Accessibility Issues for those who are Bedridden/Housebound
As explained in a previous post, a long chain of happy coincidences lead to me sending an email to the head of the Disability Advocacy/Resources Unit about the issue of accessibility for people who are bedridden/housebound [Linked article is the Hoyden one which neatly explains all the Victorian-centric acronyms listed below].

I good some feedback from Sharon at VDAN a few days ago (sorry for the delay - I have The Plague). The issues was raised at the VDAN meeting and DARU has agreed to facilitate a meeting with interested parties around the issue of inclusion of people who are housebound. Sharon at DARU (who I originally talked to) will be organising the meeting, tentatively scheduled for Tuesday 19 August at 2pm.

The current plan is any bedridden/housebound people will be teleconferenced via phone into the meeting. I mentioned that I knew several other people who were homebound and could be at least semi-articulate about it and was she interested in more consumer reps and the answer was yes. So, anybody want to come with me ... in the virtual sense? I haven't asked about geographic location but I suspect that since it's only teleconferencing for the "client" types that people anywhere in Australia could be included if interested. I will query this point specifically but please let me know via comment or email if you're potentially interested in participating.

I plan to revise and expand the original email and turn it into more of a position statement rather than the informal style it's currently in. Something that's appropriate for distribution/publication. I'd like to collect some stories also, about a page long about people's experiences of how/why they're housebound and things they miss out on because of it. If you're potentially interested in contributing a story, also let me know.

And if you're largely bedridden/housebound and can't contribute anything at this point but you'd like to be included on my email list of "people who are interested" for occasional updates, please let me know too!

I think that's all. I'll come back later and add all the bits I've doubtless forgotten...

Ricky