James Parr – 2025 Ambassador

I acquired my disability when I was 21.

I remember when I woke up from surgery,

everyone's attitudes around me,

the doctors’ and the nurses’, instantly changed.

I was just like constantly hearing people tell me

that they felt sad for me and sorry for me,

and I didn't really connect with that.

I'm James. I'm a model, a disability advocate

and Wiradjuri man.

And an ambassador for

International Day of People with Disability 2025.

Being an ambassador is really important to me

to challenge and keep rewriting the narrative

of what it's like to have a disability.

My big question is why do you think the media

avoids showing people with a disability

as sexual or desirable?

We're all humans, we all have desire,

and a part of desire is also to be sexual.

(Isabella Choate) There is an ongoing issue where the general public

seems to infantilise people with disability.

(Maree Jenner) It's the lack of representations.

People think we live life with a deficit,

where it's exactly the opposite.

(Ronan Soussa) I truly agree with you

because like you just think of yourself

as a regular person.

Going back into dating after acquiring a disability

was like a whole different experience.

And, in that, what I did find is a narrative there

that they're like going to be a helper or a caregiver.

I think having more people with disability in media

and in mainstream spaces is probably the most important.

And when I first started modelling,

actually it was my first runway,

and I remember a kid, I think he was about five or six,

and he was using a prosthetic,

and to be able to watch him and his reaction

when he saw me up on the screen,

he probably had never seen someone like him before.

My hopes for the future is just have people with disability

as characters or within media, just there as people,

just showing us living life as someone else would.