Earlier this month, Hamilton Chamber of Commerce held an event for the local business community to learn more about making Hamilton an accessible suburb for those living with a disability. 

The member networking function included a panel discussion featuring Dave Belcher from Community Disability Alliance Hunter, Jordan Ashby from Vision Australia and Linda Hughes who is an independent disability consultant. 

Hamilton Chamber President, Nathan Errington said that he understood from the panelists and those in attendance that it was one of the first local business networks in the area to look at the issue. 

“Making Hamilton more accessible for people of all abilities has been a discussion point for the Chamber board for some time. It is an important conversation and we understand that it is not a quick fix so this event served as a catalyst for more conversations and work to be done,” he said. 

Dave Belcher congratulated businesses in Hamilton for adding accessibility to its agenda and said the first step was influencing attitude and getting people to think about accessibility as part of the whole. 

“Attitudinal barriers are far more existent within society and these need to be addressed sooner than physical barriers. Physical barriers are easily changeable, whereas people’s attitudes will take a little longer. Updating city settings can be quite costly and there are many policies and procedures to take into consideration which means change doesn’t happen quickly. That’s why the community needs to do the best they can with what is available to them,” Dave said. 

One of the other key themes of the event was raised by the team at Vision Australia. 

“Hamilton is a very social neighbourhood full of residents who like to take their dogs with them whilst dining out or having coffee with friends. It’s an emerging trend that can be very dangerous for people with low or no vision as they are able to easily trip on the dog’s lead and injure themselves,” Jordan Ashby said. 

An advocate for inclusion, Linda Hughes stressed the need for equality in employment processes. 

“We need to adopt a ‘let’s find a way’ attitude and this starts with employing people without being stereotypical. Many who live with disabilities are more than capable to do the jobs that they apply for, if they weren’t they probably wouldn’t have applied in the first place,” Linda said.