By BEN CAMERON
A BEACONSFIELD mother’s daily fight to remove barriers for people with disaibilities has reaped the highest of local praise.
Disability services Outlook announced Shaunagh Stevens as its inaugural winner of its All Abilities Leader Award last Wednesday morning.
Mrs Stevens has been a strong community advocate since she was five years old when she wanted to attend mainstream school, and has been an active member of various working groups and centres focused on providing opportunities for people with disabilities.
Introduced to the crowd by Cardinia Shire Council mayor Leticia Wilmot as “an instrument of change”, a clearly moved Stevens reflected on a life that begun with her parents being urged to put her in an institution.
“I have faced many challenges in my lifetime, but each one has strengthened me to make me the person I am today,” she said.
“A person who is passionate about the rights of people, especially those with a disability.
“We face physical, social, economic and attitudinal barriers on a daily basis that prevent us from participating fully and effectively as equal members of society.”
Chair of the Cardinia Access and Inclusion Advisory Committee, Stevens said she would “keeping fighting the good fight” for her vision of universal acceptance was achieved.
“One where society focuses on people’s abilities rather than their inabilities,” she said.
The mother of two was born in the 1960s when “segregation was the norm”.
“My parents were instructed on numerous occasions the best thing they could do for their family is to place me in an institution and forget about me,” she said.
“They were told I was going to be a vegetable unable to achieve anything. Fortunately, they chose to take me home.”
Her parents continued to fight for her, making sure she attended a mainstream school.
“My parents and I fought the system, so I could go to school with my brothers and sisters,” she said.
“And to think years down the track, I would become a primary school teacher who taught in the mainstream setting.”
Stevens dedicated her award to a lost “dear friend“, who had helped her during the “grips of anxiety”.
“(It’s) something I am battling today and have for the past two years,” she said.
She also thanked her two daughters Ashlee, 20, Hayley, 18 and her husband/chauffer Wayne.
