James Parr – 2025 Ambassador – Auslan

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, disability

advocate, and rap jury 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.

There is an ongoing issue where the

general public seems to infantilize

people with disability. It's the lack of

representations. People think we live

life with a deficit where it's exactly

the opposite.

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. When I first started

modeling, 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.