Some more feedback on the Conference:

Hi, my name is Anthony Baguley, I am a person with a vision impairment and live in Maryborough Queensland. I am currently studying a Bachelor of Arts, with majors in sociology and welfare studies, aiming to gain employment in the disability field. Attending the CRU conference was a very enlightening experience. Hearing the stories of people with a disability, and hearing of the vast number of services for people with a disability, left one key message in my mind – we all need to get behind the organisations that fight for the rights of people with a disability to prevent the shocking, dehumanising, and in some cases inhumane treatment endured by those who are vulnerable.

I never really ever understood just how bad institutions were! I knew that the concept was not good, but I didn't know how badly people with a disability were treated in institutions! Matthew Ellis's story alerted me particularly to how it would feel for families who have experienced separation from their relative, and how a person's youngest years are better spent with their family, rather than in some institution where they are treated as a number, with no sense of belonging.

The story of Marg Schroder provoked a lot of thought, and reignited my passion for wanting to see people with a disability included into the community as themselves, with their own personality and individuality. To think that a person lived in a house, in the community, and her neighbours were speaking to her visitors more than to her really concerns me. What does it take for the community to see that people with a disability are 'one of them', so to speak?

When hearing the experiences of younger people in a nursing home, I almost cried! It concerns me that the government wants to restrict the social experiences of younger people with a disability by sticking them into a nursing home! Younger people need to interact with people of their own age with similar interests, and they also need the opportunity to live a young person's life! What ever happened to the saying 'stay young while you can'?

Finally, Jan Dyke's story about an institution did bring a tear to my eye! It brought two thoughts to my mind: how can people inflict such inhumanity onto people, and how can we stop it? How can we stop the torment, the abuse, and the uncaring? How can we help people to see that people with a disability are human – they have a heart, a mind, and a free will, just as everyone else does! Such treatment is in breech of one of the basic human rights, and yet it continues day in and day out!

That's why we need to support all of the organisations that work to improve the lives of people with a disability. People with a disability have been subjected to such inexcusable treatment for too long! We need to take a stand against it, and support those who stand in agreement with us!