By Maria Dalmon, CPActive Member

A few weeks ago, I had the great honour of speaking at a CPActive virtual Town Hall. The event’s topic was “The Future on Technology and Innovation” and was hosted by Riley Saban, a disability tech entrepreneur, using his eye-gaze speech generating technology. 

My cerebral palsy makes my speech difficult to understand, and so, my words were displayed to all as I spoke through the use of captioning. It was very exciting to speak and tell people how I use technology around my home to help me in my life.

You can watch our event highlights here.

I have been a client of Cerebral Palsy Alliance for 65 years and live in my own home with my husband, Lindsay.

It is my mission, as a woman with cerebral palsy, to educate the public about cerebral palsy, ensuring our individuality and our right to be heard.  

When meeting people for the first time, I introduce myself as a person with cerebral palsy and tell the person a little about my disabilities. It puts the person as ease and makes them more patient to understand my affected speech. I always say, “if you don’t understand me, please ask me to repeat myself or ask me to type on my iPad”. I hate not being heard, I hate it even more when people pretend to understand me.

I am proud to live with cerebral palsy and my many achievements in my life.

CPActive gives for people with cerebral palsy the power to be heard and to fight for their rightful place in today’s society.

I look forward to time of total inclusion. A time of equality when vacant jobs are advertised to include people with disabilities; a time when airlines will allow passengers to travel sitting in their wheelchairs and toilets on planes are wheelchair accessible; a time when there are no more barriers faced by people with disabilities.

If you haven’t signed up to CPActive yet – now’s the time. It’s for everyone. Sign up here: cpactive.org.au

Maria Dalmon

CPActive Member

On 22nd March we had our first town hall for 2022 with some inspiring speakers talking about their priorities for the year ahead. Read their reflections. Be part of it and watch the highlights video now:

Here’s a quick re-cap of what our speakers had to say on the night:

Elly Desmarchelier on the Defend Our NDIS campaign:

“The NDIS… was not built by politicians, it was built by people with disability. That’s the scheme we want, that’s the scheme we are defending.”

“I realised the decisions that politicians make ultimately, as a disabled person, they impact my life more than a person without disability. My life is inherently more political. So I can just ignore that, or I can actually use my voice to have the biggest impact on my life.”

“The Defend Our NDIS campaign is… an opportunity, and it gives us a place in which we can channel that energy and that voice… to be more powerful together.”

Click here to sign the open letter against cuts to the NDIS.

Register for an online community rally here.

Former Paralympian Tamsin Colley on her schooling career and the need for inclusive education:

“At my public high school, I was told that I would either be in the selective stream or receive support. And this was like outrageous, as they seemed like they have never heard of people with disabilities being smart and excelling in school before.”

“For Para-athletes, the Paralympic movement has really helped making young people with disabilities feel included and supported their sporting endeavours. It’s such a shame that school is so behind this.”

You can read more about Tamsin’s story on CPActive.

CPActive Champion Jerusha Mather on dating apps:

“I’ve heard many stories of people with disabilities being ghosted and not treated with respect [on dating apps]. It’s been going on for too long. I would really like to see some change. It is not good to ghost someone or discriminate against someone based on their disabilities… that’s why I started this petition.”

“Just put yourself out there and don’t be afraid… be yourself, be your real self, and don’t be afraid to give it a go because we all want love and we are all deserving of love, and love will come to us at the right time, and someone will love you for who you are.”

Sign Jerusha’s Change.org petition to make big dating apps more inclusive.

Aspiring ParaMatilda Holly Saunders on what she’s learned from team sports:

“Patience, a lot of patience. But especially the friendships that come from all the different people [you work with]. And it’s pretty much like a small little family, which is nice to have. So you always have each other’s backs, no matter what.”

Aspiring ParaMatilda Tahlia Blanshard on the best advice she’s received:

“I think the best advice that I was given, it sounds very cliche, but it was to not give up. I was just told to just keep doing it, no matter what anyone else says. If someone said ‘No, you can’t do that,’ that I should not listen to that person. I should just try my hardest at everything and it didn’t really matter what the result was, as long as I had fun along the way.

“And all the friends that I made are worth more than any trophy.”

We’d love to see you at our next event. Sign up for updates here now.