Bovo
Premium Platinum
This is my first post on the main board. In fact it’s the first time I ventured this way full stop.
Im a very passionate person and two of my passions are footy and disability advocacy. Why footy? I got into footy back in the 90’s and have been a long time member of The Crows. Why disability advocacy? I suffered a stroke nearly 7 years ago. My stroke hit me hard and I had to spend over 5 months in rehabilitation relearning to walk, talk, dress myself, amongst other things. Although my recovery has been honestly quite remarkable, I have been left with permanent deficits that I will carry for the rest of my life.
It took me a couple of years to be able to go back to watching the footy at Adelaide Oval, because I do have mobility challenges and I have blindness on my left so require a support worker to guide me through heavy crowds. But I go when I can. Unfortunately when it comes to Finals footy, those like me who have limitations due to disability are left on the bench. On Thursday for example the AFL launched their finals ticketing access. Here in Adelaide, this was opened to both Crows and Collingwood together in a massive pool. Interestingly every public seat was available to every fully enabled fan, regardless of the fact most can sit anywhere. No priority was given to those who needed easy access or a support worker, so when those like me were finally able to get on, all the appropriate disability friendly seats were already exhausted. In true AFL fashion, I could get two individual seats, but totally separated from my support worker which was dangerous and threw in my face how the AFL don’t actually care about those who really just need that bit of extra help to get a “fair go”. In frustration I emailed Ticketek, The Crows and even The AFL. I put forward a number of recommendations including reserving a certain number of seats for those with special needs or give us first crack at the seats before the floodgates opened. Although I received a response from Ticketek and The AFL, they didn’t seem interested in making any changes. I’m not finished fighting for change. I’m not doing this because I want a ticket to the game, I’m doing this so every disabled AFL fan anywhere in Australia gets a fair go in the future. I honestly need your help. I have created this petition and I’m asking every AFL fan to sign and share it. The AFL claims to have values that align with community needs, but when it comes to disability nobody really cares. I’d like to change that.please please sign.
Im a very passionate person and two of my passions are footy and disability advocacy. Why footy? I got into footy back in the 90’s and have been a long time member of The Crows. Why disability advocacy? I suffered a stroke nearly 7 years ago. My stroke hit me hard and I had to spend over 5 months in rehabilitation relearning to walk, talk, dress myself, amongst other things. Although my recovery has been honestly quite remarkable, I have been left with permanent deficits that I will carry for the rest of my life.
It took me a couple of years to be able to go back to watching the footy at Adelaide Oval, because I do have mobility challenges and I have blindness on my left so require a support worker to guide me through heavy crowds. But I go when I can. Unfortunately when it comes to Finals footy, those like me who have limitations due to disability are left on the bench. On Thursday for example the AFL launched their finals ticketing access. Here in Adelaide, this was opened to both Crows and Collingwood together in a massive pool. Interestingly every public seat was available to every fully enabled fan, regardless of the fact most can sit anywhere. No priority was given to those who needed easy access or a support worker, so when those like me were finally able to get on, all the appropriate disability friendly seats were already exhausted. In true AFL fashion, I could get two individual seats, but totally separated from my support worker which was dangerous and threw in my face how the AFL don’t actually care about those who really just need that bit of extra help to get a “fair go”. In frustration I emailed Ticketek, The Crows and even The AFL. I put forward a number of recommendations including reserving a certain number of seats for those with special needs or give us first crack at the seats before the floodgates opened. Although I received a response from Ticketek and The AFL, they didn’t seem interested in making any changes. I’m not finished fighting for change. I’m not doing this because I want a ticket to the game, I’m doing this so every disabled AFL fan anywhere in Australia gets a fair go in the future. I honestly need your help. I have created this petition and I’m asking every AFL fan to sign and share it. The AFL claims to have values that align with community needs, but when it comes to disability nobody really cares. I’d like to change that.please please sign.
