Most of the time as a writer you're writing articles, content and reports about subjects you don't always care about — occasionally though, you get to put your hand up for something really interesting. Earlier in the year, working on a project with Disability Services, I was writing the arts and culture section for people with disability. Because our project was, from the ground up, largely in consultation and involvement with the disability sector and those living with disability, I managed to meet a woman who was working at National Disability Services (NDS).
Michelle was a world-class dancer diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) at the height of her career. The website we were developing was designed to be a government disability page without the government spiel. We didn't want to begin pages by telling people how many millions of dollars the state government had invested in the program or about how 'wonderful' this program, or that initiative was. The purpose of the website was to get people living with disability where they needed to go, whether that be funding, respite, support or medical aid. The tone and language was plain English, friendly, encouraging and aimed to provide useful information to people to enable them to make their own decisions and live as independently as possible.
A great feature of the site was having real life stories about every day people and their situation, not to 'inspire' people, but to bring disability out from the dark and get people talking.
I jumped at the chance to interview Michelle and we spent an entire afternoon sitting in the NDS breakout room drinking coffee and talking. She's had an amazing life, such an accomplished dancer. But Michelle has had a lot of difficulties as well, not just dealing with her MS, but her personal life as well. But these are off the record, deeply personal details that she's shared with me and I'm not at liberty to share in an open forum.
The great thing about Michelle's story is that, while she uses the aid of a cane, and has her good and bad days, she hasn't let her disability get in the way of what she loves. Some time ago Michelle made a short film, Nerve Ending — a dance she choreographed herself and it was the first time she'd decided to do this since being diagnosed. It's an incredibly powerful film, and perhaps made more so to me because I know her story.
Her life would make an incredible book — maybe if I'm lucky one day, I'll put my hand up for that.
No comments:
Post a Comment