In which I talk about the production that is Going Out

The image showcases a close-up view of a sandy ground covered in fallen gold and brown leaves. The shallow depth of field focuses on the foreground, creating a warm and textured scene. The lighting is soft, highlighting the leaves' natural hues.

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Wasn’t sure whether to put this in the Tech and Disability feed or just the general feed, eh I'll put it in both (footpaths count as technology don't they?).I was reading this blog post by the inestimable El Gibbs about the Cost of Exclusion [<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.bluntshovels.au/the-cost-of-exclusion/">https://www.bluntshovels.au/the-cost-of-exclusion/</a>] and it helped to concentrate a cloud of thoughts I’ve had circling in my head for a while now.I rarely blog about what it’s like to be an incomplete paraplegic for a couple of reasons, it’s still pretty raw, even six years afterwards. Secondly I’ve still got a lot of “don’t complain, other people have it worse than you” going around my head.Anyway.It’s true what they say you know, you never really miss something until it’s gone. Things like the ability to just stand up and walk to the fridge, being able to kneel down to get a great photo, that sort thing. Lately however, for me, it’s the ability to just nip down the street to do something spontaneous just because.Now don’t get me wrong, I am extraordinarily lucky. I have access to the NDIS for support services, I have a power chair* (I’ll be blogging about this later) that allows me to tootle around the neighbourhood on my own and get out of my own head a bit. I’m also lucky in that my neighbourhood is a recently built estate with decent curb cuts and footpaths.The problems start when I need to travel further a field. Which I have to do if I want to do anything more interesting than taking photos of the same places I’ve taken photos hundreds of times before.Look I’m just speaking for me, but part of why I don’t go out more and have become something of a hermit is because it’s a whole Production. You need to plan things, what equipment you’re bringing, how long you’re going to be out, whether you think you’re going to need a toilet while you’re out, all that sort of thing.<ul><li>A simple trip to the doctors (ten minutes down the road by car) means doing the following:</li><li>My wife takes my wheelchair to the van to hoick it into the back after disassembling it</li><li>I use my walker to shuffle down the ramp in the garage out to the van (I’m trying to do as much walking as possible)</li><li>Sit in the van while my wife has to return the walker to the garage</li><li>My wife drives me to the doctors surgery. Thankfully they have a disabled spot open so we park</li><li>Wife gets the wheelchair out of the back of the van and re-assembles it</li><li>She brings it to my door, I transfer from the van to the chair</li><li>I wheel up ramp to the doctors surgery</li><li>I wheel into the doctors surgery, wait, see the doctor and then leave</li><li>I wheel down the ramp to the van</li><li>I transfer into the van and my wife takes the wheelchair apart and puts it into the back of the van</li><li>We drive home, I use the walker to walk up the ramp into the house and into my lifter chair</li><li>My wife re-assembles the wheelchair and brings it into the house</li></ul>And that’s just a trip ten minutes down the road to a single relatively accessible location.It gets even better* if you’re trying to pedestrian it about town. Then you’ve got to deal with footpaths.Footpaths done right are amazing things, flat and wide is good, shallow curb cuts allow for smooth transitioning from the footpath to the road and back.Footpaths done wrong are a nightmare than can injure you or break your chair if you’re not careful.Here’s an example.Every footpath has a camber, that is a slope to allow for water drainage. When you’re walking along, there’s a fair chance that you won’t really notice anything unless the camber becomes quite severe. However when you’re in a wheelchair, it’s a whole different ball game. Physics doesn’t like you. Because physics says that the wheelchair, without intervention by you, the person IN the chair (or the person pushing you), is going to want follow that slope (thanks gravity). So now you, (or the person pushing you) have to constantly correct and fight your chair to make sure that you’re going forward and not getting pitched onto the road.Oh and when you’re doing that fighting and adjusting, you’re most likely doing it with ONLY one arm/shoulder because you are having to apply the force on one side of the chair or you spin and go into a heap.Hello bursitis, torn shoulder muscles and having reduced capacity to do the things you CAN do by yourself until you heal up. And that’s if you DON’T end up on the road playing Australias Next Top Speed Bump.That’s not even talking about broken footpaths, people parking on footpaths, curb cuts that tip your chair or in the event that you try and take public transport, a bus that deposits you into grass because someone “forgot” that bus stops need to be accessible (read concrete AND connected to the footpath).I’ve experienced all of the above and more.When you’re faced with all that, then it honestly becomes easier to stay at home because the world outside seems to be designed to make it as hard as possible for you to participate. I have to push myself to get out of the house at all sometimes, and a large part of that is the mental weight of knowing that any trip is going to be a Production, one thats part scripted and part improv.

On Exclusion and Going Out

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Women In STEMM

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Dr Alice Gorman is a woman on a mission to change the way we look at the past and the future of human space endeavour.Starting from her family farm in NSW Australia, Dr Goreman persued her passion for archeology into University and then into the field as a consultant. From there she's turned her eyes from the digs on earth, to the history in the stars.In this episode we look at her journey towards becoming one of the worlds first Space Archeologists.Episode Notes:You can find Dr Gormans book - Dr Space Junk vs The Universe&nbsp;here:<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210411161818/https://www.penguin.com.au/books/dr-space-junk-vs-the-universe-archaeology-and-the-future-9780262539654">https://www.penguin.com.au/books/dr-space-junk-vs-the-universe-archaeology-and-the-future-9780262539654</a>The UN Program mentioned in the episode is here:<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210411161818/https://space4women.unoosa.org/">https://space4women.unoosa.org/</a>

Dr Alice Gorman

For the first episode of Women In STEMM, I thought I'd start off with someone you might be familiar with if you've listened to For Science! at all.Dr Melanie Thomsons is a gastro microbiologist, a pioneer in crowd funding research, a science provocatuer and now, the General Manager of Education, Skills and Events at MTP Connect.You can find her Women In STEMM profile here:<a href="https://womeninscienceaust.org/stem-profiles/melanie-thomson/">https://womeninscienceaust.org/stem-profiles/melanie-thomson/</a>Enjoy

Dr Melanie Thomson

Dr Katie Mack is an astrophysicist with a deep interest in the early universe and dark matter.We chat about how she got involved in her field, some of the challenges she's faced and her current projects.Also, exactly what is an Academic Nomad?Links:Pint in the sky:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL83nv8UNFC0ovxN2KyKVBtgANAS7QSVYf">https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL83nv8UNFC0ovxN2KyKVBtgANAS7QSVYf</a>Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory:&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stawell_Underground_Physics_Laboratory">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stawell_Underground_Physics_Laboratory</a>

Dr Katie Mack

Dr Eva Cheng is a Lecturer at RMIT where she also delves into the world of multimedia frequencies. She's also a supporter of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ewb.org.au/">Engineers Without Borders</a>&nbsp;and a study of humans and how they interact with science

Dr Eva Cheng

Dr Heather Bray holds a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture from the University of Sydney however her career path has taken her away from direct agricultural research into the humanities.She still has a deep interest in the science of agriculture, but she's approaching it from a different place, looking at how society and the sciences view each other.In our chat we talk about the pressures of being a scientist and a mother, the differing approached overseas, and the importance of keeping the humanity in science.

Dr Heather Bray

Dr Nguyen is the Lab Manager fo the Monash Centre for Atomically Thin Materials. Her science journey coincided with her journey into another country and a very different culture to what she was used to.

Dr Tich Lam Nguyen

Dr Evans is the CEO of BioMelbourne, has worked on helping to cure Malaria and appears quite often on&nbsp;<a href="http://www.rrr.org.au/program/einstein-a-go-go/">Einstein A Go Go</a>&nbsp;on 3RRR. In this episode we find out what attracted her to her field and some of the more interesting parts of her career to date.

Dr Krystal Evans

Dr McArthur is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering and the director of the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.swinburne.edu.au/innovation-precinct/">Swinburn Innovation Precinct</a>, an incubator setup by Swinburn university to bring together Researchers, Industry, Mentors and others.Sally is a good example of someone who while having a passion for science, didn't really discover her focus until she hit university.Notes:Castaway Awards:&nbsp;<a href="http://castawayawards.com.au/">http://castawayawards.com.au/&nbsp;</a>Women In STEMM Public Vote:&nbsp; <a href="http://%20https//thecastawayawards.submittable.com/gallery/fb53f574-b3c9-43c8-8585-83bb919489f4/6962031/">https://thecastawayawards.submittable.com/gallery/fb53f574-b3c9-43c8-8585-83bb919489f4/6962031/</a>

Dr Sally McArthur

Dr Fox has not always been a midwife, in fact for a long time, she was part of a very different scene, performing with the Melbourne Orchestra as a Concert Violinist.However when she felt the need for a new challenge, she turned to her passion for mid wifery. Her work in the field has taken her from Melbourne to Singapore, where she was involved in ground breaking work to establish SIngapores first "Caseload Model of Mid WIfery Care."

Dr Deborah Fox

For many involved in STEMM fields, heading overseas to gain experience from centres of excellence, to work, or to just find something different has become part of their STEMM journeys. For this episode I thought I would catch up with someone who's currently taking that step and seems to be doing pretty well at it.Dr Natalie Matosin is Post Doctoral Fellow at the Max Planc institute of Psychiatry in Munich, and a Forbes Top 30 under 30 entrant. No pressure.

Dr Natalie Matosin

Dr Plaganyi has two burning interests, maths and the natural world. &nbsp;So she combined them both into a career that has taken her from South Africa to Australia, from the Antarctic to the Torres Straits.It's also allowed her to get close to some of the magnificent animals in the world.

Dr Eva Plaganyi

And Women In STEMM is back.Dr Manreena Kaur is a researcher in the field of Brain Stimulation. Having cut her teeth as it were in youth mental illness, she has a passion for developing new treatments to deal with serious conditions, such as depression, anxiety and schizophrenia.

Dr Manreena Kaur

Dr Carmel O'Brien works with stem cells and bio-materials for Monash and the CSIRO. However her journey to this point has taken her from the path lab, to working with the first Australian line of embryonic stem cells.

Dr Carmel O'Brien

Looking across a field at Mount kemble

Monochrome image of Mount Kemble across a field

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Mount Kembla in monochrome

Testing out the new Gallery functionality. Still very basic

My First Gallery

A place for my monochrome efforts. Nothing really organised, perhaps a pattern will build itself

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