Kelly Vincent – 5RPH Interview on United Nations World Toilet Day and Disability Pride Parade
25/11/2015
On 25th November 2015, Dignity for Disability MLC Kelly Vincent was interviewed on radio station 5RPH to discuss the United Nations Toilet Day on 19th November and in particular, the need for South Australia to fund Changing Places, a specialised toilet facility for those with additional sanitation needs. Kelly Vincent also discussed the upcoming Disability Pride Parade on December 4th, to mark the International Day of People with Disabilities. Here is the audio and transcript from the interview.
Pam Green: And it’s time now to welcome to question time, Dignity for Disability MLC Kelly Vincent. Hi Kelly.
Kelly Vincent: Hello Pam.
Pam Green: Well Kelly, last week November the 19th was declared by the United Nations as World Toilet Day. Now, yes of course people need access to toilets every day of the year, but the idea of this day is to raise awareness of the issue I take. So can you tell us about some of the ideas behind World Toilet Day?
Kelly Vincent: The United Nations established World Toilet Day, Pam as you said, to highlight that everyone needs access to a toilet and to highlight that for many people around the world, they don’t have that on a regular basis, and that improved sanitation is essential to ensuring the dignity, safety and equality of all people around the world. In fact, the UN points out that as many as 2.4 billion people around the world, do not currently in 2015 have adequate access to sanitation including toilets. One billion people still urinate and defecate in the open all around the world. And this of course can lead to an increased risk of diseases, malnutrition and increased risk of rape and abuse particularly for young women and girls because they don’t have access to a private and secure toilet.
Pam Green: Well I guess most South Australian’s do have access to clean, safe toilets. But do we need to be looking at this issue at a local level or do we have all the toilets that we need?
Kelly Vincent: Absolutely, there are many issues that we do need to look at here in South Australia and nation-wide when it comes to providing adequate toileting services, of course especially public toilets accessibility for people with disabilities. Changing Places is a great campaign looking to increase the number of fully accessible public toilets around the nation and around the world. Changing Places are public toilets with regular features such as hand rails and increased space for example, but they also have a few other features including full-sized or adult-sized change tables so if a person needs to change or be assisted to change on a change table but they’re no longer a baby or a child, they can have access to that. At the moment we hear from many constituents who either are changing themselves or are helping a child or a friend to change who is maybe a teenager or a young adult or an adult, and often they have no choice but to change on the floor of a public toilet because these facilities aren’t in place and that has some obvious concerns to do with privacy and decency but also cleanliness. Changing Places also include a hoist so that people who need a hoist to get on and off the toilet, particularly those with disabilities but perhaps also those who are elderly and less mobile as a result can do that with privacy, independence and dignity. So this is basically looking at how we can put in place facilities to meet the need of all people in Australia particularly as the population ages. As I said the only alternative at the moment is to change on the floor of a public toilet which can be very unhygienic or to even avoid going out at all, or going to very limited venues because you know that facilities are available at those specific venues, so limiting your community and social engagements.
Pam Green: These Changing Places sound really good. Are there any of them elsewhere in Australia?
Kelly Vincent: I understand that there are around 14,000 South Australians with a disability who require assistance to use the bathroom. That might be just handrails and those more understood things but probably more often than we know it could be a hoist or an adult sized change table. And yet with those 14,000 South Australians we still don’t have a Changing Places here in South Australia. There are around a dozen in Victoria in public locations and it’s high time that South Australia caught up, as I said we currently have zero in this state. Many of the other states have them in big venues and big cities, they even have one in Darwin, and so it’s high time that we caught up also with the one thousand Changing Places facilities that are now in the UK. Where there’s a will there’s a way. We absolutely need to get this happening in South Australia.
I think it is particularly important if we are to market South Australia as a tourism destination and to attract local and international and interstate visitors to this state and to know that people with these needs can come here and be safely accommodated in an autonomous and dignified manner. And it’s not only about allowing us, as people with disabilities to access South Australia, but the friends and family we would bring with us. And in fact, I read a report just in the last few days that illustrates that when we travel the average person with disability travels in a group of two to eight people. So again, the ripple effects for tourism will be enormous.
Pam Green: Yes, exactly. And finally today, another reminder about Australia’s first Disability Pride Parade on Friday 4th December. How’s that all going?
Kelly Vincent: It’s coming up very quickly. This is to mark the International Day of People with Disabilities. Of course there are some frustrations with whether we still need an international day to talk about these human rights issues in 2015. But at the same time I think it’s important to take every opportunity possible to show our strength and our pride as a community as people with disabilities, but also to talk about the challenges that still remain for us and the long way that we still have to go. So we’ll be holding this Disability Pride Parade to do both those things. We are marching from Victoria Square on the 4th December starting from 10.45am. So we’ll be gathering at the northern end where the Christmas tree is. Then at 11am we’ll start marching down King William Street and at 12pm we’ll have a rally at the steps of Parliament House and we’ll have speakers all of which I understand have a disability. So I myself will be one of them, and we’ll hear from a young man with an intellectual disability talking about the importance of inclusive education, and we’re also going to hear from a woman who has a hearing impairment. So we will have a variety of speakers with a disability talking about the issues that are important to us in our day to day lives and how we can continue to work together as a community to ensure that those issues remain on the forefront to impact change.
Pam Green: That’s great Kelly. If anyone can do it, you can! As always thanks so much for you time today.
Kelly Vincent: Thanks Pam. I look forward to seeing as many people as possible on December the 4th.
Pam Green: Dignity for Disability MLC, Kelly Vincent.
