Date:  Wednesday 27 April 2022

Time:  7:30am-10:30am (7am Registrations Open)

Location:  Ithaca Auditorium, Brisbane City Hall, 64 Adelaide St, Brisbane (Entry from King George Square)

Format:  Breakfast, speakers, Q&A, Networking

Join the FMA QLD Committee for this special educational breakfast event featuring our keynote speaker, Kurt Fearnley, OA, three-time Paralympic gold medallist and member of the Brisbane 2032 Olympics Organising Committee. Join us at Brisbane City Hall on Wednesday 27 April 2022 to hear from Kurt, plus local Disability Advocacy Lawyer Michelle King and her disabled daughter Daelle Bunker, as they share their lived experience of accessing facilities. What are we doing right in our facilities and where do we need to improve to create true accessibility?

Take this opportunity to look beyond the process of simply ticking off DDA compliance and learn from first hand experience how your decisions impact the daily lives of those who need accessible workplaces, venues and public spaces. With our State about to be thrust onto the world stage with the Paralympics and Olympics coming to Brisbane in 2032, we need to ensure we are prepared. Come learn from the stories of those who's public lives are impacted by your decisions when considering DDA compliance in your facilities. It's time to move beyond meeting baseline compliance and actually create accessible facilities to ensure that everyone has equitable access to go about living their lives. 

Speakers: 

Kurt Fearnley

Kurt is a world-beater in and out of his racing wheelchair. 

The three-time Paralympic Gold Medallist has won marathons all around the world, including the prestigious New York, London and Chicago marathons multiple times. In 2016, Kurt was also Australian team captain at the Rio Paralympic Games. His exploits are not confined to wheelchair racing, having crawled the Kokoda track and crewed on a boat winning the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race.   

Kurt is currently on the Brisbane 2032 Olympics Organising Committee and a Board Member of the Australian Sports Committee. Formerly he was a Board Member of the Australian Paralympic Committee, Member of the International Paralympic Committee Athlete Council, he was a founding member of the National Disability Insurance Scheme Advisory Council and was an official Ambassador of the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.  

Michelle King

Michelle is a sociologist and lawyer completing a PhD in Law at the Australian Centre for Health Law Research at the Queensland University of Technology. Her work is about the operation of law and regulation in practice for people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities during their transition to adulthood, which includes in the NDIS, Centrelink, banking, healthcare, and guardianship/administration systems. She is a researcher, educator and advocate in disability law, policy, and practice. 

Michelle has lived experience in complex disability and health care as a parent and supporter of her 23-year-old daughter, Daelle, who has profound intellectual and multiple disabilities. Michelle also serves as a consumer advocate on several Queensland and National projects and committees, including on the Consumer Advisory Group of Health Consumers Queensland, as a consumer member of the Adolescent and Young Adult Care Subnetwork of the Queensland Health Child and Youth Clinical Network, and as a consumer advisor for the national research groups, Child UnLTD and CP Achieve. Follow Michelle @shellbot73 on Twitter. 

Daelle Bunker

Daelle is a young Brisbane woman living with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities. Daelle has Pachygyria caused by damage to one of her genes, which affected the development of her brain in utero. Daelle also has cerebral palsy and epilepsy, which means she needs support with all the things she loves to do in life. Daelle loves art and working with other people. She has presented with Michelle at national academic conferences and to community groups. This is important because people living with profound intellectual disabilities easily become invisible in our society, even in disability advocacy spaces. Daelle may not speak to us directly, but her experience and visibility is vital and important. Find her art business and market times at @snaellegarden on Instagram or follow her @daellebot on TikTok! 

Attendees at FMA Events are required to be fully vaccinated or have an approved medical exemption.  By purchasing a ticket for this event you are confirming that you understand you may be asked to show evidence of vaccination status and will not receive a refund if refused entry due to non-compliance.