By Luke Voogt
Armstrong Creek consultant Ainslee Hooper hopes to add a doctorate to her accolades after winning at the Geelong Awards for People with a Disability this week.
She won the awards’ employment category and plans to begin a PhD in anthropology next year studying the impact of COVID-19 on people with disabilities.
“I had this life plan where I was going get my PhD at age 32,” she laughed.
“I’m 42 and I haven’t even started it yet.”
Ainslee won the employment award for her work helping employers to “remove invisible barriers” for people with disabilities, including advising the City of Melbourne this year.
She uses a wheelchair, due to spina bifida, and said experiencing how others interacted with her inspired her to get into consulting.
“Having a disability, I started to see these gaps that shouldn’t be happening.”
Ainslee was thrilled with the win, she said.
“I didn’t expect the response on social media. My phone’s been going flat with all the notifications.”
Jake Anderson won this year’s volunteering award for dedicating his time over the past 12 months to genU’s Gamer program, which uses video gaming as a tool for self-development.
Michael Chan won the achievement award for using his art and personal story being diagnosed with high-functioning autism to overcome barriers.
Teagan Whitten won the leadership and advocacy award for being “a driving force” on Deakin University Student Association for a number of initiatives to ensure inclusion and accessibility.
