History of Disability in South Australia

After my parents had three boys and a girl, it was in 1957 when I entered the world. I was followed by a further three brothers and four sisters. As it turned out I was to lead a very different life in comparison to my siblings yet these differences were not apparent to me until I was 16 years old. I was born with a Left Hemiparesis, which means I have weakness on one side of the body. It was due to the umbilical cord being caught around my neck twice and across my brain at birth that caused it. I am unable to use my left hand to pick anything up. I have sensation down the left hand side of my body and Epilepsy. I had my first seizure at 3 months of age and then nothing until I was 13, which I can only put down to puberty.
The fact that I only have the use of one arm and one leg was never an issue for me as I did not know any other way. My brothers and sisters were like they were and I was like I am. I did not receive any special treatment because I had a disability. I was still expected to do my share and help out with daily chores. This included attending to my own personal hygiene and to any other task undertaken in life. To this day, it may not be the orthodox way of achieving what has to be done but so long as it gets the job done that is the main thing.

As a typical child, I had many fights with my brothers. In this case there were double, if not triple the amount of arms and legs throwing punches and kicking to my one arm and leg. This is where I learned to stick up for myself. Not having the second hand, my teeth became my next means of defence! Regular visits to the Adelaide Children’s Hospital, having to wear a calliper and hand and foot splints were a part of my life. I never questioned anyone for the reason why I am like I am and my brothers and sisters are like they are. I just accepted it as a part of life.

When I reached school age and began my education, I attended the same schools as my siblings. While this was good in many ways, at the same time it had its drawbacks. I was the only person in the school with a disabiility so I didn’t get any preferential treatment or assistance and why should I? I was just another student but at the same time because of my disability, my education suffered. At home, I considered because I was only 1 person out of 12 so why should I get extra help there.

Whilst I didn’t get any special treatment, in a way it was good. It showed the other kids I was there for the same reason as they were. If I did well, I was told yet at the same time I would get the strap if I disturbed the class like anyone else. When I was in grade 5 the teacher told me in front of the whole class if I could get my right leg on the back of my neck he would give me $1.00. This was a lot of money to someone at this time and needless to say I was never able to do it. Later realising I was being made a fool of by the teacher in front of the class. This is when I started faking seizures in class to stir up the teachers I didn’t like. It was in the early 70’s and there was very little knowledge known about Epilepsy back then so no one could dispute what was happening. This meant the ball was in my court before the umpire stepped onto the platform.

Then it happened one day that the boy cried “Wolf” once too often. The teacher grabbed me by the scruff of the neck, booted me up the bum and said “Right Lynch, out of the classroom”. Of course I didn’t respond because I was really out to it. As a result, the teacher was not at the school the next year but then again neither was I, which meant it was a no win situation all round. This was when the next stage of my life begun.

Upon leaving school I had the usual Christmas holidays with another 3 months added onto them due to there being a wait to get into the Commonwealth Rehabilitation Centre. Then after another 3 months I was given the choice between two sheltered workshops. The one I chose was smaller and I thought I had a better chance of getting somewhere working there. It was when I first started and walked into the place that the shock began having never been among people with intellectual and or physical disabilities before. Feeling I had been hit for a six it took a bit of getting use to but at the same time it brought me back to earth. I realised there was a hell of a lot of people worse than myself.

Being the inaugural recipient of an award that went to the most outstanding handicapped worker and after over 10 years of working there I thought I would be there for the whole of my working life but on two separate occasions I was abused by staff/management. This resulted in me quitting in 1985 and I swore I would never work in a sheltered workshop again. Further down the track I realised I was just another number on the books that was pushed through to keep the system moving. I came to the decision that Sheltered Workshops have their place for people who have intellectual and / or physical problems, however they are not suitable for anyone who is alert enough to know they are being taken advantage of.

It has always been my belief that people who are born with disabilities accept and come to terms with their situation far easier than someone who has been in an accident during the course of their lives, no matter what type of accident it is. No matter whether you are an innocent party or not, no amount of money a person may receive will ever make up for the loss. It was 18 years old when I started to stand up for myself and where I felt I started having some independence. Through the encouragement of a friend, one Friday night I told my Mother I was going into town to buy some clothes.She said “Oh yes, who’s going with you?”, I replied to her “I am going by myself”. Her reply back to me was “Oh no your not”. In turn I said “Oh yes I am, just watch me”. Early Saturday morning I was up and got ready to go into town for the first time by myself. As I left, some of my brothers and sister said “Goodbye” to me as if they would never see me again and much to their dismay I turned up about 1pm. The over protection aspect got to me in a lot of ways but I came to the conclusion I was better off that they showed their concern and cared about me rather than just let me run wild.

I went to an Association that told me most emphatically I was not an Epileptic! In turn I replied “Well what the hell am I?” This was when they told me I am a person with Epilepsy. I put my hand on my heart and said “You don’t know how much better that makes me feel”. The staffs there were flabbergasted.Then there was an organisation who supposedly trained people with Epilepsy to get employment. Whilst I was speaking with one of the instructors I had a seizure finding myself up a flight of stairs in the men’s toilet luckily. When I returned to the land of the living realising where I was, I went back down to the instructor and was told in no uncertain terms “That when I am talking to someone and they have a fit I expect them to continue the conversation where they left off.” The only reason I had the seizure was because those running the organisation had purposely pushed me so they could see how far I could go without having a fit.

They did this by stealing two of my personal items. At the end of the day they were returned and it was admitted what the reason for it was. Another incident occurred when I decided I would give assistance to a large organisation that worked with people with intellectual difficulties only to be told I had to do a ‘Disability Awareness Program’ which was a course to become more familiar with disability. Before hand I pointed out I had been in the category of being disabled since birth, but that wasn’t good enough because there were different types of disability. I would’ve had to wait 8 months before the next one was held so they missed out. It was all fun and games when I was an inpatient at a certain convalescence hospital. On both times I had been admitted, being unable to use my left arm was of no significance to me. What was of significance was the inability to use my right hand due to having a fractured scaphoid bone, therefore I had to be spoon fed like a baby and assisted with every other daily task. Also during the admission no medication was dispensed for 10 nights straight even though it was on my chart. More than once a certain nurse threw a face washer at me telling me to wash myself even though I was unable to use either hand.

The second admission was just as ludicrous with 95% of the patients being stroke victims and me only having the use of one arm/hand. I was more than willing to show people ways to adapt with the most simplest of tasks. However because I didn’t have a certificate I wasn’t allowed to. The Physiotherapist had to go to Uni for 4 years to study how to do things where I had 40 years of lifetime practical experience of being able to show them first hand with personal experience. But that wasn’t good enough! I always believed that having someone in a similar or identical situation would show that it was possible no matter what the task. Not only would it have a greater impact on the person being shown, the person demonstrating would have a better understanding on alternative ways to achieve it.

A major hurdle overcome was in the early ‘90’s after swallowing a scalpel during the course of surgery; Needless to say I lived to tell the tale. Ever since then I have considered that if I can survive an incident like that I can survive most things. Having also been married and had a child who is now an adult is an achievement that many people with disabilities don’t get to experience, but then again, many do.

In finding myself on my own I took a positive attitude with a realistic outlook that open employment would never come my way. I decided to approach a place where I might be of some use to someone, the Disability Information and Resource Centre. The Centre provides an information and referral service to the people of South Australia where the needs of people with a disability have priority. I have been doing work for them for almost 9 years. Having received the ‘Invalid Pension/Disability Support Pension’ since the age of 16 I considered it was a way of giving something back to society for all the tax payers dollars I have received even if it wasn’t my fault I turned out like I am.

In my younger days, as with many of us, support and assistance did not exist the way it does now, which is why I consider myself to be a victim of circumstance. This has made me a stronger person, making me figure out how to do things for myself long before any of the aids and equipment ever became available. My parents had the attitude that if something I was reliant on got broken or damaged in some way I would be back to square one, which is why I am self taught.

Even if these aids were available no one ever let me know about them and I never received any, which is why I tend to ignore them and do whatever way it is the way I figured out in my childhood. In many ways the intellectually disabled are a lot luckier. What may concern many of us in our day to day lives would never enter their minds and they live in a world of their own.

Overall I would say “You can always find someone worse off than yourself.”