We live in Australia, a very wealthy country and we cannot get disability access right. I am well aware that its a lot better than it was years ago, as it should be. It’s certainly a lot better than when I started my career 40 years ago. But it’s still appalling. We have to do better.

Natalie Wade’s story really highlights the barriers that people with a disability have to confront. Ms Wade shared her experience on LinkedIn. Natalie is a wheelchair user. She is a distinguished disability human rights lawyer. I believe she currently has a very high ranking role with the NDIS Quality and Safeguards area. She attends Senate Estimates sittings in Canberra as part of her role.

This means she has to fly a lot. Recently, she had to fly from Adelaide to Canberra for a Senate Estimates session. What should have only taken 2 hours, took seventeen. It necessitated a stopover in Melbourne too.

As Ms Wade tells the story, “I left for the airport at 4pm on Wednesday and arrived at Parliament House at 11:15am on Thursday.” Apparently she was refused two flights because of her wheelchair. Because of her chair, and staff that had not had the required training, she had to fly on another plane. This delayed her 6 hours and made it necessary for her to have a Melbourne stop over. This is insane.

On arrival in Canberra, she could not find any access cabs. I am not quite sure what happened, but she mentioned “abandoned bookings”, which I assume to mean that the company did not honour the booking. Access cabs are very, very difficult to secure. I can only imagine Ms Wade’s frustration. Deaf people often complain furiously when interpreters cancel at the last minute; imagine how Ms Wade would be feeling at being utterly stranded.

Ms Wade’s ‘ADVENTURE’ did not end there. She arrived at her hotel room eventually. I imagine that she was absolutely buggered. She would have been looking forward to a shower and a wind down. Perhaps a nice glass of wine while watching Netflix.

But first that shower. So, Ms Wade has booked an accessible room in advance. She heads to the shower after a long and stressful two days, only to be confronted by an accessible shower with …. WAIT FOR IT …. a step. if she did not scream and swear loudly by this time, she is an absolute saint.

Ms Wade commented that her executive team went above and beyond to help her resolve her travel issues. She commented that they were more angry about it than she was. BUT – this is disability access in Australia today! We have to do better than this.

And just as I finish this article another deaf colleague has sent me a text … He has received at text from the NDIS that they will call him in 15 minutes to discuss his NDIS plan… And to please not reply to the text. Of course his file states that he is deaf and to not call but … Yup, this is disability access in Australia today! NOT GOOD ENOUGH!