Disability Awareness Festival
The Disability Awareness Festival promotes access to all kinds of community activities, educates about disability and empowers people to know their rights and roles in the community.
This year the Darwin City Council will hold a formal evening launch, featuring choirs from the Nemarluk and Henbury schools, as well as the Down syndrome choir, where members perform sign language to music.
An outdoor movie night in the Jingili Water Gardens will screen the hit animation Zootopia for families and carers to attend in an accessible, inviting atmosphere.
Accessibility is a big issue, says the Council’s Community Inclusion Co- ordinator Tahlia Joy, but it also has more definitions than people realise.
“The statistics released this year from the ABS show that in the NT people with limited mobility is the smallest group of people with a disability, but that’s probably not what you think of when you say ‘disability’. One in five Australians has a disability – that includes vision loss, and there’s tiny or obscure print on menus. It’s more than just being in a wheelchair.”
The highlight of the fest is a family fun day at Lake Alexander, where Guide Dogs Australia will be on site with their pooches and paddleboats will take visitors across the water.
For a fascinating but no less fun day out, Royal Darwin Hospital’s rehabilitation services will open their doors for a behind-the-scenes look at its occupational and speech therapy programs, and how the body recovers after trauma such as a car crash.
See the event listing.
