Personal Life

On the Platform with Peta Hooke

Platform Stories is my opportunity to showcase and support other woman with disability, and creating each piece refreshes me. I feel more like part of a collective, part of a groundswell of change on how people living with disability are seen as all that we are… capable, dynamic, individual, human, […]

On the Platform with Dr Michelle Hu

Tell us about yourself I’m Dr. Michelle Hu and I am a pediatric audiologist and a classically trained Chef. I grew up in the small town of Kent, Ohio but have called San Diego, California home for the past 11 years. I am the mama of two little girls, two […]

On the Platform with Melanie Hawkes

Platform stories showcases and represents women with disabilities who live real, diverse, and everyday lives, achieving so many things… so much more than the often-lower expectations placed upon them by a society that sees disability as “less than”. Society until very recently, has most often portrayed people with disabilities as […]

On the Platform with Jillian Oliver

Title Image by Ainslee Dennis. Sustaining disability at any age comes with associated feelings of grief and loss. A sense of not knowing how and where you fit into a world that you have to find a new way to navigate. For many of us with disability this process can […]

On the Platform with Tahira Kelly

As the host of Platform Stories, I am proud to live on Southern Yamatji land, and it is with delight that the latest woman on the Platform is Tahira Kelly,  a Yamatji woman with disabilities.  Tahira finds passion and purpose through celebrating her culture, staying connected to her family, her […]

On the Platform with Brooke Scott

Living with disability can be a sometimes feel like a lonely road, and at times, a difficult and challenging journey. A journey made easier by finding others like you, who understand your situation and who share similar experiences that can help you to learn and grow, and from whom you […]

On the Platform with Rita Ebel

For many of us with disabilities, we spend much of our time working out creative ways to increase access to places and spaces not always designed to include us. Sometimes it is navigating sets of stairs leading to places we would like to go ( involving undignified and embarrassing lifts […]

On the Platform with Jenny McAllister

Did you know that over 4 million people identify as having disability across Australia? Surprising then, that very few fashion labels, fashion retailers and fashion outlets cater to either inclusive adaptive fashion or provide accessible environments to support the shopping experience of many who live with disabilities. For some of […]

On the Platform with Amanda Perla-Jereczek

Finding inadequate options available to support her journey to return to a quality of life she desired, Amanda Perla-Jereczek created her own, and in doing so, made sure the opportunities to do so were also afforded to others like her. Reading Amanda’s story resonated with me, her story demonstrates how […]

2020…the year that was….

So here we are nearing the end of what has been an incredibly challenging year, I can feel myself breathing a sigh of relief, it has been a long year, full of the unexpected for all of us, peppered with surprising moments of joy and celebration, in amongst the struggles […]

On the Platform with Kate Mulvany

As someone who sustained a disability at a young age, I struggled in the early years to feel confident in who I was and how I looked. It felt like I never saw anyone who looked or lived like me represented in any form of mainstream media or arts. How […]