Getting Involved
Yaama,
My name is Dr Sheelagh Daniels-Mayes, I am a Gomeroi woman who lives with the disability of low vision and works with a guide dog. I’m employed by the University of Melbourne in the Indigenous Studies Program. I’m leading this research project on First Nations staff or students at university who live with disability and/or disabling chronic illness (see below for criteria). We’ve received ethics approval and are now recruiting participants.
Why the research?
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who have a disability are often poorly treated. We also know that there are Aboriginal people with disability doing Deadly things that aren’t recognised. So far, ways of fixing this in the workplace or universities have not been studied. This is why we reached out to the Government, and in 2024 were successful in securing a grant for 5 years to study this with a team of people I trust. The grant is called an ARC grant.
Eligibility
We want to yarn with First Nations people who can say ‘yes’ to the below in some way or another:
- Are you Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander?
- Are you studying or employed at an Australian university?
- Do you with live disability or chronic illness that is disabling?
- Are you labelled ‘disabled’ but don’t necessarily identify this way?
We want to learn what is working for you and what is causing problems.
‘Disability’ or ‘Disabling Chronic Illness’?
We’re leaving this as open to interpretation as possible. Each person’s experience of disability is unique and multi-dimensional. Also, First Nations understandings of these terms can be different to the standard definitions and criteria.
We are guided here by the National Disability Services https://nds.org.au/disability-types-and-description who use an impairment of functioning approach. Functioning refers to a person’s physical, psychological and social capacity to cope with the day-to-day activities they find meaningful and necessary including work and study.
The categories and how they manifest are too vast to go into detail here but are expanded upon in the above link. In short, they include: Physical Disability; Neurodevelopmental Disorders; Communication disorders; Motor Disorders; Acquired Brain Disorder; Neurological Disability; Sensory Disabilities such as vision or hearing impairment, deafblind; Speech Language Impairment; Psychosocial Disability (including mental health); and more. Check out the definitions and examples at the above link.
Disabling Chronic Illness? This can be even more complicated. A chronic illness is a long-lasting health concern that may be present for an individual’s lifetime, such as asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, or fibromyalgia. It may be episodic such as Endometriosis or migraine. You may have gastrointestinal illness or arthritis. The list is vast. What we are asking is, does your chronic illness or illnesses (you may have more than one) impact your work or study? Our research uses an impairment of functioning approach. Functioning refers to a person’s physical, psychological and social capacity to cope with the day-to-day activities they find meaningful and necessary including work and study.
Like the Chief Investigator of this project, me, you may fit both categories and you may fit them more than once. If you are uncertain still about your eligibility, then reach out and ask us. All enquiries are confidential. Or, if you are uncertain, sign up for a first interview and decide from there whether this is for you.
What’s involved?
The idea is that we would meet with you, (in person, or on the mobile, or zoom) six times over three years, and we have some money for participating. Each meeting will take about 1 hour, (but if you have more to say and want more time, then we can take as long as you want). It will just be an informal yarning time, where you tell us your story, what is working, what is not working, what you think needs to happen to make things better etc. You won’t be forced to tell us any personal information that you don’t want to tell. At the end of each interview we’ll give you a feedback form to fill out so you can tell us what we’re doing well and what we might be missing; in this way, you get to co-design the research as we go.
My team will then pull together the learnings from the yarning sessions and feedback form to develop new practices for Australian universities that are aimed at making a difference.
First interviews will start in October 2024, or thereabouts depending on availability.
Ethics
We will of course comply with all ethics requirements including consent forms, voluntary participation, right to withdraw at any time with no consequences, anonymity and confidentiality.
How to contact us
If you are interested in working with us to make a change, contact my colleague sharon.kerr@unimelb.edu.au
If you prefer to have a chat with me, just let Sharon know and she will put you directly in touch.
Yaluu,
Sheelagh
Quick Links
Follow the links below to find out information about the team, publications, resources and how to get involved.