It looks like Australia is nearing lockdown, as the consequences of the COVID-19 virus unfold. Many things have been written about it. We currently receive around 10 emails per day from various companies about how seriously they are taking it and what precautions to take, and more. It’s tedious to be offered the same reading material, over and over again. So here’s something different.

All of our participants are affected by supermarket shortages, caused by individuals choosing to stockpile essential items. In an effort to even the score, both Coles and Woolworths supermarkets have started offering a “community hour”. The concept is that people who are elderly or living with a disability can go into store an hour before everyone else. Senior citizens can easily prove their age. But how do you prove a disability?

Here’s an extract from the Coles website:

present a government-issued identification card including:

illustration of a virus

• Pensioner Concession Card

• Companion Card

• Commonwealth Seniors Health Card

• Health Care Card

• Seniors Card

• Disability Card

All of these things involve receiving some kind of state social security payment. But what if you are not in receipt of such a payment? What if you have a job? Does that mean you are not "disabled"? Is it society's collective expectation that people with disability must receive benefits, or else they are not disabled?

A few people we support have been turned away, because they do not appear disabled and they do not claim benefit. Shouldn’t we celebrate, rather than punish this?

We suspect that punishment is not the intention, but this time of crisis exposes the rules, the prejudices, the expectations that we all have and here's one in the spotlight.

It's time to pen another letter to someone to right the wrong. People with disabilities do not have to live on benefits and they are entitled to have a disability without having to "look disabled".

I’d like to set you a challenge. Think of something you feel passionately about and do something about it.

I know you may not be a government minister or a billionaire with money to give away. Even if you are neither of those things, the challenge stands.

We work in a space where decisions are made every day. Those decisions affect us directly, impact someone we love, change the nature of our work, and so on. And those decisions need to be as good as they possibly can be.

One of the things that trouble us the most is that decisions are sometimes made well, but communicated poorly. In which case people stop and complain to each other, but nobody actually investigates to find out what’s happening beneath the surface. People waste time and energy complaining about something that doesn’t need complaining about. Alas, we waste so much time on that thing that we don’t move on and deal with the real stuff.

Disability is an emotive subject. The NDIS is a brave and exciting opportunity to do something great, that few countries have done before. There aren’t many MPs or policy makers with a disability, so it’s our job as a community to make it as good as it can be. Get involved with what’s going on.

You see, the nature of what we do is challenging. You have to believe in it, understand it, live it, love it. And that is the drive that will make you go forward and do something.

So, do you need to be a minister? No.

Do you need to be a billionaire? No.

Just be you. Believe in something. Find a way to contribute to the discussion and make it better. That’s our story, we hope it can be yours too.

Don’t you ever wonder if there’s a better way? Why you get treated in some manner that completely misses the point? A provider who makes a promise, only to end up being just like everything else you ever tried?

We need to make progress, don’t we? But there are answers. Let’s talk about this.

I’m at the World Education Summit in Chiang Mai, Thailand. (Thank you airline points and flybuys for paying for the ticket.) This trip has been about investigating other ways of making progress in our lives. We’ll talk about those findings soon.

The trouble with the disability support industry is that it looks inwards for solutions, not outwards. Why don’t we think a bit more creatively and speak to the people who gave up on the system to have found their own better way? Why do big companies do things like design thinking to solve problems, but we do not? Why does everyone dance around the edges and avoid talking about the actual problem?

So enough questions. Let’s focus on moving forward and achieving some outcomes we can be proud of. There are decent people out there and good solutions. It’s about finding them with someone who gets it.

And so, we’re launching a series of videos. On all the things that we face as people with disabilities or carers. Don’t worry, the podcasts will continue too.

Let’s talk about those issues. No need to feel alone any more. We can do something about it.

About 12 months ago. I went to see my MP, David Elliott.

“No constituent ever talks to me about policy”.

Well, let’s get the discussion going. There’s a lot to talk about.

Maybe I need a bit of video practice… but let’s not let perfection get in the way of what we need to achieve. This is real life.