1 in 5 people have a disability… What? How did I not know this!

Melbourne Fashion Week is here. While it’s not an event that I’ve ever been interested in, when I saw the catwalk featuring people with disabilities on the news earlier this week I damn nearly jumped out of my chair.

“Access to Fashion” was an event held on the 1st of September and run by writer, speaker, appearance advocate and clothes lover Carly Findley, with the assistance of disabled and non disabled people.

How cool is it that we live in an era where disability is becoming more celebrated like this!

Positive representation of disabled people in the media. That was something that was discussed in the Disability episode of QandA a couple months ago. Of course, I am absolutely all for it. I have never seen a TV show or movie (apart from Glee and the Paralympics) that featured people with disability in an inspiring and positive light.

I mean a movie or TV show that has people with disability as characters or presenters which are disabled without this being the point of the show. It’s easy to make a movie all about a kid overcoming his disability or a documentary on living with a disability. But have you ever seen an episode of Home and Away where one of the heartthrobs falls in love with a girl in a wheelchair? Or a family feud-style show presented by a man with down syndrome?

The fact that now we have a runway where people with disability can strut their stuff is, I think, ground-breaking. Not only are we presenting disability in a positive light in the mainstream media, but it also speaks volumes about the message that the disabled community are trying to send.

This event set out to make a statement about disability access and inclusion, it is also about disability pride – disabled people coming together to celebrate themselves and each other.

As I said in my last post, disability is normal! It’s not something to be ashamed of. It’s a part of who we are and something to be proud of. Disability is beautifully displayed in this eye-opening catwalk and you can see just how diverse and broad the disability community really is.

I only wish I had known about it sooner and I would’ve bought tickets to go see the “Access to Fashion” runway myself. Who knows, maybe someday I’ll get a chance. Maybe even get up on catwalk myself.

A girl can dream.

Have a lovely day! xx