenges up against clear breaches of established legislation, then I am assuming others can as well.

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There are laws being broken, every day… by systems, departments and ultimately governments themselves.

People should be able to access public spaces, social services and life supports safely.

So… consider this a call to action.

Specifically to Australians (because my brain cannot handle another country’s legislation at this point) but maybe this can be a model for people in other nations.

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This is the Disability Discrimination Act 1992.

Amazing to think the legislation is over thirty years old (with an update in 2018), but here we are. It’s an easy read, as legislation goes. Well worth a look.

This is the Disability Services and Inclusion Act 2023

Slightly more challenging to take in, mostly because they seem to have made a decision that people can only handle one page at a time and should press more buttons to access the information related to a consolidated Act, but hey… the Act is there, clear as day.

This is a nifty summary of the rights of people with disability published by the federal Attorney General’s Office. Love a summary. Especially when it comes with hyperlinks.

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While our issues are specifically disability related, I understand that many people in the covid wake weirdness do not currently identify as PWD.

So here’s some links relating to what an Australian can expect in terms of access to life.

Department of Health, Disability and Aging

Department of Social Services

Australian Human Rights Commission

Have a read. See where you fit in.

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Because here’s the thing…

You know how public buildings need ramps on them so people who use wheelchairs (and other aids for those unable to climb stairs)?

Well, why can’t we build ‘ramps’ so that people whose health status means dancing with the risk of covid is a very bad idea.

• Create safe/safer shared public spaces

• Create guidelines around social services (healthcare/education/government service centres) that facilitate safe access for people at high risk

• Create rules that guarantee WFH for those who are not safe in the situation where covid circulates with no mitigation

• Create initiatives that allow clinically vulnerable individuals to access public events in shared public spaces safely

The legislation says it is a fundamental right.

It’s not happening.

That is an outrage and it needs to change.

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So, if you have a story that clearly outlines how life has become impossible since the pandemic happened and then magically stopped being a thing even though it’s still a thing..?

Add a comment to this post.

Email me here

Send a carrier pigeon.

Tell me what’s going on for you.

We can compile our stories, match them against the legislation, and approach government with something real.

Who knows?

Together we might just get someone to listen.

We can’t keep going the way we are going now.

We need safe healthcare, we need the ability to earn an income safely, we need our lives back.

In the words of my girl crush…

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You can be amazing

You can turn a phrase into a weapon or a drug

You can be the outcast

Or be the backlash of somebody's lack of love

Or you can start speaking up

Nothing's gonna hurt you the way that words do

When they settle 'neath your skin

Kept on the inside and no sunlight

Sometimes a shadow wins

But I wonder what would happen if you

Say what you wanna say

And let the words fall out

Honestly I wanna see you be brave

With what you want to say

And let the words fall out

Honestly I wanna see you be brave

I just wanna see you

I just wanna see you

I just wanna see you

I wanna see you be brave

I just wanna see you

I just wanna see you

I just wanna see you

I wanna see you be brave

Everybody's been there, everybody's been stared down

By the enemy

Fallen for the fear and done some disappearing

Bow down to the mighty

But don't run, stop holding your tongue

Maybe there's a way out of the cage where you live

Maybe one of these days you can let the light in

Show me how big your brave is

Say what you wanna say

And let the words fall out

Honestly I wanna see you be brave

With what you want to say

And let the words fall out

Honestly I wanna see you be brave

Innocence, your history of silence

Won't do you any good

Did you think it would?

Let your words be anything but empty

Why don't you tell them the truth?

Say what you wanna say

And let the words fall out

Honestly I wanna see you be brave

With what you want to say

And let the words fall out

Honestly I wanna see you be brave

I just wanna see you

I just wanna see you

I just wanna see you

I wanna see you be brave

I just wanna see you

I just wanna see you

I just wanna see you

See you be brave

I just wanna see you

I just wanna see you

I just wanna see you

I just wanna see you

I just wanna see you

I just wanna see you

Songwriters: Jack Antonoff / Sara Bareilles

Brave lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC