“I work at Curtin University” “Live in my house with my best mate Rhys” “love gardening, swimming, wine and watching tennis”. My son Dan, says this, who enjoys a typical life of any 25 year old despite having mixed seizure disorder and undiagnosed complex disabilities. As he was coming to the end of his school years I was repeatedly told he didn’t fit criteria. Fortunately at the same time Inclusion Alberta, Canada gave me the opportunity to participate in a study tour. I met people with complex disabilities attending mainstream school, university, working and living in their own homes. I couldn’t un-see what was possible and thought ‘ok this is what we are going to do’.
I was also introduced to microboards and as I came to understand it had absolutely nothing to do with computers and instead something to help me achieve my vision for Daniel DTMC Inc. was formed. His microboard is made up of 6 people who are friends and family who put his goals, dreams, needs and desires at the centre of their decisions and actions. An introductions by a microboard member was to a Professor at Curtin University where I nervously shared my vision and ideas for Dan and his work life. He was very interested and ten months later called to say he’d thought of a job Dan might be interested to do as a starting point.
The role was to raise the profile of and do the recycling. He felt with Dan going along in his large custom made wheelchair knocking on peoples doors once a week to empty their bins would likely increase their quota. We weren’t sure if he'd would be up for this kind of work but we noticed he loved knocking on doors, meeting people, taking transport. We also noticed he was only emptying 3 bins after 3 months!!
I had a chat to Dan about all the things we were noticing he liked about the job. I acknowledged emptying bins wasn’t the flashest job going and shared my first job was to clean out cages at a vet clinic.
The following week Dan emptied 7 bins and we went on to complete 2 floors. Soon after he was offered to be paid at the same rate of pay as anyone else….writing that still brings up a lot of emotion for me.
My son feels proud of the work he does and I know this because when he prepares for presentations he does not wish to share about his voluntary work. He’s a valued member of the workforce, his work colleagues share with me how much they appreciate and enjoy Daniel coming to their offices each week.
Daniel Nunn Mandurah