What is the DSR CEO Wheelchair Challenge?
As a CEO or Community Leader participating in the Disability Sport & Recreation (DSR) CEO Wheelchair Challenge, you are raising awareness and actively advocating for accessibility, inclusion, and the rights of people with disabilities.
This initiative is a highly visible and inclusive activation for CEO’s and Community Leaders, aligned to the DSR strategic pillars of Engagement and Impact supporting Sustainability to achieve the vision of choice and access for sport and recreation through the quality of interaction in the disability sector and broader community.
The Challenge is to spend a day using a wheelchair in the office or principal place of daily activity, to gain a better understanding of the day-to-day challenges of people living with disability may face.
Throughout the day, participants can experience first-hand how simple things may be incredibly difficult for someone with a disability, such as navigating into the office, getting to your desk or accessing facilities like bathrooms.
The Challenge can make a powerful, long-lasting impact. Participants can use what they have learned to create a more inclusive workplace culture for current and potential employees with disability; along with improving services for customers, their families, friends, and the wider community.
How does the DSR CEO Wheelchair Challenge work?
The DSR CEO Wheelchair Challenge Day begins on the morning of Thursday 24th October with a breakfast celebration at the MCG with a Meet and Greet to collect your wheelchair, receive training and safety instructions, and hear directly from people with disablility.
After that, you can take your wheelchair back to the office or principal place of daily activity for the day, where you will go about your usual activities.
Have you properly considered your environment?
- Can you access your office in a wheelchair? Are there ramps, or lifts?
- Are doors easy to open from a chair or are they too heavy?
- Can you fit through using your chair?
- Can you access all areas of the office, including bathrooms, lunchroom, meeting rooms, and print room?
- Can you safely reach things like the coffee machine and microwave?
- Is your desk set up as accessible as it could be?
You will be able to answer all these questions and more after participating in the DSR CEO Wheelchair Challenge!
We encourage you to participate in the DSR CEO Wheelchair Challenge if:
- You want to join fellow industry and community leaders in raising awareness about what it means to have a disability.
- You want to understand and learn about the daily challenges people with disability are facing.
- You want your team to thrive with an inclusive working environment where your employees, customers and community feel safe, valued, and respected.
- You want to help raise essential funds so people living with disability can continue to participate in sports, recreation, and rehabilitation therapy through Disability Sport and Recreation.
How to participate?
Register your interest and we will send you everything you need to know.
1
Push towards your fundraising goal to participate in the Challenge Day. Use our handy resources to help you on your way.
2
Come along to the DSR CEO Wheelchair Challenge Breakfast event at the MCG on Thursday 24th October to collect your wheelchair, network, receive training tips and safety instructions and meet with other leaders taking on the Challenge – or collect your chair from one of our designated collection points.
3
Return to your office and start the Challenge.
4
Share your feedback with your team, colleagues and community throughout the day (and don't forget to share on your socials!).
5
At the end of the day, bring back your wheelchair to your collection point as directed by DSR.
6
Consider ways you can implement what you've learned – whether it's physical accessibility changes to more disability awareness training for your team.
You can contact us for the next steps too.
Who is Disability Sport and Recreation?
Disability Sport and Recreation (DSR)’s vision is to create Victoria where all people with disability can choose and access any sport or active recreation activity they want to engage with. Our Mission is to provide and promote positive outcomes for people with a disability. For 60 years we have worked directly with many stakeholders including community organisations, state sporting associations, local government, state government and partners to achieve our mission.
Each year DSR celebrates excellence in the sector by hosting the Victorian Disability Sport and Recreation Awards and enhances knowledge about opportunities available to participate with the Victorian Disability Sport and Recreation Festival and other activation events. Our education programs include WheelTalk, a disability awareness program reaching over 10,000 school children per year in addition to offering training opportunities for the broader sport and recreation sector to learn about how to work effectively and communicate with people with disability to get involved in your sport.
To assist with getting the most out of the NDIS to support participation, our NDIS Sports Guide is available to help while our guide to employing people with disability can assist organisations considering employing a person with disability. Our DSR Kids program includes recreation camps in summer and winter and programs in collaboration with the Royal Children’s and Monash Children’s hospitals. We run the sport of wheelchair rugby in Victoria and partner with AFL Victoria for the delivery of Wheelchair AFL while supporting and collaborating with many other organisations.
Within the community, DSR has extensive reach via our various communication channels to our members and supporters including an active Disability Advisory Committee. We’ve also worked in partnership with local government and activity providers for the implementation of a ‘disability sport and recreation hub’ in various locations.
DSR also supports storytelling to educate the community regarding the participation of people with disability in sport and recreation and have created a series of videos showcasing successful outcomes titled ‘Show Us You Can Play!‘ in partnership with Victoria Together.
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