Technology the key to changing the culture of disability

He has been countering this perception throughout his own career, which at its height had him managing a $1.2 billion international portfolio as a business executive for IBM and travelling five months of the year.

What drew him excessive admiration, he said, was the fact that he was a quadriplegic, and had used a wheelchair since injuring his spinal cord in a diving accident when he was 16.

"Why do you think that's so amazing?" he would ask those quick to praise him. "Man in wheelchair has ordinary job, shock horror."

"It's not the disability that's the problem here. It's incredibly challenging for people with a disability to be dealing with a world that doesn't expect very much from them."

This culture of low expectations prompted Dr Bagshaw to found The Able Movement, an NGO which aims to use social media to allow disabled people to tell "their own stories in their own way".

At the core of The Able Movement, which will be launched in February, is a rejection of the old hierarchical model of welfare.

"I've believed for a long time that old model, where a small group of people make all decisions and people with disability are at the bottom of the pyramid receiving support, is not the model that works."

Chief among movement's aims is to showcase the inherent employment potential of disabled people, and to shift the perception away from seeing the employed disabled person as merely a beneficiary of an employer's sense of social responsibility.

"As an employer, one of the key things I would look for are people who can solve problems. People with a disability have developed those skills, generally, to a much higher level than the average person."

After nearly three decades working in the IT business sector, Dr Bagshaw realised technology was the key to driving change.

At its launch, the Able Movement will unveil its first campaign, a collection of videos filmed by people with a spectrum of high level disabilities, ranging from those with hearing and vision impairments to those with intellectual disabilities.

The videos will be edited by accredited video editor Christopher Hills, an 18-year-old with cerebral palsy who uses a single switch on the headrest of his wheelchair to cut and edit the film.

Daniel Walker, 37, who is legally blind and among the first group of participants to make a video for the launch, said that discrimination in the workforce is an ongoing problem.

"The world is set up for the status quo, and technology has a massive role to play in changing that. It shows people what we can do," he said.

After the launch, the organisation will "flood social media with these stories and employers will see them and ultimately we will break down people's prejudice," Dr Bagshaw said.

The Able Movement's ground-up approach is consistent with the philosophy of the National Disability Insurance Scheme, which is the "biggest step forward" for disabled people, he said.

While the NDIS is spearheading the shift from a welfare-based system of disability support to a market-driven system, some disabled people are not yet prepared for the control the scheme will offer them, he said.

"The key reason for that is not that they are not capable, but they haven't been given the opportunity to learn the basic skills."

"The Able Movement will be pushing the envelope on this front."