Wesley Mission Archives

RADIO 2GB NEWS COMMENTARY

INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF DISABLED PERSONS

There is a great deal of scepticism about the values of "international years". Some people feel that the United Nations makes too much of them. But with the Paralympic Games now underway in Sydney it is worth recalling that one international year was certainly a stunning success.

1981 was the International Year of Disabled Persons. I represented Wesley Mission on the Australian Health Minister's National Committee for the "year". So much progress has been made in the last two decades that it is difficult to think back to the bad old days.

For example, just before that "year" got underway, the Australian premiere of a major movie was held in a Melbourne cinema that did not have any access for people in a wheelchair. The movie was called "Coming Home" and it dealt with the return of US service personnel from Vietnam back to the United States. The hero was in a wheelchair. The powers that be decided to have a movie premiere about people in wheelchairs in a cinema that did not permit people in a wheelchair to get access to the movie.

When all this was pointed out to the arrangers of the premiere, the response that the cinema did not have wheelchair access because no one in a wheel chair had tried to get into the building before. That foolish manager evidently had not thought about the possibility that a person in a wheelchair may had considered visiting the cinema but decided not to do because it was impossible to do get in.

This is an example of the type of foolish thinking that characterised places at that time. No doubt there are still some places that are not wheelchair accessible but at least the issue is now in the minds of building owners. Indeed, building standards for new buildings were changed around this time to ensure that all new buildings would be wheelchair accessible.

Incidentally, the old Wesley Mission building on Pitt Street that was built in the 1960s was one of the first in Sydney to be wheelchair accessible. Wesley Mission (the old Central Methodist Mission) was a pioneer in this matter. This forward thinking meant that the Mission could host events - such as movie premieres and public meetings - with people in wheelchairs, such as Joni Eareckson-Tada (who is back in Sydney at present) and Terry Wiles (whose mother had taken thalidomide during pregnancy).

Incidentally, the visit of Terry Wiles is a good example of the change that the Australian Government had to make of its own thinking. Terry Wiles is a British citizen studying in the US. I had some difficulty getting him a visitor's visa. The Australian Department of Immigration did not want to have a "sick" person visiting Australia. I had to explain that although Terry Wiles had no arms or legs, was blind in one eye and slightly deaf, he was not actually "sick". Indeed he was in good health. His Australian lecture tour for the International Year of Disabled Persons was one of the most inspiring events of that "year". But the Department of Immigration had some difficulty getting used to the fact that he was not sick.

In short, all of us - not least Melbourne cinema managers and the Department of Immigration - are indebted to the campaigners like Joni Eareckson-Tada and Terry Wiles - who have done so much to educate us about the issues for people with disabilities and the need for the community to change its thinking.

Keith Suter
Consultant for Social Policy

BROADCAST ON FRIDAY OCTOBER 20TH 2000 ON RADIO 2GB'S "BRIAN WILSHIRE PROGRAMME" AT 9 PM, AND ON OCTOBER 22ND 2000 ON "SUNDAY NIGHT LIVE" AT 10.30 PM.