Nicolo

Nicolo, late 40s, has paraplegia as the result of an accident a few years ago.

Prior to the accident, Nicolo worked outdoors and was building himself a home. Following the accident, he needed to find a new job and modify the house he was in the process of building.

Nicolo was offered a job in sales and was really excited.

The building did not have an accessible bathroom so Nicolo secured funding to install one at no cost to the business or the owner of the property.

A week later, Nicolo received an email rescinding the job offer. The owner of the building didn’t want any structural modifications made to the building.

'It’s definitely discrimination. Every workplace should have a disability access bathroom for either an employee or a member of the public.’

Nicolo started to engage with the NDIS to see if they could assist with the cost of modifying the home he was building. He needed to widen some hallways and install sliding doors.

But he found the cost of getting occupational therapists and engineers to write reports and an NDIS approved draftsperson to redo the plans, added significant costs to the build and chewed up the funding.

It also meant a delay of 12-18 months to finish the home.

‘The paperwork and the amount of hoops you have to jump through to get some sort of assistance with a few extra things, to me, it just was not worth it … We’ve been living in a shed long enough.’

Nicolo also told the Royal Commission about a particular incident that took place soon after his accident.

‘It was fairly short and fast recovery,’ he told the Royal Commission, and he was keen to ‘venture out a bit’ in his wheelchair.

Nicolo booked an accessible ticket to attend a concert with his son.

He arrived at the venue and discovered his accessible ticket was halfway down the grandstand.

‘In no way was that seat accessible for anyone in a wheelchair, unless you're able to stand up and go down steps.’

The usher ‘had a bit of a chuckle’ and told Nicolo he needed to contact the ticketing agent. But there was no ticketing agent on site.

Nicolo spoke to ‘two or three chains of command’. They all suggested he leave and speak to someone during office hours.

‘My words were, “I'm in here now. I've paid my money and I'm not going to go outside, because this is something that is a once in a lifetime opportunity.”’

They advised him to wait in the disabled area in case there was a no-show.

‘Fortunately for me, someone wasn't able to attend and I was able to stay in there with my son.’

Nicolo has limited feeling below the waist, and although he monitors what he eats and drinks, has the occasional toileting accident.

During the concert he needed to go to the bathroom to clean himself up.

‘Unfortunately, a bit of a mess to sort out, but it's a lockable accessible room. Massive. It was great.’

But while he was in there, a woman jimmied the lock on the door.

‘I'm halfway through doing my business and cleaning up, and the door gets swung wide open. It’s right next to the bar area so there's a heap of people able to see.’

Later on, Nicolo needed to go to the bathroom again, but able-bodied people were using them. Nicolo was desperate – he has a limited time to get to the bathroom before he has an accident.

A man saw his distress and knocked on the toilet door to kick out a couple he had seen go in. They were in their having sex.

There was a heated exchange.

‘One thing that struck in my mind was the young lady coming over to me and leaning right over and looking at me in the eye and saying, “Look, listen, let's not ruin a good night.”’