My name is Gayle.
[Gayle guides her electric wheelchair between transparent panels of green, yellow, pink and blue. Gayle has shoulder-length grey hair. Her dress has geometric and stylized leaf patterns in red, white and grey on a black background with a wide red hem. She wears a very long black scarf reaching past her knees.]
I'm an Elder of the Wongaiibon clan of the Ngiyampaa speaking nation of New South Wales.
[The recording studio space has yellow, green, blue and pink transparent rectangular panels of various sizes suspended within a white room with white floor.]
And I'm an Ambassador for International Day of People with Disability.
[Text International Day of People with Disability. 2026 Ambassador white writing on two-toned blue rectangles.]
I'm a writer, public speaker, an advocate. I've been an actress.
[Photos of Gayle in a beanie holding a book, a younger Gayle with shoulder-length curly dark hair reading, black and white headshot with a direct gaze, smiling.]
I do have a wicked sense of humour.
[Seated in her wheelchair in the studio.]
Emphasis on wicked.
[Gayle chuckles, eyes warm.]
[Audio description] Gayle guides her electric wheelchair between transparent panels of green, yellow and blue.
I'm a polio survivor.
[Gayle looking at the panels.]
I've lived with a disability basically since I was three.
[As Gayle moves between the panels, photos of her as a child, then young woman appear on them.]
I was able to walk for many, many years until around about 2004.
You're not finished when you hit your 70s.
[Back in the studio, Gayle in half profile against a background of colourful panels backlit by a window.]
Life just begins.
[Her hand pats gently in small movements.]
So now I find myself really busy doing all sorts of things.
I do have an obligation as an Elder to speak out and affect change.
I don't want people to be inspired because I managed to get out of bed in the morning.
[Photos of Gayle as a middle-aged woman in a soft cloth hat. Gayle in glasses reading, in performance or presentation, then wearing green and smiling.]
I don't mind being inspiring if it's for a valid reason.
[In the studio against a backdrop of colourful panels.]
If I inspire people to go out and advocate, get out there and start doing things, then I'm happy with that.
[Close-ups of Gayle smiling.]
An act of advocacy can simply be noticing that the restaurant you're going to doesn't have a ramp,
[Close-up of the wheelchair wheels moving around the studio, between the panels.]
or they're using their disabled toilet as a storeroom and complaining about it. You're being an advocate and you're being an ally.
The disability is not so much within us, it's within the society that we live in.
[Yellow text on olive green panel ‘Not so much within us, it’s within the society’ as Gayle passes behind.]
Society makes it a disabled environment.
[Profile close-up of Gayle behind a transparent blue panel.]
It doesn't have to be the way it is.
[Looking at the panels.]
None of us should have to walk up the main street and want something in a shop and basically have to stand outside and yell out and wait for somebody to come.
[Wide shot, Gayle in wheelchair against a background of coloured panels.]
[Audio description] Gayle is given a small white dog.
You know, you don't have to make me feel comfortable.
[Gayle scratches the dog under its chin, smiling.]
You just have to treat us as you would treat anybody else.
[Wide shot, Gayle in wheelchair against a background of coloured panels.]
Come up and say, “G'day, how you going?”
[Gayle with white dog held close to her smiling face.]
The more that we get to know each other as people, the more fairer and more equitable society we will start living in.
[Back in studio. Gayle smiles widely.]
[Audio description] International Day of People with Disability, logo and website.
In her video, IDPwD 2026 Ambassador Gayle Kennedy draws on a lifetime of disability advocacy. She challenges the idea that people with disability are ‘inspiring’ simply for living their lives. Instead, she wants to ‘inspire people to go out and advocate’ for a more inclusive community.
This video is audio described. The transcript includes additional descriptions.