Cérge

Today I took my friends son, Jacob, who has Autism and ADHD to Yawa Aquatic Centre.
  
I knew Cérge had recently launched there and I had used Cérge before so felt very safe to use it again at Yawa.
  
Taking Jacob was exciting, daunting and also something I really wanted to do for him. He can get very overwhelmed in areas of high stimulation and lots of people and if he doesn’t have something to focus on.
  
This can result in it being hard to get through to him when we need him to follow directions to complete tasks before our fun activities, whatever they may be that day.
  
We used the Cérge Visual Story and Access Guide to show Jacob the place and he was able to see pictures of where we were going and what he may feel, hear and see. Sooooooo helpful!
  
Arriving at Yawa we were greeted by happy and amazing staff. I’d sent the notification through the Cérge app and let them know when we were arriving and that we needed to get through the reception area and into the pool as quickly as possible for the kids.
  
The staff didn’t treat the kids any different, which was fantastic, we felt welcomed and were gotten through the payment process quickly and got into the change rooms and pool before we knew it!
  
We had a fantastic time and it was so good seeing Jacob smile and enjoy himself! I took my daughter too and she also had a ball.
  
It was really amazing.
  
On the way out, someone had accidentally hit my car. This was a bit of bad luck and it sucked. I was feeling stressed as I had to manage two kids, get the details of the driver, insurance ahhhhhhhh!!!
  
The benefit was though that the staff knew we had to get organised and details etc quickly due to the kids. So the amazing service extended out to even help me with this. They truly helped me!
  
They went above and beyond and I was so pleased!!
  
I felt no shame or worry that they were going to judge the kids, it was so freeing!!!
  
Thank you! Jacob will be back!!

Last week, one of our support workers and participants used the Cérge app for the first time! Entering in access needs and support information needed to support Carol was quick and easy. Upon arriving they were greeted and a water wheelchair was waiting at the accessible change rooms.Carol is vision impaired and has a physical disability. Carol looks forward to her weekly outing at TRAC but at times her needs are not met with limited access to the bathroom and often Carol needs to wait for the shower commode chair.Through using the Cérge app, Carol was treated as an individual that relies on support to access the community and on arrival everything was ready to go! Thank you Cérge and TRAC for helping our community to achieve its health goals!Support Your Way recommends checking out the Cérge app & TRAC! Join the Cérge Community and find out more!

Today I met a new friend named Cérge……The Cérge app worked perfectly and it’s a great service… even my Support Worker was impressed… lolI arrived at Peregian Beach IGA to meet Cérge and do a little shopping, having advised them earlier I was on my way.As I use a wheelchair when in shopping centres due to balance issues, I had my Support Worker with me on this visit.At this time of the year, people are usually tense and somewhat short-tempered, so yes, I do avoid shopping centres approaching Christmas season… funny that Christmas brings out the worse in people at times (lol), so I hoped today using Cérge would ease some anxiety and I could have an enjoyable shopping experience.Unfortunately one small concern. The footpath leading to IGA’s front door was completely blocked with trolleys (who didn’t quite make it to the trolley corral) requiring my Support Worker to round them up and send them “home” so I could keep wheeling past.Once inside the store I was greeted by the lovely Amber who couldn’t have been more helpful, asking what I needed to make my shopping experience the best possible and assuring me that she would be happy to assist me in any way I wished.When I explained I had my Support Worker with me for assistance, Amber informed me she was happy to help in any way if needed.I did tell Amber about the wayward trolleys and she apologised and said she would advise management about that issue, which was the perfect response!At the checkout Jake did a great job in processing my groceries and he actually talked to me rather than my Support Worker, which I really appreciated as all too often, people talk over you when you are in a wheelchair… good job Jake!As it is approaching Christmas, it’s understandable there is a little more product in the aisleways than usual, but everywhere was accessible. As I was departing the store, there was one section where my wheelchair barely fit between the wall and some flowerpots, but a staff member ensured I could fit through and was prepared to move the flowerpot if needed, much appreciated.On my way to the car I noticed all the trolleys were happily in their paddock, so perhaps Amber followed up?My SW is a needed support because Cérge isn’t everywhere yet, but certainly Amber and Jake (particularly Amber who said she would be happy to accompany me and assist me with my shopping) gives me total confidence that I wouldn’t need my SW at an IGA store now that Cérge is “on duty”.All in all, a wonderful shopping experience… and I’ll certainly be back again for the free coffee

I wear two hats as I am the dad of a son (28 years old) who is quadriplegic, with Cerebral Palsy and I’ve been his carer for most of his life until NDIS came along. My son Christoper is an incredible human and is volunteering as the Qld Air Museum Video Production Manager. He uses a head switch and eye-tracking to control his devices and edit videos, operate cameras and fly drones. He is also my very own personal tech support! Haha
Being his dad and carer has taught me a lot over the years. My second hat is that of being the President of the Queensland Air Museum. I am one of over 140 active volunteers. 

You see our volunteers want to be able to provide a welcome and good service to anyone and everyone who visits us. We want to be as accessible and inclusive as possible and we want everyone to enjoy our amazing venue and we hope that shines through when you visit. 
We want people to feel as though we are interested in treating them as a person and not as a disability. Everyone comes to enjoy history and planes and that’s a passion we can all share together.

The Cérge website is brilliant and it’s started us on such a good path. We now have a button front and centre on our website - a wheelchair icon as it’s the universal symbol for disability, even though we know not all disability means a wheelchair. We have a lot of information now to share with every customer before they even arrive so they can check us out before they travel to visit us: Access guides, Visual Story, Virtual Tour, Keyword Sign Board, Audio Guide 

It is so brilliant that people can see it so easily and from the safety of their home where they can plan their outings. They can even use the measuring tool in the virtual tour to measure heights. It’s very cool!

Cérge has been the talk of the town here and has started us with a bunch of new projects and plans. We now have one of our volunteers who has taken on the role of developing an Access and Inclusion plan. 
Obviously infrastructure is always one to improve on. I’m working on a way to assist people with mobility challenges to access cockpit of an aircraft.

Alongside this we are also currently launching a major infrastructure development that is very exciting, it will take time but we have lots of things on the go to deliver the best access and inclusion possible. 
We are very excited to have Cérge showcasing our air museum which we just love. Opening up and seeing all of the photos and the virtual tour just speaks volumes to our visitors and visitors to be! Not to mention the whole community who sees our business caring about each person as best we can. 

My role as president is to influence the culture of our organisation as well as the infrastructure and we are always trying to improve!
See you soon for a tour of all the amazing planes and many displays!

Going into Aquarena, I was a little nervous how it would be perceived me going in to look at the facilities as a support worker trying to see if it was suitable for clients to potentially use. I notified of my intent to come roughly 30 minutes out and received acknowledgement from Aquarena, notified them of my arrival and while waiting while the person who was being served was done, the manager came out to ensure the staff knew to prioritise what was needed by the person who’d sent through from the app. ? The manager walked me around the venue himself showing all of what they have to offer, including some of the best disabled change rooms I’ve seen. On noting their pool chairs wouldn’t be suitable for the client I had in mind, the manager was open to potentially purchasing a suitable pool chair in their future budget that he’s working on, and happy to put practices in place at their cafe and anywhere else necessary to account for if the client was to come in by them-self in their wheelchair or want to complete a transaction them-self where the counters are too high.  Overall, a fantastic experience and a venue I will highly recommend to those looking for a hydrotherapy venue.  This app would be great for a range of people with all sorts of disabilities, especially invisible disabilities and parents. By Frankie – Support Worker

Story of inclusion from staff member Hamish at Splash Devonport Aquatic and Leisure Centre. We love Cérge, we were talking today amongst the staff about how incredible it really is and what it can do. When Terry Sent the notification through last week, we had time to get the hoist set up and the aquatic wheelchair for him. We also knew when he was arriving, what he needed and some information about his disability that he wanted to share. Terry is a legend. When he arrived, because we had the notification prior and I had set up stuff for him, it kind of started connection before he had even arrived. So, when he arrived I just walked over and said “Hey Terrence, I’m Hamish”. It felt so easy! Terry had a look at the pool, the gym and the Exercise physiologist as all of these services will assist him. We are excited to have Cérge at Splash because we are more than willing to help anyway we can and sometimes with visual disability we have to guess and invisible disability we can’t see, therefore can’t know how to help. Cérge saves time, instead of Terry having to wait for 10-15mins for to set up it was done. It saves him time and saved me time as it was done before he arrived and not when I had a counter full of swim lessons! We have a “Sensory hour” in the gym where we turn the screens and lights down from 1pm-2pm which is pretty awesome as not many gyms are silent! Hahah We are more than happy to cater to the needs of the whole community When I heard Terry hadn’t been for a swim for ten years and now has the chance at Splash I was chuffed. This is just awesome. 100% Thanks for visiting Terry, see you soon!