Page 4032 - Week 13 - Thursday, 2 December 2021
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Finally, it is important also to remember that I-Day is a time to celebrate. I would like to suggest that you come along and get connected to some of the activities that are happening throughout Canberra on I-Day. These events have been supported through an I-Day grant.
Music for Canberra are holding an I-Day Celebration 2021, providing an opportunity to share in the joy of music through a series of activities, performances and installations by Canberra artists, including artists with disability. Table Tennis ACT will host a week of table tennis activities to celebrate and promote table tennis as a sport for all abilities.
Belco Arts will release Connect Collective, a platform where people with disability will share their exciting and diverse hobbies and passions through a series of podcast-style audio stories, transcripts, representative images and paste-up posters. Epilepsy ACT will facilitate a webinar, “Epilepsy in the Workplace: Supporting Successful Careers”. A live recording of the webinar will also be available to engage and educate more workplaces and individuals with epilepsy beyond I-Day, which is great news for those of us who cannot fit in all of the activities in one day—I am looking forward to trying, though.
Traditionally, the ACT Chief Minister’s Inclusion Awards are held close to 3 December, as part of Canberra’s I-Day celebrations. However, given the year that our community has had, the gala event will not be happening this year. However, the Inclusion Council have led us through a really interesting social media campaign leading up to today, highlighting how Canberrans have responded to and supported people with disability.
Government appreciates that some of these changes have created better opportunities for inclusion, and the voice of community is clearly telling us: let us not lose the flexibility gained; let us keep the innovation which has created better access and inclusion for so many.
Today will see the release of the first of six videos highlighting the positive and inclusive stories which have emerged in Canberra over the past two years. The videos will celebrate inclusion in our community and the efforts made through the health emergency to make reasonable adjustments and to support people with disability, rather than awarding individuals and organisations. I am looking forward to next year’s Chief Minister’s Inclusion Awards, as I hear it is one of the highlights of being Minister for Disability.
If you run a small business or a not-for-profit community group, you should know that the disability inclusion grants are still open and provide one-off grants to promote social inclusion for people with disability through the removal of barriers to participation. The grants fund an amount up to $20,000 for activities and initiatives such as disability training, awareness raising and related materials, assistive technology and infrastructure modifications. These grants are a great way to make reasonable adjustments or to welcome new business or new members by enlarging your accessibility.
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