Racing around Shepparton in the hope of understanding what it is like to live with a disability

Finding your way around Shepparton and attending to your daily needs is generally pretty simple, unless confronted with complications of having a disability.

Come Wednesday, November 24, about 25 Shepparton people will experience those complications when they adopt a disability in the city’s first “Realistic Race”.

Shepparton MP, Ms Jeanette Powell (right), will be among those who will race around the city searching for clues to enable them to follow the race to its next stage, using a pattern similar to that of television’s The Amazing Race.

“Race” may well be in the title, but with their adopted disabilities, the local personalities will be a little lost as they struggle rather than race around the familiar streets of Shepparton with both physical and intellectual disabilities.

Some will be confined to wheel chairs, verbal skills will be absent for a few, others will have few cognitive understandings, hearing might be a challenge for some and all will have to wrestle with the perception of those they engage with during the Realistic Race.
Shepparton Access Chief Executive Officer, Wendy Shanks, said her organization had organized the race with the support of City of Greater Shepparton with the hope of breaking down barriers between Goulburn Valley people with a disability and the wider population.
The November 24 race will start at one o’clock and end three hours later after the five teams of five have explored, and learned something about, Shepparton experiencing it as a person with a disability.
But it was more than that as they also learned something about the alienation a disabled person encounters go about their daily business.
Having been on the periphery of a disability, I understand the alienation, the loneliness and one’s inability to participate in the normal machinations of your community and the sense that you don’t really belong.
The sense of belonging is among the most important of human needs and while the November race might make us aware of many dilemmas facing Shepparton’s disabled, importantly it might also enhance their sense of belonging.
Disabled people need many things, but importantly what they need is your understanding, friendship and a sense that they belong.