The 'giving voice to the voiceless' project is personal and extremely important to Dr Shoshana Dreyfus.
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The University of Wollongong linguistics senior lecturer is just kicking herself she didn't think of it 10 years ago when she stopped taking her severely intellectually disabled son Bodhi to parks.
"When my son was about 14 and still lived at home with us I stopped taking him to parks because I couldn't bear the fact that families with young toddlers would pull their children away from my son," Dr Dreyfus said.
"I totally understand why they did that. Because he is a young man, he is non-verbal, he is big and clambering around the equipment little kids are clambering around.
"It's not a good mix. He would never harm them but because he could accidentally hurt a child, I couldn't bear that so I stopped taking him to playgrounds."
Fast forward 10 years and her middle child Bodhi Dreyfus-Ballesi is now 23 and lives in a group home in Dapto.
And like the other three young men he lives with, who also are non-verbal, Bodhi still loves to play in parks.
Most of the state-of-the-art playgrounds in the Illawarra are frequented by families so Bodhi and his mates have to make do with out of the way parks.
When my son was about 14 and still lived at home with us I stopped taking him to parks because I couldn't bear the fact that families with young toddlers would pull their children away from my son.
- Shoshana Dreyfus
But Dr Dreyfus realised earlier this year that the play equipment was also way too small for these young men and women.
"That's when I decided we needed to build them a playground in the Illawarra because they go there so much and there is lots of people like that and there is no playground," she said.
Dr Dreyfus successfully lobbied Illawarra's state and federal politicians. She also got Wollongong City Council to agree to build an all abilities and all ages playground.
Obtaining the opinions of people with severe intellectual disability who are functionally non-verbal is the aim of the 'giving voice to the voiceless project.
They are seriously the forgotten people in the whole disability context...
- Shoshana Dreyfus
The project is one of four recipients of the Community Engagement Grant Scheme. Today UOW will grant $50,000 through the scheme to four projects which address key challenges in the community.
Dr Dreyfus said her project will effectively allow young adults with severe disabilities to engage in community consultation with the council over the playground plans.
A training video will also be developed so that other councils and groups can consult with young people like this who are commonly left out of stakeholder engagement.
"This is a really exciting new bold initiative to really try to include their voices," she said.
"I'm so excited. I think it could be a first for Australia and beyond that a playground will be built with the needs of this particular cohort in mind.
"They are seriously the forgotten people in the whole disability context, in the sense that, if you look at all the building codes, you can't build a building without a wheelchair access.
'We seriously take into consideration the needs of people with physical disabilities, which is a great thing.
"But do we seriously take into consideration the needs of people with intellectual disability? I don't think we are quite there yet and this is an initiative in that direction.
"That's really exciting for us."
Agron Latifi
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
