A complaint about disability discrimation written as a poem

My colleague and friend Samantha Connor is a renowned and fearsome Western Australian disability activist, advocate, writer and campaigner.

Samantha is one of the most committed and innovative campaigners and activists I know.

You can read about Samantha here and here.  Her writings on disability issues on The Stringer are here.

This week Samantha tried to book a ticket for a Stephen Fry gig at the much lauded Perth Exhibition Centre, only to be told that as a wheelchair user she would be charged an extra $20 because, apparently, the wheelchair bays are in premium spots.

Little do the Perth Exhibition Centre know who they are up against! Samantha was fired to action by this blatant example of disability discrimination.

Here is Samantha's brilliant response.  I will keep you posted on the outcome.

It's almost twenty dollars more to book for Stephen Fry because blah blah Perth Exhibition Centre suck and the wheelchair bays are in premium spots and blah blah this is discriminatory but omfg I am so bored with writing complaint letters and yelling at people.
 

So I wrote this poem instead and sent it in an email.
 

To the manager at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre.
 

I wrote you a poem, because I could not be arsed writing yet another complaint letter. It is about the fact that you have charged wheelchair users almost twenty dollars extra because your wheelchair seats are in the 'premium' seating space and therefore you have discriminated against people with disability by charging us more.

Please take it seriously and read it through. Thanks. I'll expect a reply this week. By Friday.
 

Tell me why
I should not sue
The living daylights
Out of you

I am a crip
I cannot walk
But I can drive
And see, and talk

I went to book
For Stephen Fry
And looked, aghast
and shouted, why?

For all the crips
We must pay more
For wheelchair seating
(although we're poor)

Twenty bucks more
Because we sit
Illegal, bad
And really shit

Go have a look
at the DDA
Discrimination
is not okay

You have four days
(cos I'm a saint :D)
Then its DDA
HREOC complaint

A giant rant
Media too
I would fix it
If I was you.

 

Love,
Samantha xox