HUGE congratulations to CYDA Youth Council member Isabella Choate who was recently named WA Young Person of the Year at the 2023 WA Youth Awards! Izzie is a lived experience advocate passionate about youth, disability, mental health and LGBTIQA+ issue ONYA IZZIE! 🎉 🎉 🎉

Great to be at this event today with the WA Premier Roger Cook, David Templeman and students from Bob Hawke College and Perth Modern School playing cricket in the backyard of the West Leederville house Bob Hawke grew up in, which was today handed to the National Trust of WA.

I finally met the very excellent Maria Scharnke in person in Brisbane today and it was as wonderful as I'd hoped it would be!

Yesterday was a memorable day. I attended #WAEA23 to cheer on my children's AMAZING public high school as finalist for an #InclusiveEducation award & hear Tony Buti apologise for students with disability let down by the education system & announce a legislation review 1/

Inclusion at our school means inclusion for ALL - my very "academic" daughters have their learning & social needs met & thrive (pic: winners of State mock trial comp), my son with intellectual disability has his learning & social needs met & thrives (pic: inclusion finalists) 4/

Our school opened in 2020 but already it's demonstrating real inclusion is not just possible, it's happening in real time - it can be achieved with clarity, commitment and implementation with fidelity. We didn't win the award but our students & families were already winners ❤️5/

Thank you Inclusive Education Wales ableism doesn’t belong in children’s media and literature (or any media and literature for that matter) Disney ACARA

Nine years ago today I was United Nations Geneva with my 7 yo, Laura, for the Day of General Discussion Article 24 #CRPD to develop General Comment No4 to give clarity to States about the path to inclusive education. Not enough has changed for Australian students with disability & families.

Secretary General António Guterres, it will be important to the disability community for there to be formal acknowledgement and recognition by the United Nations of Sir Robert Martin's passing and his important legacy. Thank you.

Wonderful to speak at 3rd International Conference for Equitable Education - All For Education, Bangkok, on inclusive education for people with disability, alongside Herve Morin from UNICEF and Patima Chongcharoentanawa. Thanks for inviting me UNESCO 🏛️ #Education #Sciences #Culture 🇺🇳 & Equitable Education Fund

“The heavy cloak of “advocate” is currently conferred on every parent of child with disability, and for many it weighs more than they can bear.” Written in 2015, but every point is pertinent for 2025 startingwithjulius.org.au/the-secret-tea…

“Most parents do not have direct experience of living with disability, yet find themselves making life-influencing decisions for their child with disability, affected by the limits of their own understanding of disability.” startingwithjulius.org.au/3-myths-of-spe…

“The ‘special [education]’ path, lined by a well-meaning culture of low expectations …, is too often a sugar-coated path to social and economic marginalisation and exclusion – and serves to further entrench outdated societal attitudes to disability.” startingwithjulius.org.au/parental-choic…

“The research demonstrates that an inclusive class culture is conducive to maximising academic, independence and social outcomes for students with and without disability.” startingwithjulius.org.au/creating-an-in…

“Academic and social benefits of inclusive education are interconnected – all students, including students with disability, are likely to achieve more academically if they are socially part of their classroom.” startingwithjulius.org.au/practical-tips…

“the academic, social and independence benefits of inclusive education for a student with disability are likely to be maximised by an educational assistant doing, increasingly over time, as little as is necessary, as unobtrusively as possible.” startingwithjulius.org.au/less-is-more-t…

“To be really “included” in a class each participant must be doing the SAME core tasks as the other participants.  …peer connection from that common and shared classroom experience is more likely to continue outside the class and into the community.” startingwithjulius.org.au/getting-the-bi…

“Ableism, or implicit prejudice against people with disability, and paternalism operate to side-line disabled people from decision-making affecting them.” Coordown’s WDSD25 campaign promotes the disability rights principle, ‘Nothing about us without us’. startingwithjulius.org.au/no-decision-wi…

On World Down Syndrome Day See also startingwithjulius.org.au/no-decision-wi… youtube.com/watch?v=xRIQ80…

**NEW POST** The increasingly open devaluation of people with disability and neurodivergence ... poses serious risks to the rights of people with disability worldwide." startingwithjulius.org.au/when-is-the-le…