This is the fifth episode of the Awkward Sisters Podcast where we have tough conversations about awkward issues in the health and disability space. In this episode, Nicole and Claire discuss a Reddit thread (AITA or am I the arsehole- not our words!) about a mum pulling their child from an excursion after they were required to be a buddy for another child… Claire shares her experiences of being buddied with other kids and Nicole gives her opinion as a Mum… There’s a little bit of swearing, based on the original language in the Reddit post, and a lot of agreement so it’s only a Medium awkward rating for us but we’re conscious that others might not agree and that could be awkward listening! Feel free to join the conversation and let us know what you think.

Original Reddit thread https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/comments/10ur722/aita_for_pulling_my_daughter_from_a_waterpark/ (This gives more information and frames the issue in a behaviour space more specifically. For us, the bit that triggered relevance in the disability space was the buddy concept and the suggestions from others in the Facebook group where Nicole first saw this, about the child needing to have a carer, which here in Australia would be unusual unless the individual had a disability).

This is the fourth episode of the Awkward Sisters Podcast where we have tough conversations about awkward issues in the health and disability space. In this episode, Nicole and Claire (reluctantly) discuss participating in sport and exercise with a disability including experiences at a mainstream school, gyms and personal training as well as ableism from health professionals around improving capacity.

Awkward rating for Nicole: medium but awkward rating for Claire is high as she’s not a fan of talking about this topic!

A shout out needs to go to Justin from Push Your Limits Personal Training who work with both Claire and Nicole in challenging them in very different ways! https://www.pushyourlimitspt.com.au/

This is the third episode of the Awkward Sisters Podcast where we have tough conversations about awkward issues in the health and disability space. In this episode, Nicole and Claire discuss who is “allowed” to talk about disability issues. Claire and Nicole then discuss disability language including ableist language, identity first vs person first language, inspirational language and learning to change our language and being challenged or called out for our language use. We also touch on a sport’s accessibility issue where the AFL did actually step up and address issues! Join us for a medium to highly awkward episode!

There is a Trigger Warning for today’s episode as we discuss language and make reference to some language that has been used as disability slurs.

People with Disabilities Australia Language Guide: click here

We’re The Superhumans Paralympic: click here . It’s an awesome video with some amazing people and skills shown; we’re not critical of the whole thing, but would ask listeners to consider the inclusion of some of the images shown (like brushing teeth) and the helpfulness of framing disability as “super human”.

God’s Special Child Poem: click here. Please note our Trigger Warning for reading this because this has been challenging for many in the disabled community.

Article about the MCG access: click here. Please note that the @DarrenWheels has noted this continues to still be a challenge and he encourages everyone to keep holding the AFL to account!

This is the second episode of the Awkward Sisters Podcast where we have tough conversations about awkward issues in the health and disability space. In this episode, Claire shares a little bit about what the word awkward means to her and Nicole and Claire discuss challenges with accessing venues with a disability; both negative and positive. Nicole also wades in to the debate around sensory spaces in stadiums in light of Meshel Laurie’s commentary of Em Rusciano’s support of the sensory space at Marvel Stadium.

A couple of points post podcast from Nicole and Claire

Chat 10 Looks 3 is the wonderful podcast by Annabel Crabb and Leigh Sales see here https://www.chat10looks3.com/

Claire’s research indicates that Ticketek as a booking venue (for here in Adelaide; the Entertainment Centre and Her Majesty’s Theatre) allows you to book more than 1 -2 tickets of accessible seating so an individual with a disability can sit with a group of people.

Nicole and Claire do support Marvel Stadium’s attempts to provide sensory spaces and hire sensory bags for people. We acknowledge that the capacity of the sensory space (and the location of it) is not optimal for the amount of people that would use the venue or experience sensory issues and other disabilities. But we do applaud the attempt. We feel it’s important to acknowledge attempts for inclusion; notably as a starting point- not, we hope, as the end point or as an act of tokenism. We’d also like to make it clear that subsequent reports of the difficulties accessing the sensory spaces at Marvel Stadium (like being asked to show papers for disability or submitting yourself for a staff member to observe and them saying “you don’t look disabled” or “you’re not having a panic attack”) is absolutely appalling. We fully support and are aware that Chloe Hooper is following up with the Stadium and we thank her for her advocacy.

Em Rusciano is an absolute legend. See her National Press Club Address here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4v88Wd20GiU. Her podcast Emsolation is exclusive to Spotify and is absolutely hilarious!    

This is the first episode of the Awkward Sisters Podcast where we have tough conversations about awkward issues in the health and disability space. In this episode you’ll learn some more about your hosts, Nicole and Claire including Nicole’s background as an Occupational Therapist and Claire’s lived experience of disability. Claire then shares with Nicole her awkward experience of having an Occupational Therapy assessment!