Dylan Alcott, the 2022 Australian of the Year and paralympic gold medal winner, says more representation is needed, not just around disability, but in all forms of diversity.
At his speech at this year’s AANA Reset Live, he kicked the day off in humorous fashion with an anecdote about his brother putting the TV remote in places he couldn’t get it when they were kids.
“Often difference is seen as a bad thing in our society, but if my brother treated me like he would any little brother and didn’t care that I’m in a wheelchair, why should I?”
In high school, he said he became embarrassed about the fact he had a disability, especially when friends would stop inviting him to events and parties.
“My mates didn’t hate me because I was different, they were just embarrassed to talk about my disability. I was embarrassed to talk about it with them because I wasn’t proud of the person I was.
“Once I started talking about it, so did other people because they felt more comfortable. Disability is not a bad word, but people think it’s a bad word because of unconscious bias around it.”
Moving on to speak about his paralympic career – where he won a total of eight medals, including five golds – and his desire to succeed, Alcott said that purpose is crucial, both in the sporting world and the business world.
“It’s important in life to have a passion and a purpose. Are we enjoying what we are doing every single day? If you’re a long time living, you’re a long time working, so why waste it doing something you don’t enjoy?”
After an eight-year wheelchair basketball career, Alcott returned to the wheelchair tennis he played in his youth, subsequently becoming the only man in tennis history to complete the Golden Slam in quad singles, winning all four majors and the Paralympics in 2021. He is also the only man to complete the Grand Slam in quad doubles, winning all four major titles in 2019.
“I made the switch back to tennis for a number of reasons, partly because it’s the most high-profile paralympic sport and because of that, I can build a platform to change the perception of disabled people in sports.”
He said that while winning gold medals and grand slams are great, his purpose comes down to one simple statement: “[I want to] change perceptions so all people with disability can live the lives they deserve to live.”
He said one of the hardest things to overcome as a disabled person is a lack of expectation over what you can do, relating to the general public not seeing disabled people in the media.
“I never saw anyone like me growing up. The only time I saw disabled people [in the media] was on car safety ads, of people being paralysed after a crash. We need greater representation of disabled people everywhere.”
Finally, he shared a story about the Dylan Alcott Foundation and Ability Fest, the country's first and only completely inclusive, fully accessible music festival. A friend of his who worked in a hospital had a young patient who went to Ability Fest and told him to tell Alcott that it was ‘the best day of his life’.
“You can change someone’s life, especially in the [advertising and marketing] industry you’re in, and you might not even know about it. If a disabled person sees an ad with someone like themselves in, they feel represented, and will want to buy your products or servces.”
He encouraged everyone to lift their expectations of what people with disability are capable of: “For every one thing I can’t do, there’s hundreds of things I can do.”
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