Today, get ready to be moved by the extraordinary tale of Korrin Barrett and her fight against ulcerative colitis along with a life-threatening health crisis that unfolded unexpectedly and changed the course of her life forever.
Throughout the episode, host Lisa Mulligan and Korrin dive deep into her daunting diagnosis to surviving a medical catastrophe with only a mere 10% chance of survival to returning to work and then later becoming an advocate for disability rights. In addition she shares invaluable insights on how organizations can better cater to people with disabilities.
Korrin's story of self-advocacy and determination is nothing short of inspiring.
By sharing her experiences, Korrin inspires us all to challenge our perceptions, advocate for inclusive practices, and push for more equal societies.
Learn more and connect with Korrin here.
The Culture Ministry exists to create inclusive, accessible environments so that people and businesses can thrive.
Combining a big picture, balanced approach with real-world experience, we help organisations understand their diversity and inclusion shortcomings – and identify practical, measurable actions to move them forward.
Go to https://www.thecultureministry.com/ to learn more
If you enjoyed this episode and maybe learnt something please share with your friends on social media, give a 5 star rating on Apple podcasts and leave a comment. This makes it easier for others to find A Dog Called Diversity.
A Dog Called Diversity is proud to be featured on Feedspot's 20 Best Diversity And Inclusion Podcasts
Thanks for listening. Follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.
Today, get ready to be moved by the extraordinary tale of Korrin Barrett and her fight against ulcerative colitis along with a life-threatening health crisis that unfolded unexpectedly and changed the course of her life forever.
Throughout the episode, host Lisa Mulligan and Korrin dive deep into her daunting diagnosis to surviving a medical catastrophe with only a mere 10% chance of survival to returning to work and then later becoming an advocate for disability rights. In addition she shares invaluable insights on how organizations can better cater to people with disabilities.
Korrin's story of self-advocacy and determination is nothing short of inspiring.
By sharing her experiences, Korrin inspires us all to challenge our perceptions, advocate for inclusive practices, and push for more equal societies.
Learn more and connect with Korrin here.
The Culture Ministry exists to create inclusive, accessible environments so that people and businesses can thrive.
Combining a big picture, balanced approach with real-world experience, we help organisations understand their diversity and inclusion shortcomings – and identify practical, measurable actions to move them forward.
Go to https://www.thecultureministry.com/ to learn more
If you enjoyed this episode and maybe learnt something please share with your friends on social media, give a 5 star rating on Apple podcasts and leave a comment. This makes it easier for others to find A Dog Called Diversity.
A Dog Called Diversity is proud to be featured on Feedspot's 20 Best Diversity And Inclusion Podcasts
Thanks for listening. Follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.
Welcome to the podcast, corinne. It's actually Corinne Barrett, isn't it? Yeah, thank you for having me. Oh, it's so delightful, and it's delightful because you're in New Zealand and I'm in New Zealand and so many of my guests are somewhere else around the world, so it's really nice to have some New Zealanders on the programme. So, thank you, would you like to start and tell us a bit about where you're located and a bit about you?
Speaker 2:Yes, sure. So I live in the beautiful Hawkes Bay, so just out of Hablot North, and it's nice and bright and sunny today. Everyone knows we haven't had the best summer last year, so we're looking forward to some warmer days and hopefully drier days and things. But yeah, and I have been living here now for five years. I was living in Australia for about 10 and a half years and before that mostly grew up in the South Island, went to school down there and yeah, yeah, I wondered now were you impacted by the floods earlier this year?
Speaker 1:And I was asking we've recently been in your part of the world and there was a section driving into Napier that was just so devastating. And then as yeah, and there were pockets of it in that area, so I wondered were you impacted at all?
Speaker 2:No, so we were, I mean, only impacted as thousands of other people were, with just no power. We do live near a river and it did come up to the point where we couldn't exit our road for a couple of days, but the devastation is just absolutely horrific out there. And, you know, 10 minutes down the road we've got areas where the whole kilometres of road was taken out and houses have been lost and livelihoods have been lost and businesses and everything. So, yeah, it's. I mean, we're what seven months, eight months nearly down the or eight months actually down the track of it happening. And there's still the clean up, there's still people who don't know where they stand with, you know, whether they can go back to their houses or not.
Speaker 2:And yeah, I know local councils and everything are working hard to sort of give people answers, but it's just, yeah, it's just it's really devastating. People have been cut off from the rest of the region and even now, you know, still there's still bridges down and all sorts of things. So yeah, we will rebuild, but it's just going to take some time. And yeah, community coming together and pitching in and being there for each other and just yeah, encouraging and people speaking out as well, and I think about, you know, if they are in diastrates and absolutely do need help in some way, whether it's physical, emotional, all of those things, yeah, just knowing that they can actually reach out to two people or organisations and get the help that they need, so yeah, and let's hope for a warm, hot summer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, although not too hot and not too dry. You know that's that heavy medium it's hard to find. So we've gone the wettest summer last year to what they're predicting to be, you know, a drought now. So he's just he's hoping that doesn't quite happen because, yeah, I just don't know, I don't know how the, how the farmers and the orchidists and everything will cope.
Speaker 1:No, exactly, but we're not here to talk really about all of that. I was just, yeah, I just want to talk about the devastation in your part of the world, but I guess we're really here to talk about you and something that's happened in your life and and how you've come out of, I guess, a period with, I would say, a fair amount of optimism and pragmatism. I think it's fair to say that. Would you, would you like to share what happened to you and maybe, when you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's the probably the easiest way.
Speaker 2:So back in 2012 is I was living in Australia and I lost my mum to bowel cancer in the March of that year. I was working for a gas pipeline project and very high end job and I recently just been promoted to, you know, sort of a project management level and everything was kind of all just, I guess, piling on top of me at the same time and I started experiencing some abdominal and stomach issues and, obviously, having lost my mum to bowel cancer, when it had some tests done and they diagnosed me with ulcerative colitis so much like Crohn's disease I had very severe inflammation of my large bowel and I didn't really get a chance to even figure out what that meant, because it obviously did mean changes to my lifestyle, changes to my 18, changes to everything stress levels and all those sorts of things. But within two weeks of the diagnosis, I started experiencing horrific pains. I had, you know, fevers and chill body chills and the body aches and just that sense of feeling the worth that I had ever felt, and so I have a pretty high pain tolerance and for me to go to my partner, craig, and say can you please take me to the hospital. He knew pretty much straight away that it must be pretty serious if I'm asking to go to the hospital.
Speaker 2:And yeah, so I went to the hospital and unfortunately, they didn't really look or get to the bottom of where the pain or what was causing the pain really, and I got sort of shifted around different beds and different wards. I had multiple medical teams assessing me. You know, every day there'd be someone new that I'd have to explain. This is what I'm feeling, this is what's happened, this is how long it's been going on for, and I'd go often, have tests done and then they'd lose the results or they wouldn't be able to find the. Yeah, it was just a multitude of errors, unfortunately, and it took them seven days to detect that I had a perforated bowel. So that was what was actually causing all the problems. So they rushed me for emergency surgery and initially, yeah, so they gave me an early ostomy bag and I came out of that surgery and you know, I was young and fit and social and in the prime of my career and everything suddenly hit this bag on me and thought, oh no, you know, can it get any worse.
Speaker 2:And unfortunately it could get worse, because two days later I was still in pain and they said oh, we don't think we cleared all the toxins out properly, so we need to rush you in for another surgery. That one I didn't wake up from, though. They ended up having to pop me into an induced coma because I aspirated on the operating table, which means that my lungs filled, and they came out and said to Craig something went wrong. We need to rush her to another hospital and she'll be placed on life support over there, but prepare yourself because it's not looking good. So I got transferred to this other hospital, and they had to make the decision, basically as I arrived, as to whether or not they would place me on this machine called ECMO. So ECMO is an oxygenated pump that does the breathing for you, because I was so unwelcoming.
Speaker 1:So life support effectively a life support machine.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So basically my heart was failing, my lungs had failed, my kidneys were failing, oxygen levels were down below 30% and I think it was Craig that pretty much said to them you know, she's super fit and super healthy, she'll fight this. So yeah, they ended up putting me on that machine and saved my life. But I woke up nine days later and, completely unaware of what had happened because I had gone to sleep in one hospital, woke up in another one, really heavily medicated with some pretty you know full on drugs, thought I'd been kidnapped, thought that you know they were there to kill me. And oh, it was horrific. Those first few days were like waking up in a nightmare over and over again, and having to-.
Speaker 1:I wanted to ask you, sorry. I wanted to ask, though it started with a perforated bowel. Do you, does anyone know how that happened, or so it could be a number of things.
Speaker 2:So basically the perforated bowel could have happened because the infection in of the ultrotypicalitis was so severe and the lining of my bowel was so thin that when they did tests and took biopsies it could have created we don't know medically 100%, but those are pretty sure reasons why it perforated and just not getting the right antibiotics and the right treatment for the amount of time that it took. So by the time they detected that the bowel's been taken, the bowel's perforated, it had been three weeks since my procedure, so it could have perforated any time in that time. So those were things that you will sort of never really know. I've got a number of reports here. But yeah, so you're basically.
Speaker 2:And then I woke up and because of the ECMO saving my organs so the ECMO obviously does the breathing for you and the blood transferring around the body it couldn't get to my hands and feet. So I woke up and my hands and feet had started to turn black so that meant the oxygen wasn't getting through. And yeah, two, I think it was two, I must have been about three weeks after I woke up.
Speaker 2:Yeah that came in and said we need to amputate both your legs before this blood disease gets to your heart. So yeah, so I had both my legs amputated below the knee and then about six weeks later, after trying to save my hands, I had all the fingers off my left hand amputated and half my thumb and my right arm.
Speaker 2:I'm wearing this cool arm, but my right arm's amputated to about mid forearm and yeah so lost my large bowel, both my legs, my hand, all my fingers, and spent a pretty lengthy time in hospital, ended up being about. In total it was 223 days.
Speaker 1:So I always say that's a lot of bad food.
Speaker 1:That is a lot of bad food. So a couple of things. You won't be able to see it if you're listening, but Coran has a looks like almost a bionic arm and hand on her right hand. But I wanted to ask you how were you mentally during that period, having been moved to hospitals and you didn't even realise that must have felt like being taken by aliens, almost. You know, waking up and realising you'd been in a coma for nine days, then having to make decisions and I'm assuming it was a decision to make about your legs and then your hands and arms. What was that period like mentally?
Speaker 2:It was well initially the first sort of three or four weeks I couldn't actually speak either, so I had a tricky breathing tube in my neck. So it was lots of communicating by clicking my tongue or blinking my eyes. You feel like you're very articulate at speaking silently, malathing words, but no one gets it when you're like my face is itchy or those sorts of things. So that was quite difficult. And then when I was able to speak, and obviously I had very bad short-term memory because of all the drugs and the medication that I was on, so I would forget that people had told me what had happened. And then so the next day I'd wake up again and that same nightmare of having been kidnapped and I'd be malathing help me to my friend who would come to visit, or to Craig, or thinking that. You know, I thought that I was on some ship somewhere and they had paralyzed me and taken my voice box and it was horrific those first few days.
Speaker 2:But yeah, it took some time to sort of come to terms with the fact that I had survived something that I probably shouldn't have Like. I was initially sort of given less than 10% chance of survival and being told that, and I had so many people come and visit me all the time and so much support and the nursing staff were amazing and we got on really well and I think just having all of that it kind of didn't give me too much time to think it was. The worst times were nighttime, like when you're lying in your bed. There's like hour after hour thinking why me? I'm a good person, why would this happen to me, all those sorts of things? And then I told Craig to leave because I said you know, life's not ever gonna be the same again and he's got inappropriate jokes that he uses to cope with things like why would I leave? You were high maintenance before. Now you've upped the bar. So yeah, he's a bit like that.
Speaker 2:But, yeah, I did have a good time. Yeah, I did have some pretty dark days initially, and then I think I was quite lucky that I had always been sort of quite a driven and determined person and resilient, and I'd gone through stuff, you know, in my upbringing and I was pretty independent and was lucky enough that I could switch it. To hold on a minute, stop focusing on what I've lost and what I can't do, but what can I still do to you know? Live this life that I've now been given. Yeah, so it just sort of became about that setting small goals, sitting up in the bed unassisted, feeding myself, anything like that. I've been in and out of the bed into a wheelchair, being able to have the independence, go out and smell a fresh air and just yeah, and just really appreciating all of those things. I think this is the biggest thing your sense of gratitude and appreciation changes and your suddenly gifted a whole lot of things that you've taken for granted before. I think that's the biggest thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, tell me about the impact of your employer, and I don't hear stories like this very often, but I do know how important work is for our sense of self feeling worth that you can contribute and be paid, like all of that stuff. You know it's more important than the money. It's, you know, important to be with other people and to feel part of something. And I know your employer. It sounded like when we had our pre-chat that they wanted to get you back to work pretty quickly. So tell me about how that all happened.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So when I was first able to speak after my tracky tube came out, one of the first things I said was am I still going to have a job? And no one. I think the nurses whoever was in the room all kind of looked at each other like, how do we tell her that she's probably going to have no hands and feet? But sure, and I think I was very, very close to that time that my boss actually came in with a canvas card that had the Tree of Life painted on it and signed by the project and a quote that says believe you can in your halfway there, and he said to me we just want you to know that your job's waiting for you. So no matter what it takes, what it costs or how long it takes, and you know, we'll do whatever possible to get you back to work.
Speaker 2:And that was a pivotal moment, I think, in my recovery. It was that because I had I'm very work driven. I'm very, and I've always worked and I've always put 110% into my job. I mean, especially if you like it like we're like man, this isn't for me long term, but yeah, and so they ended up in full consultation with me, which was amazing. But they got an outside occupational therapy company and returned to work program and spent $40,000 on renovating the office so I could go back to work. So I was in a wheelchair. They started paying for me to taxi to and from work while I was still in the hospital.
Speaker 2:So one morning a week, I would you know, and it was all part of my rehab, really, because it was meant to be stimulating me to go to work.
Speaker 2:And they put in big automatic doors that I could just wheel out of the lift and push a button on the wall and the door would open and I could wheel through to my office and gave me an office and built a wheelchair accessible bathroom and gave me an assistant and all of these things that, yeah, I'll be forever grateful for. And because I know and I say this to everyone I wouldn't be where I am today had that not happened. I think that I would be the person that I am and sitting here, you know, doing what I'm doing, had I not had that, because, you're right, it gave me a sense of purpose and it gave me a sense of normality, but it also gave me a sense of loyalty and I worked hard because they had done so much that I needed to repay them in some way, and so it was. Yeah, I put my heart and soul into that and I was just so lucky and so grateful that I got another 18 months on that project. Yeah, and just to this day, forever grateful.
Speaker 1:And you know. You know what is amazing about that experience and it shouldn't be amazing, it shouldn't be. But I've worked for a lot of big companies and it is amazing because in Australia and in other countries, if you had an accident at work, you know there's an obligation on employers to get you back to work and to do all the things to make accommodations so that you can still contribute, right. So there's some law around that, but you didn't have an accident at work. They were just good humans, really good humans, right, and I think you know they're the kind of organisations people want to work for and they want to work hard. They want to be loyal, like what you've done, and we shouldn't be amazed when companies do that. But in my experience, it's few and far between that. Organisations do what they've done for you.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Amazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. And yeah, and I've still got really great relationship with my boss and his wife. They moved back to America not long after well, I think it was while I was still on the project, I think but we've maintained in touch and we've gone over and stayed with them and caught up with them and it's just yeah, again, forever grateful that they gave me the opportunity because, like you say, it didn't happen at work. Plus, we were all contractors, so we weren't even employees.
Speaker 2:We weren't employees no they could have very easily just said sorry, but we've replaced your role with someone else. Good luck with your recovery. They could have easily done that, but they didn't. And, yeah, it's amazing and I hope, I just hope that other organisations around Australia and New Zealand now, you know take that on board because it's yeah, I mean, it makes them look amazing, but doing it in the first place. Yeah, yeah. So it's why wouldn't you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, what will? Could you talk a little bit about some of the other tools that you had at that time to be able to do your work? You know you talked about, you know big doors so that you could access, I guess, the office, and ramps and accessible bathrooms. But I'm assuming there were some other things, because if you don't have fingers on your hands you can't type Like what were some of the other things that that was put in place?
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, so they, they brought me a whole lot of equipment and I worked out that for a keyboard, the flatter the keys the better, because I could still type with my little thumb on my left hand and I didn't have a bionic arm at that stage, so I was using the little bony bit on my right arm to type away, and my boss used to actually he was in the office next door to me and he'd pop his head around sometimes, be like stop typing so fast, the rest of us to shame, because you know some one finger typers that we know. But yeah, they, they also got me things like dragon, naturally speaking software. But I found that almost more of a hindrance If I've really taken the time to train it, because you have to train it to your accent and to your words and the way that. But I found it actually just easier to use my keyboard than it was. I've got a special mouse that has like a rollerball on it so I could just roll my hand around and click the buttons either side. Yeah, they gave me a chair so that I could hop out of my wheelchair if I were, like when I started walking on my prosthetic legs, and it was suitable for sitting for long periods of time, and a desk that raised up and down and all of those things. They even bought me a Shays lounge for the office for you know, like, if you ever get tired and you need just like a little bit of a lie down and I'm like, please, I'm never gonna use that.
Speaker 2:I actually did one day back. I had a really bad cold and I took some cold and flu like a limb sip I think, but I didn't realise that it was the one that you're supposed to have at nighttime. So I'm like the little day and I've like taken this and I'm just like looking at my computer screen and my eyes start like going cross-eyed and I'm like, oh gosh, I actually feel like I need to lie down. So I lay down on this lounge that was in my office and fell asleep for two hours. The girls outside just closed the door.
Speaker 2:No, she's not in there, because you couldn't actually see me from the, from the doorway, if I, because without my legs, because it had like that round out. It was funny anyway, yeah, I love it, yeah, but again, also like all of that equipment they gave me when I left. So everything that they like that I the gave me the chair, all of the computer equipment, the dragon actually speaking, the, the Shays lounge, like everything that I wanted, that they'd gifted me or got an infamy I was able to take, and yeah, so I just bought that into my office at home and it was incredible.
Speaker 2:Yeah brilliant.
Speaker 1:I want to talk about how you went from, I guess, working on that project to what you're doing now. But I first wanted to ask you about your arms and your your bionic arm and your legs. Like, how do how does that come about that you can access prosthetics Prosthetics, is that the right word? Yeah, yeah, and you know how. What's the process and like is there funding that helps you afford to have those aids?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so in Australia while I was in hospital, in rehab, you're in a rehab hospital. That's when they start to go through the process of getting you on to prosthetic legs, so it's all sort of funded through the hospital system initially. And then you, yeah, so over there it's a bit different. So then there was a I was in Queensland so the Queensland Amity Lim service. They provide funding. So I think it's a bit like enable here and Ministry of Health here versus, like versus. If it was an accident it would be work cover over there in ACC here.
Speaker 2:But also we sought, we fought for compensation because it turned out that it was medical negligence that led to me becoming like this. So we fought so for four years actually it took to fight for that, and then what that meant was when I got well, we won my case, obviously, because it was pretty, pretty obvious that it had. But I mean, they still fought to the absolute bitter end that they had done no wrong. And then, yeah, then I have to. But then out of your compensation you've got to pay back the ADT limb service. So for every prosthetic that I had received, every device that I had received up until that point, I had to pay back.
Speaker 2:And then you've got to pay back things like your private health insurance, medicare. Obviously you'll leave the same news and all that sort of stuff. So, yeah, it's all great. Like people are like oh you know, yeah, you got compensation, but yeah, and then then you become self-funded to a degree, so they will yeah. So like here in New Zealand, for example, I'm not under ACC because it happened in Australia and I'm partially under Ministry of Health because I am a New Zealand citizen and entitled to some funding. But yeah, I, depending on the level of prosthesis, depends on what you fund yourself and what is funded for you. So yeah, high-end bionics are not only funded by the health system.
Speaker 2:So far not the Te Whati Order funding. But that's another hat that I'm wearing at the moment that I'm trying to fight for for other people advocating on behalf of that, because I think it's really unfair that there is such a huge gap in funding. But yeah, stories one, just one of my many hats.
Speaker 1:So you do very different work now from being a project manager on a gas pipeline project. How have you transitioned from there to what you're doing now?
Speaker 2:Yeah, gosh, so I okay. If I take it back to when I was working on the project, my one of my managers knew that I had a fear of public speaking, so she would insist on our weekly team updates and it's like whole of whole of team. So there's, there could be like 200 people around that she would say, karin, can you please give the update for our department? And I'd look at her and be like, oh, so yeah. Then I ended up in hospital and all of this happened and I had been a treasurer for Australian Institute of Office Professionals organisation over there and they had the annual breakfast and they asked me to come and share a little bit of my story and I just thought, oh, this is just not gonna go well at all. I'm, you know, still in hospital at this stage.
Speaker 2:And so I taxied to the venue and a really good friend of mine came with me and I got up on the stage and I think I had five minutes to just tell a little bit of my story and then hop off the stage and I think I just went blah, blah, blah, blah. Don't ever remember what I said. Really. I said something about the fact that at least I won't get cancels and I don't have to worry about getting blisters with new shoes or you know those sorts of things. And then I sat back down at the table and I was shaking like a leaf and I was like that was horrendous. And the emcee he was sitting next to me and he said that was one of the most amazing five minute speeches I've ever heard. He said you need to do this for a job. And I said, oh, don't be ridiculous.
Speaker 2:And then, yeah, from there I just started doing schools for friends Like that go, oh, my daughter's class wants you to come in and tell your story and show off some of your you know cool stuff and workplaces.
Speaker 2:And yeah, it just grew from there. So then I realized very early on that I could have an impact and I think that is the reward from what I do and I can stand up in front of 10 people or a thousand people and tell my story the way that I tell it and it's authentic and it's real and it's a humorous and from the heart. And I realized very early on that if I stuff up it actually doesn't matter, because it's my story and no one really knows. And yeah, and I started getting really nice messages from people just saying how much it had impacted them and changed their life and stopped them from having bad thoughts and all that sort of thing, and, yeah, just decided that that's what I needed to do. So, yeah, so now I do motivational speaking for a job and a passion and as well as volunteering for a number of organizations as an advocate for those with disabilities.
Speaker 1:Tell us about those.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I sort of moved back to New Zealand, thinking I'd come home for the quiet life, and then realized very early on that I can't say no, and I also and you didn't really want a quiet life, surely?
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, obviously not. And I just thought well, I've got a voice and a lot of people don't, and I've got a platform and I can actually fight for people and the rights of people. So I'm currently the president for the Amputee Federation of New Zealand, which is our national body supporting amputees around New Zealand. Treasurer for the local amputee society. I am on the board for Presbyterian support as a board observer for disability and governance and just helping with those sorts of things. I'm on the board for Staros, which is a support, not-for-profit, for those affected by suicide. So I did lose a family member to suicide and amongst my journey and, yeah, and just a number of other organizations the Cephas Trust, new Zealand, helping them out as a consumer rep and local councils and things. Just keep it interesting and Just be things. Yeah, throwing my hand in the air wherever I can and it's a very impressive hand. Well, I think it's in a number of pies they say I love that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that. That. It's such an amazing story, corinne, but I get the impression that you would be doing things like this no matter what. You would be working in community and as well as having your own business, yeah Well, so a lot of my listeners work in big organizations leading diversity and inclusion efforts, and I've had a little bit of experience with companies looking at, I guess, their disability strategies and how they can do better by accommodating people who need different support from other people. I guess what's your, I guess what's your advice for those people about how to support people who have different abilities in the workplace? Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:That is also another passion. I'm sort of trying to branch into accessibility advisory because no one knows it better than someone with lived experience and I think we've got so much bureaucracy out there and so much written in books or policies or procedures. It's like ticking a box to say we've put in an accessible bathroom, tick, and it's like, well, actually your accessible bathroom isn't even accessible for someone who maybe has limited upper body use and they can't even turn around, they can't even lock the door. You know, yeah, or the door doesn't slide, it opens out and you're in a wheelchair and you've got to open the door out and then wheel in and then turn around and wheel out again to get the door to pull it closed. Yeah, All of those things.
Speaker 2:So I think my advice to anyone in organisations that if you don't have someone with lived experience, try and find someone Like. There's so many places out there, organisations out there that are trying to help employers with this. So I've been doing some work and I emcee to conference this year, the Disability Inclusive Pathways Conference, which is part of the New Zealand Disability Employers Network, and Accessibility Tick is their original but they are abably supporting having people with any disability and it's neurodiverse, almost physical, it's just. We know we need to be more inclusive, we need to be more diverse and we need to be more accessible. And it's yeah, I think, yeah. So I just think find someone with lived experience to come in and really help you and talk to your staff and talk to and assist with anything that you think you might want to be doing, Don't just tick a box.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. I think it's such good advice when I've seen some organisations who who genuinely want to do good, they want to have accessible workplaces, but because they're big organisations, they want to create systems and processes and approvals and governance. And so you end up with with these massive systems and accommodations catalogs. You know you can buy different chairs and you know different headsets or different mouses or different keyboards, when in fact, if you kept it at a local level, if you worked with the local community organisations, have you said, if you've, if you're trying to meet the needs of the people in your office or your location in that part of the community, that's going to be much better than trying to tackle some of these things at a massive scale.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:I've not fed anyone, right yeah.
Speaker 2:And you'll find that people who do have a physical or neurodiverse you know limitation I call it can often work with standardised equipment if they're given the opportunity to try it. So that was like me. It was like we didn't have to go out and buy a $400 keyboard that was specific to someone with no fingers. It was let's try a couple of different keyboards, and we found that there was one that was perfect and it was in. You know, might have been a $2 keyboard or something, but it's yeah.
Speaker 2:I think it's allowing people to try things as well and because, yeah, you don't want to be that, you don't want to feel like, oh, I'm a financial burden on my employer because I've had to go and spend all this money on a specialised equipment because this brochure says that it's going to be, it's going to work, when that might not work for them anyway. It's like proselytus legs and arms. It can't be out of a box, it can't be. You're a bilateral baloney amputee, so these are the feet that are going to be perfect for you. It's like no, and it's the same with working in an environment. It's sensory, it's equipment, it's everything that comes with it. So I just yeah, I think employers need to be more open to conversation with the end user, like their employee or the person that they're hoping. Yeah, and just be open to change and open to possibility and opportunity. I think it's the perfect yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and not over cooking. The solution then pulls you into the corporate.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then they say, oh no, we can't, because we can't put in, we can't put in a lift or we can't do that. So they just write it off and go well, we can't, we can't be an accessible workplace because we can't do that. And so well, actually, is there an alternative?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it's not that hard. Yeah Well, if people want to work with you, karen, how do they find you?
Speaker 2:So the best way is through my website, which is wwwkaren, so K-O-R-I-NN-Z. Or I have Facebook Instagram, so they are Karen Life Unlimited. You can find me that way. Linkedin, it's just under my name, Karen Barrett, so any of those in email. You can send me an email. Hello at Karen N-Z. Perfect.
Speaker 1:All the spots. Yeah, I will put all of those links in the show notes and thank you so much for talking to me today, karen. It's been an absolute pleasure.
Speaker 2:Thank you, I love seeing your bionic limb, that's so cool, yeah, so I'm just going to try and make it work. Oh, yeah, so it just works off the muscles in my arm so I can close it and open it, and then you can hold it to do different things, different grips.
Speaker 1:That is so cool.
Speaker 2:And then there's buttons to. Yeah, so right here in New Zealand by a company called Tasker, which is amazing. So I'm a brand ambassador for them, a Tasker champion, and yeah, they're in Christchurch and it's just absolutely fantastic, fully waterproof and, yeah, life-changing to have something that is, you know, just gives you quality of life.
Speaker 1:I love it. I love it. I will put the Tasker link in the show notes as well. Where I go to the gym, there's a women's gym section and there is a woman there who has different prosthetic legs. So when she's on the treadmill and she's running, she's got a different leg to her Her blade's on. Yeah, she's got blades for running, and then she puts on a different leg for weightlifting.
Speaker 2:Oh, I just think she's so cool, she's so badass.
Speaker 1:Very cool, very cool. Well, thank you so much, corinne, and I'm looking forward to putting this episode out in the world Absolutely.
Speaker 2:And I'm looking forward to it.