Growing Up Disabled in Australia (Online)

Emma Di Bernardo is a young writer, LGBTIQ+ and disability advocate from Queensland, Australia. She works as a special education teacher and has a fervour for creative projects.

Emma’s non-fiction work has been featured at Disability in Kidlit and the One Woman Project about chronic pain and media representations of women.

She is co-creator and former co-host of the chronic pain podcast Have You Tried Yoga? with Georgia Young.

Her proudest literary achievement is publishing an article in a Buffy The Vampire Slayer academic journal, the Undergraduate Journal of Whedon Studies.

My body and its place in the world seemed quite normal to me. I didn’t grow up disabled, I grew up with a problem. A problem those around me wanted to fix. We have all felt that uncanny sensation that someone is watching us. The diagnosis helped but it didn’t fix everything. Don’t fear the labels. One in five Australians has a disability. And disability presents itself in many ways. Yet disabled people are still underrepresented in the media and in literature. Growing Up Disabled in Australia is the fifth book in the highly acclaimed, bestselling Growing Up series. It includes interviews with prominent Australians such as Senator Jordon Steele-John and Paralympian Isis Holt, poetry and graphic art, as well as more than 40 original pieces by writers with a disability or chronic illness. 

My essay in this anthology is titled 'Noisy Silence'. One in five Australians has a disability. And disability presents itself in many ways. Yet disabled people are still underrepresented in the media and in literature. Growing Up Disabled in Australia is the fifth book in the highly acclaimed, bestselling Growing Up series. It includes interviews with prominent Australians such as Senator Jordon Steele-John and Paralympian Isis Holt, poetry and graphic art, as well as more than 40 original pieces by writers with a disability or chronic illness. Contributors include Dion Beasley, Astrid Edwards, Jessica Walton, Carly-Jay Metcalfe, Gayle Kennedy and El Gibbs. 

Todd Winther has written about disability policy for more than a decade.. He was the lead politics and policy commentator for ABC Ramp Up, the national broadcaster's defunct disability portal. Todd has written political commentary for The Conversation, Brisbane Times, and appeared on ABC TV, covering Queensland Politics. Todd has taught on a number of subjects at the University of the Sunshine Coast and the University of Queensland on disability policy, policy development, election campaigns, and the relationship between politics and the media. Todd has cerebral palsy.