Blog Archive

I DON'T Feel Better Now Thank You Medibank Private! Once again, my own life has led to a blog…. As some of my regular readers may remember, last year I began walking on some Canadian crutches, to build up the strength in my legs, however, after just a ... More >>

Jo Blogs LIVE If you’re one of my regular followers, you would most likely know why there is a little box at the top of the home page now with me in it, and what it does…. If not, let me fill you in. I have just ... More >>

‘Party Drug’ Could Offer Cure For Severe Depression Depression can be a debilitating illness that can go unnoticed to the outside world. Since the 1950’s, the leading method of treatment has been anti-depressant medication, which is formulated to regulate ... More >>

Who Needs A Working Spinal Cord When You Have An Awesome Attitude I was completely blown away by a picture that one of my Facebook friends posted this morning, so much so, that it’s led to today’s blog…. You see, when you have over 4000 virtual friends, like I do, ... More >>

Jetstar…… Need I Say More? After reading another disgraceful article, yet again, about Jetstar, I can’t say that it surprises me, perhaps just makes me dislike the airline more and more. Reports surfaced last week that 78 year ... More >>

Rick Hansen: Around The World In 730 Days Rick Hansen was just 15 years old when he lost the use of his legs, from an auto accident. Forty years on, and he’s gone from strength to strength, and is now planning on changing the way people with ... More >>

Push Girls: Reality Show Roll Models Unfortunately, Hollywood and disabilities aren’t a likely match, but a hit US television producer is hoping to change all that this year, with her new show, ‘Push Girls’, which is set to air in the US ... More >>

Don't Have An Abortion, Because Your Next Child Will Be Born Disabled Now I believe I’ve heard everything after reading an article that has been recently dug up again from the internet files of 2010. Virginia State Delegate Bob Marshall was heard claiming that disabled ... More >>

Gone Too Soon, Australia’s Young Driver Epidemic Hundreds of people die from horrific motor vehicle accidents each year on Australian roads. Most of these accidents are a result of speeding. And, they are almost always preventable. Those who aren’t ... More >>

Big Brother Saves Toddler From Drowning Thanks To School CPR Classes We hear far too often about young children falling into pools and drowning these days. Once unconscious and the brain begins to lose oxygen, it only takes three minutes for brain damage to start, which ... More >>

Wrongfully Imprisoned And Neglected For 10 Years Intellectually disabled man, Marlon Noble, from Western Australia, was released from prison on Sunday, the 10th January, after spending 10 years behind bars, for a crime he says he never committed, and ... More >>

Monique's Second Chance At Life This story just amazed me when I heard it, and I had to share it with you all.... It sounds like something straight out of a Hollywood script, a paralysed woman, who lost feeling from a car crash, has ... More >>

Fun Was Had By All At The TTW End Of Year Gala Day Last Friday I was lucky enough to be invited to attend the NOVA Employment Transition to Work End of Year Gala Day, all be-it I was working, but still had a ball regardless. NOVA Employment runs a ... More >>

Fighting To See The Foo's Last Thursday night I got to see one of my favourite bands, EVER, perform live: the Foo Fighters, who performed songs from their latest album, Wasting Light, plus, heaps of their greatest classics, and ... More >>

No Time For Love To Wait Speaking as someone who has just gotten married (almost 4 weeks ago!), I can honestly say that it was one of the most beautiful, emotional, stressful and special times in my life. As fast as the day flew ... More >>

Roller Coaster Of Death Kills Amputee When it comes to theme parks, I’m certainly no dare-devil.... I could barely go on a ‘family’ water rapids ride, whilst on my honeymoon in Queensland this year, let alone any kind of roller coaster. Luckily ... More >>

British Police Attack And Push Over Man In Wheelchair Today was the first time I’d heard about, or viewed footage of, the horrific treatment of a disabled man during student fees protests that occurred in London last year. Jody McIntyre, who is a 21 ... More >>

Memories That Will Last A Lifetime After 18 months of planning our wedding, I just couldn’t wait to relax with my new hubby on our honeymoon. Unfortunately, I kept waking up early so didn’t get to catch up on much sleep, but that didn’t ... More >>

Watch Out, Disabled Hoons About! Penrith Council have recently discussed implementing a speed limit around the Penrith area, for people who use mobility scooters, as reported in the Penrith Press newspaper on Monday. With information ... More >>

Mrs Owen Has Arrived ***Click on this link to see a sneek peak of my wedding day, courtesy of two lovely ladies who are filming a documentary about me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLTllc8wnLM *** I am back in one ... More >>

You Gotta Fight, For Your Right, To Parrrrrrrrking I recently wrote about the terrible state of my local hospital's car park at the moment, due to Nepean Hospital's hospital and car park development, which isn't scheduled to be completed until ... More >>

Miracle Sleeping Pill Reverses Brain Injury Effects Sam Goddard and Sally Nielsen from Brisbane, QLD in Australia, who met in university, had their whole lives to look forward to. Sam was an accountant, and Sally, a wedding planner, both in their 20’s ... More >>

Washing Machine Tears Limb From Toddler A washing machine is something that almost everyone in the world has. They have come a long way since they were first invented, back in the 1700’s. The first method of washing clothes and garments was ... More >>

Judge Caught On Tape Whipping Disabled Daughter With Leather Belt This story is something that, thanks to the internet, has been sweeping across the world over the past week, and it is horrifying to see. I am talking about the video footage that was posted by a ... More >>

Goodbye Miss De Ruvo, Hello Mrs Owen!!! This is my final pre-wedding blog and last day at work.... I have written some blogs that will be uploaded during my absence, so you will not miss out on a weekly slice of Jo Blogs... So last weekend, ... More >>

Is Centrelink Becoming A Dictatorship? Many people who receive welfare payments in Australia will be facing lots of changes ahead... Recently, there was the announcement that as of next year, most people who receive disability payments ... More >>

Where Will Political Correctness End British funny man, Ricky Gervais has recently been caught up in some controversy over various ‘tweets’ that he’s posted via his Twitter account. The 50 year old star and creator of the hit television ... More >>

Keeping Bridezilla At Bay Last week’s blog finished off with me crossing my fingers about the hotel check-out time for the morning of the wedding.... Just to re-cap, I booked this beautiful deluxe two bedroom suite for me ... More >>

Ties That Can Never Be Cut Tate and Nash are brothers with a special bond that could never be broken. Tate, who is 9 years old, was born with Cerebral Palsy, due to a lack of oxygen at birth. Nash, is 11 years old, and absolutely ... More >>

Lunacy, Of The Wheelie Kind Aaron Fotheringham isn’t just another guy with a disability. He’s an awesome adrenaline junkie, who has more guts than most able bodied people! Nicknamed ‘wheels’, Aaron is just about to turn 20, on ... More >>

Thank Goodness For Credit Cards Now we’re down to 20 days until the wedding, three weeks and I can’t believe it! It feels like we’ve been planning this day forever. Well, the planning did begin almost 18 months ago, which I suppose ... More >>

One Woman's Fight For Wheelchair Accessible Coaches In the news this week was a story of a fellow disability activist, who was born with brittle bones or Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI). Julie Haraksin, who uses an electric wheelchair, is suing an Australian ... More >>

Four Disabled People Discovered Inside American Horror Dungeon I came across an article today, which could have easily been mistaken for a fictional Hollywood blockbuster, but instead, it is the real life horror story for some of the most vulnerable people in America, ... More >>

Hen Night Madness Happy Friday everyone!!! So today is exactly 4 weeks until my nuptials... That’s 27 days, 22 hours and 50 minutes. Who’s excited?! I certainly am. Things are really kicking into gear now, starting to ... More >>

Disabled Parking Of A Different Kind Hospital’s can be a saviour if you or a family member becomes sick or injured. They help to cure people and nurture them back to health and without them, we’d be lost. But what if the hospital that you ... More >>

O I Don't Know How Social Services Can Be So Ignorant We all hope that child protection services exist, to do exactly that... Protect our children, but all too often, we hear of horror stories of children being taken away from innocent, loving parents, whilst ... More >>

Five Weeks To Go And I’ve Got Butterflies Although the weather in Sydney this week has been terribly cold and rainy for October, things have remained pretty quiet on the wedding front, with not too much happening... Today we have reached ... More >>

Never Judge A Book By Its Cover Some of the biggest misconceptions about people with a disability stems from lack of knowledge towards them... People, who don’t personally know someone with a disability, can make false judgements about ... More >>

A Royal Pain In The Ankle, But I Won’t Let It Ruin My Wedding So the countdown continues... As I found it very difficult to climb out of bed today, once I awoke, I realised that, not only is it Friday, but we are now down to 6 weeks until d-day!!! That’s 6 weeks ... More >>

Where Unwanted Disabled Animals Go When someone is born with a disability these days, they are usually given the best chance at a ‘normal’ life. Doctors intervene, pointing new parents in the right direction about where the best places ... More >>

What To Wear... Kids Blowing Daddy’s Budget For One Night Of Fun Do you remember your school formal, or for my American friends, your prom? I missed out on my formal, because I left high school early, and completed my studies at TAFE, so I unfortunately didn’t ... More >>

The Countdown Is On For This Pocket Wife-To-Be The countdown begins.... Since my wedding is on a Friday, it is exactly 7 weeks today, until I get married. That’s 48 days and approximately 1,174 hours. Therefore, it is now 7 weeks until I become a ... More >>

Pushed To Breaking Point Or Natural Born Killers? Some mental illnesses, like depression, can be a serious after effect from the loss of a loved one, trauma, abuse or stress, but it can also be the result of a hereditary abnormality in your ancestor’s ... More >>

Pocket Sized Motivator Just because someone lacks height, doesn’t mean they can’t reach for the stars....... I am three feet tall, yet I haven’t let that stop me from continuously reaching for my goals. Today I wanted to ... More >>

Fourteen Years In Prison For Murdering Ten Year Old Girl, Where Is The Justice??? In Australia, someone is reported missing approximately every fifteen minutes... In fact, 35,000 people are reported missing ‘down under’, every year, 95% are located within a short time. Only a very ... More >>

Today's The Day To Ask 'Are You OK?' More people than you could possible imagine are affected by suicide or suicidal thoughts each day... In Australia, more than 2,100 people take their own lives each year, and men are at four times more ... More >>

NOVA Employment's Own Medical Pioneer If you live outside of Australia, or you just happened to miss this week’s episode of Sunday Night on channel 7, then you’ve come to the right place... The current affairs show, featured one of NOVA ... More >>

Strength To Carry On The Coble family was a typical American family, living in California, living out their dream. But in an instant, their world came crashing down around them, changing their lives, forever. While Chris ... More >>

Carer Of Disabled Son Beats Breast Cancer And Graduates From Uni With Honors Tonight will see Julie Gilmore, a full time carer for her disabled son, proudly graduate, with honors, from a university in Western Australia. Julie has taken care of her young son Mitchell, all his ... More >>

Disabled Women More Likely To Be Affected By Breast Cancer Did you know that breast cancer is one of the most common forms of cancers that affect Australian women? It accounts for 27% of all cancer diagnosis amongst females living in Australia. In Australia, ... More >>

Small Businesses Still Hesitant To Hire Workers With A Disability Reports surfaced last week on Australia’s Daily Telegraph website, suggesting that some employers are still quite reluctant to hire someone with a disability, over a non-disabled person. While I have ... More >>

Focus On Ability III Was A Hit Last night was NOVA Employments night of nights... Where we all gathered together for the airing of the finalist’s films, for The Annual Focus On Ability Short Film Competition at Fox Studios, in Sydney. ... More >>

How To Tell If Your Unborn Baby Is A Boy Or Girl A lot of my friends, family members, and people around me are pregnant at the moment... It’s funny, it’s like it’s something that happens in waves. I remember a couple of years ago, when a whole bunch ... More >>

If You Can’t Walk, You Can’t Board - Wheelchair-Bound Athletes Endure Disgraceful Discrimination Last weekend was the 39th Annual Falmouth Road Race, held in Massachusetts, where around ten thousand runners compete for the winning title each year. The race also has a wheelchair division, where devoted ... More >>

Father Kills Disabled Son, Cuts Off Head "In Heaven I believe you're a beautiful star and you will always shine bright inside my heart, inside everybody's heart. If I could go back and change yesterday, I would. But I can't. You ... More >>

Cowards Beat Fragile Man To Death Harvey Sanderson Jr. was a 27 year old man who had a great sense of humour, a kind heart, and was loved by many of his family and friends. He was pint sized (like me), born with Osteogenesis Imperfecta ... More >>

One Small Step For J-Gill, One Giant Leap For Crippy-Kind I find it a bit sad, that on one of the biggest days in Australian disability history, when I clicked on The Daily Telegraph website at around midday, the three main featured stories were about the London ... More >>

Miracle Mum Wakes From Coma On Mother's Day From Daughter's Touch Emma De Silva, a beautiful, vibrant young woman from Sydney, had just realised her dream. Into the third week of her new baby girl’s life, Emma and her husband Yoshi thought that life was absolutely perfect. Earlier ... More >>

Are Disabled To Follow Footseps Of Nuns And Become Celibate? Ok, so this is going to be a very ‘touchy’ subject, (pun intended).... Today on The Daily Telegraph website, a story has been run about disabled people using government paid health care workers, to ... More >>

Girl Sues Her Mother's Obstetrician For 'Ruining Her Life' - Fair Complaint Or Whinger? Halina Jane Gillet was born in October of 1985, in Newcastle, which is located in northern NSW. The pregnancy was the fourth for her mother Marilyn Benson-Gillett, and she noticed that during this pregnancy, ... More >>

J-Gill May Finally Be Onto A Winner With Tighter DSP Guidelines Thank goodness someone has finally said what we’re probably all thinking! Today I read an article relating to the new Australian disability pension cuts that were announced by Julia Gillard last week, ... More >>

Where's Wheely Good To Go Out? Getting out on the town means great things to most people, it can relieve stress, allow you to catch up with old friends, let loose, and have a good old boogie. For someone in a wheelchair or with a disability ... More >>

The Real Iron Woman While researching, I came across this story, it’s old, but I never knew about it, and thought it to be a very interesting and tragic tale. In May 2008, Dianne Odell, from Jackson, Tennessee, passed ... More >>

The Boy Who Can Count To 34 On His Fingers And Toes Akshat Saxena from Uttar Pradesh, in Northern India, is just one year old, but is already a world record holder. As Akshat was their first child, his parents were very excited to welcome him into ... More >>

A Tortoise Who Knows How To Rock And ‘Roll’ As I’m sure my regular blog readers know by now, I’m a sucker for animals. Whenever I hear a happy ending to unfortunate events relating to a pet or wild animal, it makes me all warm and gooey inside! ... More >>

Grumpy Pilot Orders Disabled Man Off His Plane John Morris is a 24 year old paraplegic, who has limited control of his upper body, as a result of a snowboarding accident in 2006, and now requires the full time use of a wheelchair. Last month, ... More >>

Has Your Child Been Diagnosed With Fake Autistism Spectrum Disorder? Claims have been made today on The Daily Telegraph website, that some parents and doctors are conspiring together, so that their children are ‘labelled’ as autistic, in order to receive further assistance ... More >>

Hot Tips For Photoshoots And Wheelchairs So Todd and I just had our pre-wedding photo shoot the other week. It was a good way for us to get into practice for the hundreds of wedding photos we’ll be smiling for in a few months. Todd’s not much ... More >>

No Bedside Manner Here Today I read a blog, written by a young man named Carl, who has Cerebral Palsy and Scoliosis.... He was discussing the way in which specialists have referred to him in the third person, as if he isn’t ... More >>

Political Correctness Gone Awry Is this political correctness gone mad? On Wednesday night, Lady Gaga performed for an intimate crowd of 1000 fans at Sydney’s Monster Hall in a one off show. The arrival of Gaga has been dubbed one ... More >>

Get Your Voting Fingers Ready!!! It’s Focus On Ability time!!! Entries for NOVA Employment’s annual short film competition have now closed and voting is now open. As of yesterday, you, the public, now have the opportunity to vote ... More >>

Disabled People Don't Have Choices For Their Wedding There are so many tasks to be completed during the lead up to a wedding. You just don’t realise exactly how much is involved, until it’s your own... I have so many questions that have been answered ... More >>

A Great Place To Make New Friends And Kick Up Your Heels Breakaway Recreation and Holiday Service Inc, is a great organisation that assists adults from the Western Sydney area, with intellectual disabilities, by getting them out and about, experiencing activities ... More >>

Burst A Lung In Support Of The NOVA Employment Sydney Razorback's This Weekend! It’s time for round 3 of the NOVA Employment Sydney Razorback’s National Wheelchair Basketball League. Are you ready to show them your support? The last two rounds have seen the NOVA Employment Sydney ... More >>

Will Jet Star Ever Learn Last week, the Scott family; Trudi, her husband, and their two children, took a flight from Wellington to Auckland, in New Zealand, to see the production of ‘Walking With Dinosaurs’. During their short ... More >>

Disabled People Don’t Need Fancy Wedding Venues Onto part three of my wedding planning madness. In last week’s blog, I explained how I came to find my beautiful wedding dress, that will be unveiled no sooner than 11/11/11. I talked about how difficult ... More >>

A Day Out At The Australian Museum Yesterday was a great day for me and some of the Job Coaches and Trainees from Transition To Work here at NOVA Employment. We got to spend it at the Australian Museum in Sydney. We caught the train ... More >>

Granny Vandal On The Run When Lorraine Palmer picked her disabled granddaughter up from school to take her for a trip to the shops one afternoon in early June, she definitely did not expect what was in store for her when she ... More >>

Disabled People Don’t Wear Pretty Wedding Dresses Last week, I wrote about how I (tried) to go wedding dress shopping for the first time, and it ended in an epic fail, with the shop assistant virtually ignoring me the whole time I was there.... I was ... More >>

Tom Herbert Has A Golfing Handicap Of A Different Kind Lots of people with disabilities play sports. Whether it’s to keep up their fitness levels, for socialising or just as a hobby, it’s a good way to fit in with able-bodied people, especially if you’re ... More >>

Dr Death, Dead At 83 I have discussed assisted suicide in the past, and I personally feel that it should be legalized. Who wants to die a long painful death? Don’t human beings suffer enough in life? The law says we must ... More >>

Disabled People Don’t Get Married! As some of you know, and for those of you who don’t, I am engaged and am getting married later this year. With just under 5 months left until my nuptials, I thought I’d share my experience of the wedding ... More >>

Nothing Can Stop A Strong Will And Determination Rob Cook was a typical strapping, young farmer, living in the remote town of Suplejack Downs, which is located pretty much in the middle of nowhere, in Australia’s Northern Territory, when his whole world ... More >>

Come And Cheer For NOVA Employment's Own Wheelchair Basketball Team!!! If you love watching wheelchair basketball or you just love sport in general, then you need to pay attention to this! Come along and support the NOVA Employment Sydney Razorbacks wheelchair basketball ... More >>

Does The Government Really Care If You Live Or Die? Is the majority of the medical industry more concerned about making profits than saving lives when it comes to terminally ill cancer patients? Some of the most trusted and common cancer treatments ... More >>

Do You Think We Are Worthy Of A 'Fighting Chance'? Following the death of her husband David to cancer in 2008, Sue O’Reilly was forced to return to her home country of Australia, after years of living in the UK, where her and her family moved to seek ... More >>

Independently Accessible Trains There is currently a wheelchair ramp trial at Box Hill train station in Victoria, this prototype could mark the beginning of something wonderful for people with mobility issues if it becomes permanent. The ... More >>

Last Chance To Enter NOVA Employment’s Short Film Competition It’s almost time for entries to close for NOVA Employment’s annual short film competition. With this year’s theme Focus on Employ Ability, we’re sure to see some amazing talent, yet again! Last year, ... More >>

Socially Disabled: Latest Illness To Be Formally Named Well I had an interesting weekend... Thought I’d share my tales with you. So, I was enjoying a lovely quiet, Saturday on my own, with my dogs and cat of course. Cleaned up a bit, did some washing, that ... More >>

Are Ethical Issues Obstructing Scientific Medical Advancements For People With Disabilities? Breakthroughs in science have greatly contributed to the medical advancements in the disabled world. But, at what cost? Many people see scientific developments as a blessing, something that is going ... More >>

Three Blind Photographers Recently, a friend of mine emailed me a story about a blind photographer. I had a look at his work, which was amazing, considering, he couldn’t see a thing... While researching about him, I also came ... More >>

Drawing His Way Down To Melbourne Would you like to help someone with a disability out? Whilst also gaining something cool for yourself? I did an interview with a man by the name of Brent Harpur back in March. Brent is legally blind, ... More >>

We All Have Some Sort Of A Disability In 2009, for International Day of People With a Disability, I attended a breakfast, where I did a talk about my car and it’s conversions. There were around 100 people there, and it was my first talk ... More >>

Tiniest Crime Fighter Ever! Ryan Berger from California may just be the world’s smallest detective, measuring up to only three feet two inches tall. 34 year old Ryan, was born with Osteogenesis Imperfecta or Brittle Bones (like ... More >>

MISSING Aspergers Boy!!! Please help to locate him safe and well! Alex Rowe is 18, he was reported missing yesterday after he didn't return home from the city. His mobile phone was on when he spoke to family yesterday ... More >>

Public Servant Jobs For Disabled On The Decline Reports today in ‘The Australian’ claim that the number of people with disabilities working in the government sector has been halved since 1986. Figures show that there has been a decline from 6.9 per ... More >>

Raising Children With Disabilities One really important thing to remember, if you are raising a child who has a disability, is to make sure they’re aware from an early age, that there is nothing ‘wrong’ with them, they just do things differently ... More >>

Blind Positivity Equals Happiness For Nick Gleeson Earlier this May, I invited a delightful man, who I met at a conference for people with disabilities, to talk at NOVA Employment. When I first met Nick Gleeson, who works for Vision Australia, I thought ... More >>

Independent Living - Assistance Around The Home When You Have A Disability Alright everyone, you asked for it, so here it is..... Some information on how to live alone, or independently from the people you live with, when you have a disability. Now, as I’m based in Sydney, ... More >>

Bisphosphonates, Helpful Or Harmful? I came across some rather startling news this morning, which confirmed something that I was already partially aware of.... This news is almost a year old, but I feel, is still worth some discussion. ... More >>

Look Mom, No Hands - The Jessica Cox Story Jessica Cox, who was born in the early 80’s, has become the first woman in history to fly a plane, without arms. Jessica was born with an unexplained birth defect, which resulted in her missing both ... More >>

Disabled Materchef Australia Contestant Causes Some Heat In The Kitchen Masterchef Australia is one of the hottest shows on television at the moment. With series three just getting into the real competition now, one of the fifty finalists attracted quite a bit of media attention ... More >>

How To Access Disability Employment Services Aloha everybody! Please take a look at my latest video of me doing a talk at the OI Conference.... It's a 'how to' guide on getting into a disability employment service, a little history on ... More >>

2011 Australian Federal Budget - What Are Your Views? I'd love to hear what your personal views are on this year’s Australian budget. It seems to me that the crack down on eligibility criteria for the disability pension is something that is desperately ... More >>

UPDATE: Saving Each Other: An Unlikely Match Made In Heaven Last month I wrote a blog about Irwin, the kangaroo who has been adopted by an American woman who was going through depression. Irwin, was paralysed through an accident while living in an animal sanctuary, ... More >>

Wishbone Day – May 6th 2011 – International Brittle Bones Awareness Day – Go Yellow! This Friday, 6th May, please wear a touch of yellow to support Wishbone Day! What is Wishbone Day? I hear you asking... Well it only officially began in May last year, and was created to raise awareness ... More >>

Gillard Promises $200m Boost For Disabled Students With details of Australia’s 2011 Federal Budget trickling out ahead of next week’s full announcement, it has been reported that Prime Minister Gillard will provide $200 Million to the Australian school ... More >>

Watch The Touching Moment Of When A Deaf Baby Hears For The First Time I wanted to share with you a video of something that I find very beautiful, having posted it on my Facebook page yesterday, it got quite a passionate reaction from a lot of my readers.... Most thought ... More >>

Saving Each Other: An Unlikely Match Made In Heaven For 39 year old Christie Carr, from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, depression almost ended her life. Over a year ago, she attempted suicide, but thankfully survived. After recovering, she decided to volunteer ... More >>

More Discrimination..... Jetstar Does It Again! Last week, New Zealand disability advocates, Tanya Black and Dan Buckingham, who both use a manual wheelchair, were unable to board their flight with Jetstar, because the captain believed they required ... More >>

Improving The Lives Of The Disabled, One Stem Cell At A Time Wouldn’t it be great if there was some wonderful cure for all different types of disability? To cure those born with Cerebral Palsy, Autism, sufferers of Strokes, Alzheimer’s Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, ... More >>

What Is This World Coming To? On Monday morning at 11:30am in Alice Springs, in Australia’s Northern Territory, a wheelchair bound woman was making her way down a dirt track, when she was approached by four men, stabbed and robbed. ... More >>

Autistic Boy Saves Family In House Fire, Then Tragically Dies Have you ever thought how scary it would be in an emergency situation, like a fire? Now think about that situation while you are living with a disability. Things like that worry me all the time, how I ... More >>

Boy Wthout Arms, Honoured With Own Penmanship Award What were you like in year five at school with your handwriting? I wasn’t the neatest, and I remember being denied my ‘pen licence’ because my writing wasn’t neat enough.... However, I just recently ... More >>

Cop Confuses Cerebral Palsy With Drunkenness A disabled Englishman, who’d been visiting Australia during a working holiday, was wrongly accused of being drunk and disorderly, and forced to spend hours in a prison cell. After a night out in Melbourne, ... More >>

Autistic Boy Struck By Train Every parent’s worst nightmare would be having their child going missing. The thoughts that would run through your head, as a parent of a missing child, I could imagine, would be nothing but chaotic. ... More >>

What's Your Interpretation Of Employ-Ability?? It’s that time again! Time to get out your video cameras and make a short film about focusing on the positive side of disability..... Last year, we had three categories, which saw entries flooding ... More >>

World Autism Awareness Day Puppies With World Autism Awareness Day fast approaching on April 2, I thought I would share something that I found, relating to Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Firstly, some of you may already know of my ... More >>

Adaptive Living Tips For People With A Disability I think that everyone who lives with a disability has at least one adaptation that they’ve created to make their life easier. It’s just something that comes natural to living, like second nature after ... More >>

Unbreakable Spirits I’d like to share something exciting with you that I experienced over the past weekend..... I attended my very first OI Conference... The Australian OI Conference is organised as part of the OI Society ... More >>

Do The New CP Commercials Give A Negative Outlook For All? You may have noticed the new Cerebral Palsy Alliance television commercials that have been aired on Australian television recently. The Cerebral Palsy Alliance was formerly known as the Spastic Centre, ... More >>

Hospital Refuses To Save Baby Joseph For the parents of 1 year old baby Joseph Maraachli, there will heartbreaking times ahead of them. Their second born son, Joseph, has Leigh syndrome, an extremely rare, hereditary neurological disorder ... More >>

Brent Harpur – The Blind Cartoonist I recently interviewed Brent Harpur at his Art Space in Sydney’s hip suburb of Newtown. The room we sat in certainly matched the trendy surroundings of Newtown, with its colourful paintings of flowers, ... More >>

The Man With Half A Body I wanted to share with you, a story I heard about a man with half a body. Kevin Easterday, who grew up in Pennsylvania, was born with a rare disability, called Sacral Agenesis, this means his spine ... More >>

The Disabled Should All Be Sent To Siberia To Freeze To Death After it became public that a New Hampshire, House of Representatives legislator stated that, all disabled people should be moved to Siberia, a public lash back has caused him to hand in his letter of ... More >>

Disabled Left Behind During Disasters In a report in the Los Angeles Times newspaper last week, it was stated that LA has a plan for its city, in the event of a disaster, as most major cities do, but the plan in LA doesn’t take into account ... More >>

Breaking Down Barriers In The Virtual World Hans Smith is 24 and lives in Idaho in the US. He was born with Spastic Quadriplegic Cerebral Palsy, which means that, although he is mentally capable, he is unable to feed, dress or care for himself. ... More >>

Show Your Support For Disability Sports! Do you wish you could play rugby league but feel limited because you’re in a wheelchair? Have you considered joining up with the New South Wales Wheelchair Rugby League Inc.? New South Wales Wheelchair ... More >>

"Rollin' Around The World With Zach Anner" As I’m sure everyone in the whole world would know, Oprah Winfrey is one of the most successful women on the planet. But for anyone who has been living under a rock for decades, she has been the most ... More >>

A Must Watch - Britain's Missing Top Model Tonight marks the beginning of BBC’s hit show ‘Britain’s Missing Top Model’ on free to air television in Australia. The six part series, which aired in the UK in 2008, follows the journey of eight ... More >>

10 Tips For Talking To Someone In A Wheelchair ‘Wheels for a day’, is a campaign that is organised through Paraquad in Australia. It has been running for five years so far, and is held in November, during Spinal Cord Awareness Week. It gives high ... More >>

Do You Dream Disabled??? I have been thinking about dreaming lately. Some say that dreams are a result of your subconscious mind exploring something that you are unsure of or scared to do. It could be a fear that you have and ... More >>

Where There’s Smoke, There’s Fire The idea of a house fire can be a terrible thought to imagine. All of those personal, irreplaceable belongings, that could be lost forever. Everything that’s been accumulated through hard work over a ... More >>

Voting With A Disability: Finally An Easier Way! With the NSW State Election looming, this can cause some concern for those of us living with a disability. Getting to your nearest polling place can be a hassle for the most agile person, but for ... More >>

Clothes That 'Suit' - Finally, A Clothing Website For Wheelchair Users I wanted to share with you something that I came across today that may prove very useful to anyone in the disabled community. Izzy Camilleri is a Canadian fashion designer who has designed clothes ... More >>

‘Air Kevin’ - The One Armed Basketball Star When Kevin Laue’s mother was pregnant with him, she and his father were expecting a healthy baby. But during his development in his mother’s womb, Kevin’s umbilical cord became wrapped around his neck ... More >>

Government Wants To Cut Disability Pension To Rebuild QLD Following Floods Something that has been reported on in the news all around the world recently, is the disaster and devastation that has been left behind from the floods in North Queensland. As much as I feel for ... More >>

‘Spastic’ Is No More The Spastic Centre has been around in Australia, since 1945, and is one of our most well known charities. The organisation was created after a group of parents of children with Cerebral Palsy, wanted ... More >>

Mother's With Wheels Over a year ago, I became friends with a girl from America who, like me, has brittle bones, also known as OI. Her name is Kara, after dating her partner Adam for 9 years, they married almost 2 years ago. ... More >>

Have You Read NOVA’s Ezine Lately? Have you checked out the NOVA Employment Ezine? It’s like a magazine, but for the internet.... You will be able to read about all of the great work that’s being done by our helpful staff here at NOVA ... More >>

George Has A Tonna’ Passion George Tonna was born with Cerebral Palsy. When he was a young boy, he attended a regular mainstream school, and he rarely participated in sporting activities, but when forced to, he stuck close to the ... More >>

Jo-Blogs on Facebook... Hello there. Please don’t forget for those of you that check back here regularly, I also have a Facebook page. So if you’ve already come across to the other side, like most of the world has, then, ... More >>

Living With A Disability In A High Tech World As technology advances, the disabled world must advance along with it. I’m sure there’s at least one person you know who has an I-Phone at the moment. I thought it would be a great opportunity to look ... More >>

What Did You Just Wheel In?!?!?! Just think about this for a second... When you walk, do you really know what you’re stepping in? Spit? Urine? Chewing gum? Faeces? Dirt? Grime? Vomit? Lots and lots of things that you would never want ... More >>

Drug Dealer Allowed To Stay In Public Housing An Australian report was put out this week, about mentally ill and homeless people having their welfare payments cut. This has caused uproar amongst welfare lobbyists, when facts stated that over ... More >>

Monica & David: A Love Story Monica and David are a young couple who met in a life skills class..... Monica already had a boyfriend and David had his eye on her... As soon as Monica became available, David snagged her. They fell ... More >>

Loud, Proud and Passionate! A group of very passionate women with disabilities from all over the world came together to attend a three week leadership program in Oregon last year. It’s the 5th time that the ‘Women’s Institute on ... More >>

The Noise Of 1000 Voices We all hear about disabilities in medical terms as written by professionals, doctors or researchers, but we rarely get to hear about people’s disabilities and personal journeys in their own words... 1000 ... More >>

Bride-to-be Breaks Neck On Hen’s Night It should’ve been the happiest time of her life, 24 year old Rachelle Friedman and her close friends were celebrating her upcoming marriage to partner of five years, Chris Chapman, that was due to occur ... More >>

Transition To Work End Of Year Celebrations Yesterday I helped celebrate the end of year Christmas party and 2010 graduation of some of the NOVA Employment Transition To Work Trainees. Transition To Work, is a traineeship that is offered to ... More >>

The Blind Not Allowed To Vote In 2010 There was a story reported on an Australian news website back in September, about a man who lives in South Australia who is vision impaired and unhappy with his state’s current voting system for people ... More >>

Dogs & Disabilities Go Hand In Hand While doing my usual searches on the net for interesting anecdotes, I stumbled across a story about a great business. Dog Central is a doggie day care centre for dogs that have owners that work full ... More >>

Do You Know Someone Who Is Faking A Disability To Receive Financial Benefits? An article in the Australian, has brought up a very interesting point that I would like to share. Due to reports, it has been documented that apparently, more Australians are unable to work due to ... More >>

Assistance For Older Carers Of People With A Disability Do you care for an adult son, daughter or grandchild with a disability? Anglicare’s Support Co ordination Program (Nepean) may be able to help you. This service is funded by ADHC (Human Services ... More >>

'Emerge'-ing Into A Leader.... Throughout the year, I have been attending a leadership course called Emerge. It is organised through the Spastic Centre, together with ING Direct, and is designed predominately for young people with ... More >>

Look me in the eyes.... I said the eyes What does the name Tanja Kiewitz mean to you? Probably not much, yet. But it will... Tanja is a 35 year old mother, and a graphic designer turned European model, and disability activist. Tanja was ... More >>

Wheelchair Hoist For Sale!!! A lovely lady by the name of Helen has contacted me, she has bought a van that came with a wheelchair hoist installed. She doesn’t need the hoist and the person who was using it has passed away and the ... More >>

Wheeling Inspiration... A fellow brittle bones sufferer, who lives in Canada, was recently featured in a story that appeared on Montreal’s CTV (a Canadian news television station). The name of my “Facebook friend” is Natalie ... More >>

Livewire... Livewire, which is an initiative of the Starlight Foundation, is an Australian online peer support program, designed specifically for families who are affected by disability, chronic health condition ... More >>

Get ConnecTeD and Stay ConnecTeD... You are invited to a ball..... The ball’s theme is ‘Live. And Let Live’ Bond with ConnecTeD, and it is being held on the 16th of October to support the children and young adolescents with rare genetic ... More >>

MyTime Play Group My friend, Julianne, has told me of a new program starting up in Emu Plains in Sydney’s West, called MyTime, it’s a play group run for parents and their young children under school age, who are living ... More >>

Results for NOVA Employment’s Short Film Festival An awesome night was had by all who attended NOVA Employments first ever Short Film Festival, on Wednesday 25th August, at Moore Park’s Entertainment Quarter. It was an excellent turn out with around ... More >>

FREE MOVIE FESTIVAL COMPETITION For your chance to WIN 1 of 2 Prize Giveaways of: --2 VIP tickets to the Focus on Ability Film Festival + --2 Hoyts La Premiere Tickets. Step 1--Simply go to http://www.focusonability.com.au/films.asp ... More >>

Focus On Ability Short Film Competition Is Ready To Announce Some Winners!!! Earlier this year, there was a short film competition run by NOVA Employment which closed on the 30th June, called Focus On Ability. The competition had three different categories for people to enter ... More >>

Accessibility At The Sydney Opera House I took a visit to the famous Sydney Opera House for a guided tour a few weeks back. It was incredibly beautiful up-close, and I am not normally impressed by architecture. The inside of the building is ... More >>

Hope Street More people than you may think are one pay cheque away from becoming potentially homeless. A "homeless person" is someone who is without a conventional home and lacks the economic and social supports ... More >>

Aaron Nielsen – Riding for sick kids Last year, I did a story on an awesome little guy called Aaron Nielsen, he went for a walk from Penrith (in Sydney’s West) to Bondi, to raise money for the Starlight Foundation, (an Australian organisation ... More >>

Sniffing For Autism A trendy American fast food chain called White Castle (made famous by popular teen movie – Harold & Kumar go to White Castle), has teamed up with the organisation Autism Speaks to help raise money for ... More >>

Ame's Army Ame Barnbrook is a 21 year old girl from the NSW south coast of Australia. She loves sailing and playing the trumpet. Doesn’t sound too amazing does it? What if I told you that Ame was born with Phocoamelia? ... More >>

Gay Dogs Not Allowed In Thai Restaurant In May last year, a vision impaired man was denied entry into a Thai restaurant in South Australia because the staff thought he was trying to enter with a ‘gay’ dog. When Ms Lawrence went in to ask ... More >>

Helpful Disability Reference Sites... Here are some very helpful websites for the worldwide disabled community: http://ableize.blogspot.com/ - a funny and insightful website for people with disabilities http://www.pwd.org.au/ - a helpful ... More >>

Housing NSW Negligence – An Accident Waiting to Happen North St Mary’s resident Karen Heald, is living in an unsuitable NSW Housing property. The 45 year old was born with Spina Bifida and requires the full time use of a wheelchair to get around. She has ... More >>

Disabled Tourist Bashed by Lowlife Teenagers There have been reports of a disabled Canadian man being attacked in Sydney overnight. The 35 year old man was allegedly trying to leave Mt Druitt station last night at around 11pm, when two teenage ... More >>

Real Estate Rort Rort: to cheat, rip off, beat, defraud, hack or scam. Talking with one of my ‘Facebook friends’ the other day, I was advised of an Australia wide real estate agency that offers a service that assists ... More >>

Marvel-lous Wheelchairs On the 9th February, I went to Wheelchair Sales at Moorebank in Sydney to check out a brand new wheelchair fresh in from Canada called Marvel Wheelchairs. Wheelchair Sales are the first Australian distributors ... More >>

Shocking! Treatments for Autism There is controversy surrounding a treatment that has been used for many years to treat residents at the Judge Rotenburg Centre in Canton, Massachusetts. The Judge Rotenburg Centre or JRC as its commonly ... More >>

FOR SALE: 1 Wheelchair Hoist I have been asked to advise everyone that there is a wheelchair hoist, suitable for a van or people mover, available in the Foster, Tuncurry area in NSW, Australia. It is in great condition and looks ... More >>

Sport For Everyone! Special needs sports groups are great to help people with disabilities make new friends and get out and about... Just ask Kim McLaughlan from Mount Riverview in western sydney, who said "It makes ... More >>

That's Life! ... More >>

A Behind The Scenes Look at: Australia's Next Top Models - Cripple Style Please click on the link below to see a behind the scenes look at what happened to Elvira Alic and I at our Australia's Next Top Model audition at Chadstone Shopping Centre in Melbourne. I have put ... More >>

Jo-Blogs on the Today Show!!! Hello all... For those who didn't catch my appearance on the Today Show in Australia or if you did see it and would like to watch it again, please click on the link below http://video.au.msn.com/watch/video/life-with-brittle-bones/xasazk8 ... More >>

Join Me on Facebook! If you want to join me on Facebook and chat to me live or just to meet some of my interesting Facebook friends.... Then click on the link below! http://www.facebook.com/DisabledAccomplishments I'll ... More >>

UPDATE: Hit & Run Death That Should Never Have Happened Back in October last year, I wrote a blog about an elderly man, Arthur Waller, who died from a hit and run accident. Mr Waller, who was aged 85, had to cross busy Canterbury Road, Hurlstone Park alone, ... More >>

UPDATE: Australia's Next Top Models- Cripple Style For everyone who is wondering what happened with the Australia’s Next Top Model auditions that Elvira and I attended, here is an update. As I said, the flight to Melbourne was at 6:30am and we got ... More >>

Cerebral Palsy Man Cured Through Dancing This is an amazing story about a man who defied all odds to walk without being stared at anymore. Gregg Mozgala is 31 years old and was born with Cerebral Palsy, so he was never able to walk without his ... More >>

Andrew Hewitt - Australia's Most Inspirational Drummer In the beginning of January this year, I interviewed a very inspirational man named Andrew Hewitt. Andrew was born with Cerebral Palsy, he could walk with walking aids but he now requires the fulltime ... More >>

Australia’s Next Top Models – Cripple Style Elvira Alic from last year’s story, ‘Disabilities Can Be Beautiful Too’ and I, will be auditioning for Australia’s Next Top Model, at Chadstone Shopping Centre in Melbourne tomorrow – 20th January 2010. ... More >>

Great Australian Day Out - 2010 If you’re still thinking about what you’re going to do on Australia Day – 26th January 2010, then look no further. The Sydney International Regatta Centre at Penrith Lakes is holding a free day of ... More >>

Lose The Post Christmas Flab! Do you have a physical disability and want to keep active but think that paying for a regular gym membership would be a waste of money because of your disability? Well, if you live in Sydney, I have ... More >>

SCOOP: NOVA Employment will be hiring soon! NOVA Employment is going to be opening up new offices during January - March 2010 and you are the first to read about their new locations! When these offices open, new Employment Consultant and Management ... More >>

Does CityRail Wheelie Care?? St Mary’s train station in Sydney’s west states that it has wheelchair access by the way of elevators, but more often than not, these elevators are out of order. The only alternative to get to the other ... More >>

Disabilities Can Be Beautiful Too! I would like to introduce you to a lovely young lady; Elvira from Melbourne Australia. Despite being born with Type II Spinal Muscular Atrophy, she has the spirit of a fighter who never gives up. At ... More >>

International Day Of People With a Disability I went out on the 3rd December to Picton Bowling club for the International Day Of People With a Disability. They have an annual breakfast on this day every year to celebrate what people with disabilities ... More >>

Jo-Blogs interviews David Bradbury A couple of weeks back, I interviewed local member for Penrith’s Lindsay Electorate, David Bradbury. I asked him all sorts of questions relating to disability issues. A video of the interview has been ... More >>

Gentle Giant Paralympian Kahi Puru Visits NOVA Employment Paralympian Kahi Puru came to our Nova Employment head office at St Marys to do a talk about work safety to the Transition To Work Trainees, I was there to capture all the great photos. Kahi Puru who ... More >>

‘Superhuman’ Paralympian Left To Crawl Through The Airport To His Plane Paralympian Kurt Fearnley, who has just completed his 10 day journey by crawling his way along the Kokoda track in Papua New Guinea, has been humiliated by Jetstar after they told him he had to check ... More >>

Sailability – Sailing With A Disability I went to the Sydney International Regatta Centre, which is situated at Penrith Lakes, where the rowing and kayaking took place for the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. It was an excursion day for Nova ... More >>

Hit & Run Death That Should Never Have Happened Sadly an elderly man’s life has been taken in unfortunate circumstances that should have never occurred. A man aged 85 years old, and now indentified by his distraught family as Mr Arthur Waller, ... More >>

Better late than never..... I’m a little bit late in announcing this great news but a big congratulations is in order for NOVA Employment Caringbah and Café 64 in Broken Hill for their award winning performances!!! NOVA Employment ... More >>

Penrith Carer Car This is one of the best disabled friendly cars I have ever seen. It’s called the Penrith Carer Car and has been imported from Japan by Rossco Hutchison with the help of his mate Al Palmer of Al Palmer ... More >>

Overcoming Challenges With A Smile Little Cody McCasland was born six weeks premature in October 2001 via emergency caesarean, he was rushed off to the NICU and was not expected to live. Undiagnosed, all they knew was that he had 4 toes ... More >>

“Don’t Be Scared To Put Yourself Out There” This article and all it's comments have been removed by request of it's interview subject... More >>

Autism – The Devil? An American Autistic organisation called ‘Autism Speaks’ has released a very controversial video to raise awareness about Autism. In the video which pictures real home video’s of children with Autism, ... More >>

Deaf Orphans With Christmas coming up, I thought this would be a good cause to mention after a friend sent me the details... Lances Deaf Orphans is an organisation that is based in Kenya, Africa. It is run mostly ... More >>

Quadriplegic Sails Solo Round The UK This is the story of one of the most inspirational women I have ever heard of. She was diagnosed with Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy when she was around the age of 15; this is a debilitating disease ... More >>

Disabled News Readers This is awesome; it’s a video that features a group of American reporters who have a mixture of intellectual and physical disabilities. They met over 10 years ago at a summer camp and decided to start ... More >>

Miracle Baby Refuses To Die For parents, Leigh and David, celebrating their son Warwick’s 1st Birthday, seemed like a dream come true. Warwick was born 11 weeks premature, the doctors predicted that if he survived, he would be ... More >>

Would You Want To Work For $1.50 Per Hour? Today’s blog is about sheltered workshops, for those who don’t know, these are organizations that specifically hire people with disabilities to work together in various types of workplaces. The employer ... More >>

Teachers Aide Assaults 3 Year Old Autistic Student This is horrible! A 3 year old autistic boy appears to be getting assaulted by his teachers aide in America. Scary stuff.... Some people just should not work with children or disabled people.... To view ... More >>

Guide Dogs Not Allowed In Taxis With Their Owners This blog is about blind passengers who are refused entry into a cab because they are accompanied by guide dogs. I have read many articles on this issue, I stumbled across this one whilst researching ... More >>

‘The First To Go’ – The Killings Of Disabled People During WWII I came across a video of a play called ‘The First To Go’ written by British actor, Nabil Shaban (pictured above); who like myself, suffers from Brittle Bones and is confined to a wheelchair. The stage ... More >>

Pension Increase! – It’s about time... It has been announced that from the 20th September 2009, there will be an increase to pensioner payments. This is urgently needed and should’ve happened a while ago, everything goes up but the poor pensioners ... More >>

Danish Businessman Hires Only Those With Autism Thorkil Sonne, who owns an IT business in Denmark, is happy with his decision to hire only employees with Autism. This decision was inspired after his third son Lars, was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum ... More >>

Businesses Still Discriminating In 2009 Today’s blog was inspired by a story from the BBC in Wales. It states that a law was passed in 2004 that allowed for a ‘reasonable adjustments’ clause to be added to the Disability Discrimination Act, ... More >>

No Legs, No Arms, No Worries... This guy is amazing! He was born in Australia with no arms or legs and now travels the world as an inspirational speaker. I will definately be getting in contact with him... This is a link to his own ... More >>

Beach Wheelchairs These are pretty cool for getting around on the beach.... Ahhhh, if only I had a spare $2,499 to buy one, but look, it's GST free! Huge savings!! No but seriously, excellent invention, I am just ... More >>

Aussie Airlines Upset Disabled Passengers I found this article on the www.SMH.com.au website, it says that a survey was carried out last year on 110 people with disabilities and only 14 said they had a pleasant experience whilst travelling on ... More >>

Disabled: Too Poor To Rent Accessible Properties This article was also found on the www.SMH.com.au website. It talks about how people with disabilities live in lower income areas, they believe this is not an option but more likely they are forced to ... More >>

Landmine Victims Compete For A New Leg I found this story at http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/ and http://www.thenational.ae/ – it’s a story about a Miss Landmine Cambodia contest that was to be held in Phnom Penh in Cambodia as an exhibition ... More >>

Victory: Jo-Blogs 1, Parking Inspector 0 Just an update on my parking fine that I received from the airport a week ago. I sent them an email saying that they were in the wrong and I am not going to pay the fine. Some of what I sent included: “I ... More >>

New Disabled Parking System - What Do You Think? I have just read an article about disabled parking in the Daily Telegraph. It’s about Bill Shorten, the parliamentary secretary for disabilities, he is trying to change the guidelines in which someone ... More >>

No Mr Parking Inspector! It was recently my birthday and my wonderful brother flew down from Queensland just to celebrate with the family and I. Taking him back to the airport the other day, I drove... Parked in the 5 minute ... More >>

Inspirational Soccer Player I found this article on the SMH website; 12 year old Rae from the Central Coast was born with Cerebral Palsy. With years of treatment and rehabilitation, she has been able to get rid of her wheelchair ... More >>

Travelling to Egypt in a wheelchair I found this article on the SMH website, this lady is wheelchair bound and has muscular dystrophy and osteo arthritis. Despite all that, she wanted to make her husband's 50th Birthday dream come true ... More >>

Reverse Discrimination - Part 2 This one is very funny! It's part II of the first Reverse Discrimination video I put up. It really shows how 'normal' people patronize people with disabilities, even if they don't mean ... More >>

Reverse Discrimination This video is really good, it's how it is for disabled people but in reverse, an able bodied man gets treated 'differently' because he's surrounded by people with disabilities. It's ... More >>

A fair go for the disabled I feel terrible for this blind man who was in the Parramatta Sun newspaper on Wednesday the 15th July 2009. He says he has a range of experience in Office and Call Centre Customer Service positions but ... More >>

Welcome.... This is my new blog page, I will be writing on here a few times a week with subjects that are relevant to people with disabilities. I appreciate any feedback you may have and suggestions on topics ... More >>

Deaf Orphans With Christmas coming up, I thought this would be a good cause to mention after a friend sent me the details... Lances Deaf Orphans is an organisation that is based in Kenya, Africa. It is run mostly ... More >>

Website Under Construction Hello all...... This is my new Jo-Blogs website, it is in the process of being updated so please bear with me. All of my blogs have not been completely added yet so to see my full blogs, please visit ... More >>

Baby Robot Wheelchairs At the University of Delaware in the United States, researchers have come up with a mini robot-like wheelchair for toddlers. Babies as young as six months old have been able to operate the wheelchairs, ... More >>

Children Walking For Sick Kids Aaron Nielsen is now a happy and healthy 11 year old Boy who survived a major life-threatening kidney operation two years ago. While he was critically ill, he says that the crew from the Starlight Room ... More >>

Blind Chef This article was found on the SMH website. It is a very inspirational story of an apprentice chef, Tony Carter, who has 4 per cent vision in his right eye, no vision in his left and no peripheral vision. ... More >>

Autism Therapy Click on this link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbVG8lYEsNs - to view some of the excellent work that's done to help teach children with Autism. More >>

Living With Autism Click on this link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbVG8lYEsNs - to see an interesting video that explains what it's like to live with someone with Autism.  More >>

Lost Dog Saves Down Syndrome Boy This story was found at http://news.ninemsn.com.au – It tells the story of a lost dog, who saved 21 year old Christian Segovia’s life, he has Downs Syndrome and was having a seizure. Christian’s neurologist ... More >>

Can You Heal Your Own Disability Or Illness? This is a video that I found on the ABC Television website from an episode of Catalyst. It’s about stem cells and how Japanese scientists have discovered that stem cells can be taken from an adult and ... More >>

Can NOVA Help You? NOVA Employment doesn't only help people with serious physical and intellectual disabilities, but they also do great work with sufferers of mental illness such as, but not limited to; bi-polar and ... More >>

Little Josh’s Battle Will Continue On This blog talks about the little boy called Josh Koman; when he was only three years old, in February this year, he fell into his family’s backyard swimming pool and almost drowned. He was unconscious ... More >>

A Brave Little Angel This story is about a little boy called Mattie Stepanek, who isn’t in the current news headlines, but has stuck in my heart and mind ever since I saw him on The Oprah Whinfrey Show in 2001. Mattie ... More >>

Family Of Autistic Boy Forced To Leave Australia This story is about a family with an Autistic son, Jonah; they have been forced to move to the UK to get the necessary assistance with education for their youngest child, which clearly isn’t on offer ... More >>

No Policing For Disabled Parking I was at Henry St Medical Centre in Penrith earlier this week, trying to find a parking space. There are only three disabled spaces available directly outside of this particular medical centre, all of ... More >>

Disabled Drivers Obtaining A License And A Car My Story- If you are in a wheelchair, depending on the degree of disability of course, you can usually get a licence. You just need to do your research, so here is my story on getting my licence and setting ... More >>

The Power Of Companion Dogs As I’ve said before, I think dogs are a very important part of a person’s life, especially if that person has a disability. Dogs are great as a companion and a helper, at Assistance Dogs Australia, ... More >>