September 30, 2024 • 23 mins
Originally recorded in January 2022
As Disney continues to shape the imaginations of children around the world, one question remains: where are the disabled princesses? In this encore episode, disability activist Hannah Diviney shares her passion for changing how the world, and Disney, see disability.
From viral petitions to meaningful cultural change, Hannah dives into why representation matters and how one princess could change the lives of millions. Whether you’ve heard this before or it’s your first time, this conversation is as relevant as ever.
Sign the petition for a disabled Disney princess: https://www.change.org/p/disneystudios-create-a-disney-princess-with-disabilities
Buy Hannah's book: https://www.booktopia.com.au/i-ll-let-myself-in
See Hannah at The Press Club: https://www.npc.org.au/speaker/2024/1343-hannah-diviney
Connect with Peta:
Instagram: @petahooke
Website: www.icantstandpodcast.com
Email: icantstandpodcast@gmail.com
Episode Transcript:https://www.icantstandpodcast.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hello, and welcome to the I Can't Stand Podcast. The
podcast answering your questions about what life is like when
you have a disability. My name is Peter and I'm
your host. I have cerebral palsy and I love to
answer your questions. My guest today has a very big
(00:25):
goal for herself. She's currently petitioning Disney, as in Walt Disney,
to create a disabled princess. When I read that.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
I knew I needed to speak with her. So, without
any feather ado, could you please introduce to yourself.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Hi, my name's Hannah Divney. I also have cerebral palsy
like Peter, and I'm a writer and disability advocate.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
So you said that you consider yourself as a disability advocate.
Has that been something natural to you or is that
something that you've sort of fallen into over time.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
My parents and my family have always instilled in me
the benefit of being able to give back if you can,
So when I was much younger, we used to do
a lot of charity work for Cerebral Palsy Alliance, which
for anyone who doesn't know, is like the major charity
an organization that helps people with cerebral palsy, mainly here
(01:37):
in New South Wales. But yeah, I think in terms
of accepting the label of disability advocate and really stepping
into what that means and like making noise on social
media and all of that, that's definitely been more of
a gradual process. For quite a while there, I resisted
(02:00):
the idea of being a disability advocate. I think because
I was struggling just to keep my head above water
and I couldn't possibly fathom having enough space in terms
of my energy or all that kind of stuff to
worry about anyone else or to advocate for anyone else.
(02:21):
Advocacy is a choice. It's not for everybody. It doesn't
have to be what you do. It doesn't have to
be how you live your life as a disabled person.
But for me personally, it kind of really hit home
in the last few years that I have a voice.
(02:42):
When I was initially diagnosed with CP, the kind of
worst case scenario that they gave my parents was that
I would never walk, talk, or feed myself based on
the kind of level of brain damage that I had.
And obviously, because we're having this conversation, we know that
(03:06):
that scenario didn't come to pass, so I kind of
take the literal privilege of being able to articulate myself
and having a voice very seriously, and I kind of
decided that I feel like I have a responsibility to
use my voice. And then I've started using it. And
(03:28):
once you start using it, well you can't stop then, So, oh,
this is true.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
And I think you know both of us have several
palsy about just listening to you, then we have very
similar perspectives. And also, when I was first diagnosed, my
parents were told I'd never be able to write my
own name. Knowing that we have that privilege in having
several palsy, I think it just, at least for me,
(03:56):
pushes me forward to use what I've been given.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Yeah, and I think it doesn't mean that there aren't
parts of having cerebral palsy that aren't awful and hard
and exhausting. It doesn't mean that everything is kind of
viewed through this rosy lens of gratitude necessarily, But it's
just being aware that, like, Okay, this is what I've
(04:22):
got to work with. I kind of owe it to
myself and to everybody else to break down some barriers
and see if we can make the world better.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
And as far as feeling comfortable in your identity, has
cerebral palsy always felt a part of you or has
it been separate at times? How has that process been
like for you as a young woman.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
I've kind of gone through lots of stages. It's been
a very bumpy, sort of rollercoaster in terms of my
identity as a sable person. I mean, obviously, and your
audience can't see, but I'm sitting in a wheelchair right now.
So my experience of disability has always been very sort
(05:11):
of in your face. It's very visually apparent. Pretty much.
The first thing people notice when they meet me is
obviously that I'm in a wheelchair. And I think I
was I want to say I was three when I
first kind of clicked that, like, ah, something is different.
(05:32):
And I remember having this experience of watching my best
friend from daycare at the time stand up from the
lunch table after we'd finished to go and play. And
I remember watching her and thinking, oh, well, I'm done too,
I want to go play. And I sort of told
my body to, you know, stand up and follow her
(05:53):
and do all of that stuff, and then got really
confused when nothing happened. For a long time, I spent
a lot of energy, I know, I guess hating myself.
If yeah, no, I would say hating myself and like
(06:17):
being very kind of upset that this particular kind of
circumstance had been dealt and there's no like rhyme or
reason why it happened to you when not the baby
who was in the hospital next to you. So I
really struggled with that. And I think the other thing
(06:38):
that I really struggled with as a young kid was
the concept of having it for life for me. I
also have two able bodied sisters who are both younger
than me and were always super sporty and constantly active
(06:59):
and very social and found it easy to make friends
and all of the things that I sort of wanted
to have but really struggle with, like the amount of
times that I would be told, oh, we wanted to
invite you somewhere, but like stairs, or we weren't sure
about the bathroom, or like whatever it might be. And
(07:24):
that kind of continued all the way through through high school. Really,
so to be in this position now where people are
listening to me and inviting me onto things and really
want my opinions and want me to take up space.
There's a bit of a kind of lag between what
(07:48):
I'm doing now and how I think of myself still,
like I have to kind of catch up and remind
myself that, like, oh, it's okay with my perception of
meet changes with the times.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
I'm a lot older than you, Hannah, But sitting here now,
I can say that it only gets easier. I particularly
the hardest I found was when people were starting to
go out clubbing. Now COVID might be a disguised blessing
in that way that your social group might not be
clubbing in the way my social group was. It just
(08:22):
it was completely inaccessible. So I found that often in
my early twenties was sort of the biggest difference between
myself and my friends. But as soon as I got
to university, I myself really started to feel into my
own identity. And I can see that in you.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
Yeah, I think it's it's definitely starting to happen for me.
And I want to also point out that like I
wouldn't be in the place that I am in without
like lots of therapy, and like both psychologically and other
forms of therapy like ote, physio conductive and education.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
All those sorts of things.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
I'm really lucky to have access to those. In terms
of my experience of my early twenties so far, it's
been very different to what I thought just because of
the pandemic. I think there's a lot of socialization that
we're all missing out on. And like I did the
last two years of my university degree online, which really
(09:32):
made it quite tricky in terms of like connecting and
making friends. But it also had this really interesting thing
where because you can only see someone's heading shoulders on zoom,
nobody knew that I was in a wheelchair. Nobody knew
that I was disabled unless I chose to disclose it.
And I've never had that choice before, so that was
(09:54):
a really kind of strange thing for my brain to be, like, Oh,
I don't have to tell them if I don't want to.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
What are you doing with Disney? How did you start it?
But can you just explain to the audience what you're
doing and why you're doing it?
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Sure things. So I have been for the last year
petitioning for Disney to create a disabled Disney Princess, and
the reason I went specifically with the Disney Princess is
purely strategic because we all know that they're the characters
that end up on the bedspreads and the lunchboxes and
(10:36):
the toys and the books and the birthday parties and
on and on. So I kind of wanted to create
this character that could have maximum exposure, I guess, if
you like maximum impact, to sort of show kids that
disability isn't something to be afraid of, To give the
disabled kids watching a chance to see someone who looks
(10:58):
like them be the hero of their own adventures, and
just sort of, you know, live a life that is
full of possibility, in magic and all of those things.
It actually started all the way back in twenty fifteen.
I went to see the Pixar film Inside Out, which,
(11:21):
if you haven't seen it is a beautiful, nuanced film
about mental health and mental illness, which are incredibly like
high concept ideas for a kids maybe, And I remember thinking, well,
if they have managed to like sell this idea of
a movie about mental illness and like emotional intelligence and
(11:44):
all that stuff for kids, then maybe it's not so
much of a leap anymore to consider creating a disabled character.
So I wrote Disney an open letter. It got published online.
Nothing happened because as I've learned over the last year,
(12:04):
especially trying to get their attention and trying to get
in a room with them is like trying to get
into Fort Knox. All of this like comes from place
as a kid where I never saw anyone who looked
like me. In the TV I watched, the movies, the
books I read, the games I played, there was nobody.
(12:26):
It wasn't until I was ten that I saw my
first kind of character in a wheelchair, and that was
Ardie Abrams from the musical series Glee. Here's this character,
an actor who you know, you're sing this, he dances,
he's in a wheelchair. They address it, but like he's
a full person and all of this stuff. And then
(12:49):
I think it was like in the second season, maybe
there was a dance sequence that he was dreaming about
and he got up out of his wheelchair and started dancing,
and I remember being like, oh, so he's not like
me at all. He can kind of cast off my
(13:11):
life experience like a costume when the director yels cut.
So yeah, that's where the Disney thing comes from. It's
got over fifty seven thousand signatures, which is bonkers. We
are now trying to work out ways of kind of
(13:35):
developing the concept of the film and the world and
the characters, so that once we get through the door
to Disney, a lot of the legwork, so to speak,
is already done.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Yeah, and so how can the audience listening now help
you create that disabled Disney character?
Speaker 3 (13:57):
If you google Disabled Disney Princess petition, so you can
always go and sign the petition or just come and
follow me on my social media, which I'm sure Peter
will put in the show notes of course. And yeah,
just kind of follow along. Start having those conversations around
(14:19):
your dinner table if you can, about why representation is important.
Think about the ways in which you've possibly been represented
or not, depending on who you are when you're listening
to this.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
And if you're a parent, or you're an auntie or
you're an uncle, or you have kids in your life,
maybe if I can be so bald, maybe contact Hannah
and get your kids in your life to suggest Hannah's
some ideas.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
I would love that. Please fill my DMS with all
the ideas.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
You can think of, Guys, I think it would be
really interesting for me, as an older millennial to understand
what you think the disability community needs. To do, or
how the non disabled need to better support disabled people
(15:17):
to make sure we gain equality. How could we be
more effective in how we campaign and make people better understand.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
Well. I think visibility is huge, and obviously in the
last few years we've made some excellent progress because we
have really high profile disability advocates here in Australia. We've
got Dylan or Kirk Firnly, Kylie Finlay and so many
(15:48):
others who are absolutely smashing it out of the park.
The other thing, I think for able bodied people with
platforms to normalize sharing the voices or content of disabled people,
(16:09):
it's just about giving people with disabilities opportunities to be
in the room, but in a really meaningful way where
they're given like power and agency and all of those things.
So I often tell people that, like, the only two
narratives that I was really able to internalize as a
(16:32):
young person wereas either paralympic success or on the complete
opposite end of the emotional spectrum, those who had come
into their disability by way of some sort of tragic
consequence like drink driving or speeding or whatever. And obviously
(16:53):
for those particular people, they very much felt like their
lives were over because of.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
What happened to them.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
And I often say, what sort of message does that
send to the person who is, you know, trying to
grow up and trying to figure out her his or
her life. If someone's telling you that the life you're
(17:21):
living and the body you're living in is over or
has less value, or is it you know, fundamentally broken
or whatever else before you've even had a chance to
like become a person. Yet I love the Paralympics. I
love what Paralympic athletes do. I think anyone who goes
(17:42):
to the Paralympics is amazing. But I was also the
kid who grew up constantly being asked some variation of
the question what's your parently export going to be? And
it's like, well, on the one hand, super Supper flattered
that you think that I'm capable of that, But on
the other hand, it's not something that every you know,
(18:05):
able bodied or disabled person is going to be capable of,
Like what if they want to be a teacher, what
if they want to be a doctor, what if they
want to be a chef? I just think the normalization
of disabled people in like everyday society would help a
lot what.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Do you love about having a disability, Hannah.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
That's a really interesting question. And I think if you
had asked me that a few years ago, I wouldn't
have been able to answer you. I probably would have
turned around and said nothing, because I was really struggling
with you know, self worth and all of those things.
But I think I love the way that I look
(18:55):
at the world, and I love the way that I
am more aware of and grateful to my body for
being able to do things that I know for sure
other people take for granted, like even the fact that
I can roll myself over in bed if I want
(19:15):
to change position during the night. That's something I know
that like not everybody can do. Perspective gratitude, community creativity
is another one, because obviously when the world isn't built
for a body like mine, you have to get a
(19:36):
little bit creative and think quite laterally sometimes. And I
think also we have this. I don't know if it's
a fearlessness or just like a general refusal to like,
excuse the pun, sit down and kind of take things,
(19:59):
if that makes sense. Like there can be some people
sometimes who are a little bit put off by how
political or how willing I am personally to engage in
like discourse or call people out or do that sort
of thing, And I often feel like I have to say,
if I sit back and watch the world go by,
(20:21):
then I'm just going to be stuck on the margins
of it forever, and that's not where I deserve to be.
Sometimes I have to, you know, say things on Twitter
that get people fired up, or have conversations that are
awkward and uncomfortable with people about like, hey, do you
think you can maybe stop using that word or you
(20:43):
could you know, start putting image descriptions at the bottom
of your instagrams or whatever.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
It might be, And is there anything you don't like
about having your disability?
Speaker 3 (20:57):
Sometimes it gets exhausting in like not just a physical sense,
but also in the like relentlessness of it in this
in terms of like constantly having to justify why you
(21:17):
deserve to be heard or deserve to be taken seriously
or all of that kind of thing, or just like
sort of banging your head against the wall and frustration
because you're like, don't you get it already? Even the
ways in which you know they say what people have
been offering a lot of very practical, very meaningful strategy
(21:39):
on this, on the on the pandemic, and it's often
been ignored or sidelined. So many of us are putting
the work in and sometimes it can just feel like
pushing a.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Boulder upper hill, constantly smashing my head against a brick wall.
I feel you. Lastly, what do you hope it would
be like to have a disability in Australia in the future.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
I hope it's not really a big deal, but I
hope that we get to a point where if they
want to be a teacher, they can be a teacher.
If they want to be an astronaut, they can be
an astronaut. We don't have to keep having conversations about
(22:31):
accessibility or emotional labor or I mean, it's not all
going going to be fixed in the future, but I'd
like to get to a point where we don't have
to fight so hard to make people see and understand.
I'd like it if society at large could come to
a little bit more of that awareness and understanding on
(22:51):
their own more naturally.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
I'm totally with you, and what a great way to
end such a great chat. Thank you so much for
banky Hannah. I've thoroughly enjoyed it.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
Thank you so much for having me. I love this.
This is a great conversation.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
Thank you so much for listening to my chat with Hannah.
I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, can I
encourage you to leave a rating and review. If you
listen on Apple Podcasts or if you listen on another
podcasting platform, please share it with a friend or on
(23:30):
social media. It all helps more people understand what it's
really like to live with a disability. And just to
add one more thing, if you have any ideas of
how we can improve International Day for People with Disabilities
this year, I'm all ears. Okay, guys, have a good
(23:52):
one until next week.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
Bye.
Hello, and welcome to the I Can't Stand Podcast. The
podcast answering your questions about what life is like when
you have a disability. My name is Peter and I'm
your host. I have cerebral palsy and I love to
answer your questions. My guest today has a very big
(00:25):
goal for herself. She's currently petitioning Disney, as in Walt Disney,
to create a disabled princess. When I read that.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
I knew I needed to speak with her. So, without
any feather ado, could you please introduce to yourself.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Hi, my name's Hannah Divney. I also have cerebral palsy
like Peter, and I'm a writer and disability advocate.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
So you said that you consider yourself as a disability advocate.
Has that been something natural to you or is that
something that you've sort of fallen into over time.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
My parents and my family have always instilled in me
the benefit of being able to give back if you can,
So when I was much younger, we used to do
a lot of charity work for Cerebral Palsy Alliance, which
for anyone who doesn't know, is like the major charity
an organization that helps people with cerebral palsy, mainly here
(01:37):
in New South Wales. But yeah, I think in terms
of accepting the label of disability advocate and really stepping
into what that means and like making noise on social
media and all of that, that's definitely been more of
a gradual process. For quite a while there, I resisted
(02:00):
the idea of being a disability advocate. I think because
I was struggling just to keep my head above water
and I couldn't possibly fathom having enough space in terms
of my energy or all that kind of stuff to
worry about anyone else or to advocate for anyone else.
(02:21):
Advocacy is a choice. It's not for everybody. It doesn't
have to be what you do. It doesn't have to
be how you live your life as a disabled person.
But for me personally, it kind of really hit home
in the last few years that I have a voice.
(02:42):
When I was initially diagnosed with CP, the kind of
worst case scenario that they gave my parents was that
I would never walk, talk, or feed myself based on
the kind of level of brain damage that I had.
And obviously, because we're having this conversation, we know that
(03:06):
that scenario didn't come to pass, so I kind of
take the literal privilege of being able to articulate myself
and having a voice very seriously, and I kind of
decided that I feel like I have a responsibility to
use my voice. And then I've started using it. And
(03:28):
once you start using it, well you can't stop then, So, oh,
this is true.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
And I think you know both of us have several
palsy about just listening to you, then we have very
similar perspectives. And also, when I was first diagnosed, my
parents were told I'd never be able to write my
own name. Knowing that we have that privilege in having
several palsy, I think it just, at least for me,
(03:56):
pushes me forward to use what I've been given.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Yeah, and I think it doesn't mean that there aren't
parts of having cerebral palsy that aren't awful and hard
and exhausting. It doesn't mean that everything is kind of
viewed through this rosy lens of gratitude necessarily, But it's
just being aware that, like, Okay, this is what I've
(04:22):
got to work with. I kind of owe it to
myself and to everybody else to break down some barriers
and see if we can make the world better.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
And as far as feeling comfortable in your identity, has
cerebral palsy always felt a part of you or has
it been separate at times? How has that process been
like for you as a young woman.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
I've kind of gone through lots of stages. It's been
a very bumpy, sort of rollercoaster in terms of my
identity as a sable person. I mean, obviously, and your
audience can't see, but I'm sitting in a wheelchair right now.
So my experience of disability has always been very sort
(05:11):
of in your face. It's very visually apparent. Pretty much.
The first thing people notice when they meet me is
obviously that I'm in a wheelchair. And I think I
was I want to say I was three when I
first kind of clicked that, like, ah, something is different.
(05:32):
And I remember having this experience of watching my best
friend from daycare at the time stand up from the
lunch table after we'd finished to go and play. And
I remember watching her and thinking, oh, well, I'm done too,
I want to go play. And I sort of told
my body to, you know, stand up and follow her
(05:53):
and do all of that stuff, and then got really
confused when nothing happened. For a long time, I spent
a lot of energy, I know, I guess hating myself.
If yeah, no, I would say hating myself and like
(06:17):
being very kind of upset that this particular kind of
circumstance had been dealt and there's no like rhyme or
reason why it happened to you when not the baby
who was in the hospital next to you. So I
really struggled with that. And I think the other thing
(06:38):
that I really struggled with as a young kid was
the concept of having it for life for me. I
also have two able bodied sisters who are both younger
than me and were always super sporty and constantly active
(06:59):
and very social and found it easy to make friends
and all of the things that I sort of wanted
to have but really struggle with, like the amount of
times that I would be told, oh, we wanted to
invite you somewhere, but like stairs, or we weren't sure
about the bathroom, or like whatever it might be. And
(07:24):
that kind of continued all the way through through high school. Really,
so to be in this position now where people are
listening to me and inviting me onto things and really
want my opinions and want me to take up space.
There's a bit of a kind of lag between what
(07:48):
I'm doing now and how I think of myself still,
like I have to kind of catch up and remind
myself that, like, oh, it's okay with my perception of
meet changes with the times.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
I'm a lot older than you, Hannah, But sitting here now,
I can say that it only gets easier. I particularly
the hardest I found was when people were starting to
go out clubbing. Now COVID might be a disguised blessing
in that way that your social group might not be
clubbing in the way my social group was. It just
(08:22):
it was completely inaccessible. So I found that often in
my early twenties was sort of the biggest difference between
myself and my friends. But as soon as I got
to university, I myself really started to feel into my
own identity. And I can see that in you.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
Yeah, I think it's it's definitely starting to happen for me.
And I want to also point out that like I
wouldn't be in the place that I am in without
like lots of therapy, and like both psychologically and other
forms of therapy like ote, physio conductive and education.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
All those sorts of things.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
I'm really lucky to have access to those. In terms
of my experience of my early twenties so far, it's
been very different to what I thought just because of
the pandemic. I think there's a lot of socialization that
we're all missing out on. And like I did the
last two years of my university degree online, which really
(09:32):
made it quite tricky in terms of like connecting and
making friends. But it also had this really interesting thing
where because you can only see someone's heading shoulders on zoom,
nobody knew that I was in a wheelchair. Nobody knew
that I was disabled unless I chose to disclose it.
And I've never had that choice before, so that was
(09:54):
a really kind of strange thing for my brain to be, like, Oh,
I don't have to tell them if I don't want to.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
What are you doing with Disney? How did you start it?
But can you just explain to the audience what you're
doing and why you're doing it?
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Sure things. So I have been for the last year
petitioning for Disney to create a disabled Disney Princess, and
the reason I went specifically with the Disney Princess is
purely strategic because we all know that they're the characters
that end up on the bedspreads and the lunchboxes and
(10:36):
the toys and the books and the birthday parties and
on and on. So I kind of wanted to create
this character that could have maximum exposure, I guess, if
you like maximum impact, to sort of show kids that
disability isn't something to be afraid of, To give the
disabled kids watching a chance to see someone who looks
(10:58):
like them be the hero of their own adventures, and
just sort of, you know, live a life that is
full of possibility, in magic and all of those things.
It actually started all the way back in twenty fifteen.
I went to see the Pixar film Inside Out, which,
(11:21):
if you haven't seen it is a beautiful, nuanced film
about mental health and mental illness, which are incredibly like
high concept ideas for a kids maybe, And I remember thinking, well,
if they have managed to like sell this idea of
a movie about mental illness and like emotional intelligence and
(11:44):
all that stuff for kids, then maybe it's not so
much of a leap anymore to consider creating a disabled character.
So I wrote Disney an open letter. It got published online.
Nothing happened because as I've learned over the last year,
(12:04):
especially trying to get their attention and trying to get
in a room with them is like trying to get
into Fort Knox. All of this like comes from place
as a kid where I never saw anyone who looked
like me. In the TV I watched, the movies, the
books I read, the games I played, there was nobody.
(12:26):
It wasn't until I was ten that I saw my
first kind of character in a wheelchair, and that was
Ardie Abrams from the musical series Glee. Here's this character,
an actor who you know, you're sing this, he dances,
he's in a wheelchair. They address it, but like he's
a full person and all of this stuff. And then
(12:49):
I think it was like in the second season, maybe
there was a dance sequence that he was dreaming about
and he got up out of his wheelchair and started dancing,
and I remember being like, oh, so he's not like
me at all. He can kind of cast off my
(13:11):
life experience like a costume when the director yels cut.
So yeah, that's where the Disney thing comes from. It's
got over fifty seven thousand signatures, which is bonkers. We
are now trying to work out ways of kind of
(13:35):
developing the concept of the film and the world and
the characters, so that once we get through the door
to Disney, a lot of the legwork, so to speak,
is already done.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Yeah, and so how can the audience listening now help
you create that disabled Disney character?
Speaker 3 (13:57):
If you google Disabled Disney Princess petition, so you can
always go and sign the petition or just come and
follow me on my social media, which I'm sure Peter
will put in the show notes of course. And yeah,
just kind of follow along. Start having those conversations around
(14:19):
your dinner table if you can, about why representation is important.
Think about the ways in which you've possibly been represented
or not, depending on who you are when you're listening
to this.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
And if you're a parent, or you're an auntie or
you're an uncle, or you have kids in your life,
maybe if I can be so bald, maybe contact Hannah
and get your kids in your life to suggest Hannah's
some ideas.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
I would love that. Please fill my DMS with all
the ideas.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
You can think of, Guys, I think it would be
really interesting for me, as an older millennial to understand
what you think the disability community needs. To do, or
how the non disabled need to better support disabled people
(15:17):
to make sure we gain equality. How could we be
more effective in how we campaign and make people better understand.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
Well. I think visibility is huge, and obviously in the
last few years we've made some excellent progress because we
have really high profile disability advocates here in Australia. We've
got Dylan or Kirk Firnly, Kylie Finlay and so many
(15:48):
others who are absolutely smashing it out of the park.
The other thing, I think for able bodied people with
platforms to normalize sharing the voices or content of disabled people,
(16:09):
it's just about giving people with disabilities opportunities to be
in the room, but in a really meaningful way where
they're given like power and agency and all of those things.
So I often tell people that, like, the only two
narratives that I was really able to internalize as a
(16:32):
young person wereas either paralympic success or on the complete
opposite end of the emotional spectrum, those who had come
into their disability by way of some sort of tragic
consequence like drink driving or speeding or whatever. And obviously
(16:53):
for those particular people, they very much felt like their
lives were over because of.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
What happened to them.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
And I often say, what sort of message does that
send to the person who is, you know, trying to
grow up and trying to figure out her his or
her life. If someone's telling you that the life you're
(17:21):
living and the body you're living in is over or
has less value, or is it you know, fundamentally broken
or whatever else before you've even had a chance to
like become a person. Yet I love the Paralympics. I
love what Paralympic athletes do. I think anyone who goes
(17:42):
to the Paralympics is amazing. But I was also the
kid who grew up constantly being asked some variation of
the question what's your parently export going to be? And
it's like, well, on the one hand, super Supper flattered
that you think that I'm capable of that, But on
the other hand, it's not something that every you know,
(18:05):
able bodied or disabled person is going to be capable of,
Like what if they want to be a teacher, what
if they want to be a doctor, what if they
want to be a chef? I just think the normalization
of disabled people in like everyday society would help a
lot what.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Do you love about having a disability, Hannah.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
That's a really interesting question. And I think if you
had asked me that a few years ago, I wouldn't
have been able to answer you. I probably would have
turned around and said nothing, because I was really struggling
with you know, self worth and all of those things.
But I think I love the way that I look
(18:55):
at the world, and I love the way that I
am more aware of and grateful to my body for
being able to do things that I know for sure
other people take for granted, like even the fact that
I can roll myself over in bed if I want
(19:15):
to change position during the night. That's something I know
that like not everybody can do. Perspective gratitude, community creativity
is another one, because obviously when the world isn't built
for a body like mine, you have to get a
(19:36):
little bit creative and think quite laterally sometimes. And I
think also we have this. I don't know if it's
a fearlessness or just like a general refusal to like,
excuse the pun, sit down and kind of take things,
(19:59):
if that makes sense. Like there can be some people
sometimes who are a little bit put off by how
political or how willing I am personally to engage in
like discourse or call people out or do that sort
of thing, And I often feel like I have to say,
if I sit back and watch the world go by,
(20:21):
then I'm just going to be stuck on the margins
of it forever, and that's not where I deserve to be.
Sometimes I have to, you know, say things on Twitter
that get people fired up, or have conversations that are
awkward and uncomfortable with people about like, hey, do you
think you can maybe stop using that word or you
(20:43):
could you know, start putting image descriptions at the bottom
of your instagrams or whatever.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
It might be, And is there anything you don't like
about having your disability?
Speaker 3 (20:57):
Sometimes it gets exhausting in like not just a physical sense,
but also in the like relentlessness of it in this
in terms of like constantly having to justify why you
(21:17):
deserve to be heard or deserve to be taken seriously
or all of that kind of thing, or just like
sort of banging your head against the wall and frustration
because you're like, don't you get it already? Even the
ways in which you know they say what people have
been offering a lot of very practical, very meaningful strategy
(21:39):
on this, on the on the pandemic, and it's often
been ignored or sidelined. So many of us are putting
the work in and sometimes it can just feel like
pushing a.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Boulder upper hill, constantly smashing my head against a brick wall.
I feel you. Lastly, what do you hope it would
be like to have a disability in Australia in the future.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
I hope it's not really a big deal, but I
hope that we get to a point where if they
want to be a teacher, they can be a teacher.
If they want to be an astronaut, they can be
an astronaut. We don't have to keep having conversations about
(22:31):
accessibility or emotional labor or I mean, it's not all
going going to be fixed in the future, but I'd
like to get to a point where we don't have
to fight so hard to make people see and understand.
I'd like it if society at large could come to
a little bit more of that awareness and understanding on
(22:51):
their own more naturally.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
I'm totally with you, and what a great way to
end such a great chat. Thank you so much for
banky Hannah. I've thoroughly enjoyed it.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
Thank you so much for having me. I love this.
This is a great conversation.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
Thank you so much for listening to my chat with Hannah.
I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, can I
encourage you to leave a rating and review. If you
listen on Apple Podcasts or if you listen on another
podcasting platform, please share it with a friend or on
(23:30):
social media. It all helps more people understand what it's
really like to live with a disability. And just to
add one more thing, if you have any ideas of
how we can improve International Day for People with Disabilities
this year, I'm all ears. Okay, guys, have a good
(23:52):
one until next week.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
Bye.
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