Introduction In this paper Mark Bagshaw shares his thoughts about the fundamental reasons why so many people with disability are not participating in our community to the level they are capable of and to which they aspire. Combining his extensive strategic business management experience with his decades long involvement in the disability reform process and his personal experience living with spinal cord injury from age 16, Mark begins by disability and identifying three key obstacles he believes are “deconstructing” preventing many people from participating. He then replaces his “disability hat” with his hat” to propose an integrated, strategic approach to “business remove those obstacles. The Problem A common question I am asked is: "Why are so many people with disability staying at home on disability support pensions when they can and want to work?” I have concluded that three fundamental and interrelated factors are pulling people with disability down in an almost endless downward spiral: They face massive infrastructure barriers that make every day hard work; Our community doesn't believe people with disability can participate fully in society and therefore has significantly lower expectations of them than the average person; Many people with disability feel overwhelmed and disempowered because they have never built the life skills to give them the knowledge, strength and confidence they need to deal with all of this.
Introduction In this paper Mark Bagshaw shares his thoughts about the fundamental reasons why so many people with disability are not participating in our community to the level they are capable of and to which they aspire. Combining his extensive strategic business management experience with his decades long involvement in the disability reform process and his personal experience living with spinal cord injury from age 16, Mark begins by “deconstructing” disability and identifying three key obstacles he believes are preventing many people from participating. He then replaces his “disability hat” with his “business hat” to propose an integrated, strategic approach to remove those obstacles. The Problem A common question I am asked is: "Why are so many people with disability staying at home on disability support pensions when they can and want to work?” I have concluded that three fundamental and interrelated factors are pulling people with disability down in an almost endless downward spiral: They face massive infrastructure barriers that make every day hard work; Our community doesn't believe people with disability can participate fully in society and therefore has significantly lower expectations of them than the average person; Many people with disability feel overwhelmed and disempowered because they have never built the life skills to give them the knowledge, strength and confidence they need to deal with all of this.
a_whole_of_life_approach_to_disability_reform.docx