Trailblazing disability campaigner takes on stereotypes and wins
Joan Hume (DipEd '69, BA '69, MA '84) has spent a lifetime advocating for people with disabilities.
After becoming NSW's first wheelchair-using classroom teacher, Hume held several policy and advocacy roles. She is now President of Spinal Cord Injuries Australia. Image: Supplied.
It was the late sixties and campuses around the world were ripe with dissent.
But young Joan Hume OAM (DipEd 鈥�69, BA 鈥�69, MA 鈥�84) was leaving revolution to others. In her first week as a University of Sydney student, she looked on as Charles Perkins organised the Freedom Rides.
The lifelong disability rights advocate and current President of Spinal Cord Injuries Australia says she was not an activist at university, but she was 鈥渟oaking it up like a sponge鈥�.
Hume was focused on completing her Diploma of Education and getting a high school teaching job. She got her wish, but by 1971 everything had changed for the 23-year-old English and history teacher.
鈥�We had been taking the kids swimming in the morning and I got a lift back with one of my colleagues, rather than going back in the school bus,鈥� she says.
鈥淎 couple of blocks from the school, the driver went through a stop sign and failed to give way to his right, and clipped a car, and the position I was sitting in in the car threw me against a window winder 鈥� a metal one, they weren鈥檛 recessed then, this was the early 1970s 鈥� and I broke my neck.鈥�
After a long stint in hospital, she sought to resume the career she so dearly loved. She met with a Department of Education response deeply mired in the attitudes of its era. After a trip to the Medical Examinations Board, Hume was advised to pursue a job at a correspondence school.
Attitude problem
鈥淚 was sent [to a correspondence school] to have an interview with the principal and he took one look at me and freaked out. He wanted to know how many times I fall out of the chair! He was horrified that they would send me as a possibility for a teaching role to his school. In fact, one of his teachers said 鈥渨ell, she can鈥檛 come here, we鈥檇 have to move desks鈥�.
鈥淲hen I told him the sorts of things I鈥檇 need to be accommodated there, such as a parking space and an accessible toilet, he just threw up his hands, and said 鈥榥o, no, we鈥檙e not making any concessions for you, if you can鈥檛 cope with things the way they are, we really don鈥檛 want you鈥�.鈥�
One of Hume鈥檚 rejected requests was for an overhead projector instead of a blackboard. Hume knew this was not the place for her. When overhead projectors became commonplace classroom teaching tools some years later, she couldn鈥檛 help but smile.
Beverley Hills High School would be a different story. She took up a position there, becoming the first wheelchair-using classroom teacher in NSW. Hume found support, mentoring, and encouragement at Beverley Hills and the shock of the correspondence school encounter was somewhat remedied.
鈥淥ne of the lessons I have learned in life, after being in the chair for many years now, is that the world seems to be divided into those that see you as for the betterment of humanity, and able to make a positive contribution, and those who see you as a burden and embarrassment and would rather do away with you by any means,鈥� says Hume.
Rumblings of a movement
Dormant activism would awaken toward the end of the 1970s.
鈥淚n the intervening period I was adjusting to life and beginning to get extremely annoyed and angry about attempting to do things that I used to take for granted, such as going to the local cinema or out and about.
鈥淚 encountered such negative attitudes because the physical and architectural access was so terrible. There were no facilities. All the things you take for granted today. You go into a shopping centre and you see accessible parking spots, you see modified toilets, you see little signs up with the wheelchair symbol of access.鈥�
These victories were not easily won.
Hume recounts how institutions such as the Royal Ryde Homes imposed punitive rules on those under its care. 鈥榃eemala鈥� bore the name 鈥楬ome for Incurables鈥� up until the mid-1950s. Semantics may have shifted, but the home鈥檚 ethos of the incurable endured. It would eventually earn the public scrutiny it so richly deserved, through A Current Affair coverage and resident John Roarty鈥檚 1981 autobiography Captives of Care, which detailed his life with cerebral palsy at Weemala.
While teaching, she took up an editorship of the Australian Quadriplegic Association鈥檚 magazine in 1977 and met like-minded people, equally disgruntled by the environmental and attitudinal challenges being thrown their way.
Change agents
Hume, Roarty and their contemporaries agitated for change, dragging society toward the realisation of its own cruelty and challenging the right people, at the right time.
An inaccessible Eastern Suburbs railway line was one early battleground. When then-Premier Neville Wran came to open it he was met with disabled protestors, who in turn met with counter-protest. The clash impressed upon Wran and he would later cite the 1979 protest when introducing Australia鈥檚 first accessible taxi service.
Hume continued to take up the cudgel as a founding member of Disabled Peoples International (DPI) in Australia and New Zealand, earning a Medal of the Order of Australia in 1982, and returning two years later to the University of Sydney to complete a Master of Arts in English Literature. Policy roles at the NSW Department of Health and TAFE followed.
Fast-forward to today, where Hume cites healthcare, transport and general attitudes in need of continuing change.
鈥淪ometimes it鈥檚 a case of one or two steps forward and a few steps back again. We鈥檙e always facing challenges with the built environment. We鈥檙e always facing challenges with attitudes.鈥�
Even those with the best of intentions can condescend or patronise people with disabilities.
鈥淭here is still the prevailing attitude by very well-meaning people that if you do something ordinary, people think you鈥檙e inspirational,鈥� says Hume. 鈥淔or example, people used to ask me when I went back teaching, 鈥榟ow do you spend your time?鈥�
鈥淣ot, 鈥榳hat do you do for a living?鈥� When I鈥檇 say 鈥業鈥檓 a teacher鈥� they would say 鈥榳ow, aren鈥檛 you an inspiration鈥� 鈥� and it would drive me absolutely bonkers. I鈥檓 not anyone鈥檚 inspiration, I鈥檓 just here doing the job I鈥檓 trained to do.鈥�
Her job now is President of Spinal Cord Injuries Australia, where she advocates for a new generation. Take Tim McCallum, the Voice contestant who is one of the faces of聽.
鈥淗e鈥檚 a quad and he鈥檚 got a very beautiful voice. He鈥檚 gifted in the arts and we certainly don鈥檛 see enough people with disabilities represented in the arts, whether it鈥檚 a performer or on screen.
鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to challenges those stereotypes and say here we have a whole new generation of people with spinal cord injuries, so let鈥檚 look at their potential to see what they can achieve,鈥� says Hume.