Ellie
Ellie’s creative expression
For Ellie, creativity helps her focus, find calm and manage her feelings.
She is an active member of the Camperdown Community House and spends a lot of her time making art at the Corangamite Arts Centre.
In her words, “any day spent at the Arts Centre” is one that improves her mental health.
“I’ve been playing the ukulele for about five years,” Ellie says, “I recently started learning how to play the banjo.”
Along with music, Ellie loves to craft, paint and make 3D origami sculptures.
It takes thousands of little pieces and many hours to make each sculpture. Ellie finds she can be fully present while working on her art.
Her community is also very important to her and helps her feel connected while being creative.
Ellie likes to think outside the box and find ways to work around any challenges she faces.
She explains, “Without my support system, it’d be a lot harder for me to get things done.”
Ellie uses her phone, laptop and whiteboards to organise her home and make sure she doesn’t forget anything important.
Seeing the Disability Gateway website made Ellie realise the value of finding information that is easy to access and understand, laid out clearly, and all in one place.
It has given her a new way to find the information she needs.
“I call it a ‘DIF-ability’,” she says, “for me, it just means I have to do things a little differently.”
Keeping busy and practising art helps Ellie feel fulfilled. Surrounding herself with people who care brings her large amounts of joy.
“People inspire me,” she says, “people with disability who give it a go, no matter what, they just do it. It inspires me to always try that little bit harder.”
Audio Visual
[Background music playing]
First I go “Hm I wonder if I can make that?”
And then I'll watch the video.
I'm like, oh yeah I reckon I can do that sorta.
My name's Ellie and I live in Camperdown.
I'm 45 young.
I work at Camperdown Community House.
We do painting workshops, which I've done nearly all of them but one.
Creativity is a great way of channelling things that you can't express verbally.
You just lose yourself in it. Yeah.
I like origami, keyboard, play ukulele yeah, that’s about it.
I love Google. In my home I use it for everything.
Like with the website, you go on there everything’s clear.
So it’s like oh! I’ll click on this one! It actually made me want to read.
People inspire me, you know, they just do it.
So I'm like, well, why can't I?
[Title graphic: Australian Government logo and Disability Gateway logo. Website URL: www.disabilitygateway.gov.au]
Audio Visual
[Background music playing]
First I go “Hm I wonder if I can make that?”
And then I'll watch the video.
I'm like, oh yeah I reckon I can do that sorta.
My name's Ellie and I live in Camperdown.
I'm 45 young.
I work at Camperdown Community House.
We do painting workshops, which I've done nearly all of them but one.
Creativity is a great way of channelling things that you can't express verbally.
You just lose yourself in it. Yeah.
I like origami, keyboard, play ukulele yeah, that’s about it.
I love Google. In my home I use it for everything.
Like with the website, you go on there everything’s clear.
So it’s like oh! I’ll click on this one! It actually made me want to read.
People inspire me, you know, they just do it.
So I'm like, well, why can't I?
[Title graphic: Australian Government logo and Disability Gateway logo. Website URL: www.disabilitygateway.gov.au]
You can also look at...
Ellie
Ellie’s Story
An Easy Read case study
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This story is about a person with a disability called Ellie. |
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Ellie’s disability affects her memory. |
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Ellie lives in Camperdown in Victoria. |
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Ellie likes to paint, play music and make art. |
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Being creative helps Ellie focus. |
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She works at the Camperdown Community House. |
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The Camperdown Community House is a place where people meet to do activities together. |
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Some activities they can do are:
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Ellie has been playing the ukulele for five years. |
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She is learning how to play the banjo. |
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Ellie loves to make origami sculptures. |
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Origami sculptures are made by folding pieces of paper together. |
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It takes a long time to make each sculpture. |
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Making art helps Ellie feel calm. |
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The people in Ellie’s life are very important to her. |
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They help her feel connected and make it easier to get things done. |
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Ellie uses technology to make sure she doesn’t forget things. |
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The Disability Gateway website helps Ellie find information. |
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Ellie says the information on the website is easy to understand. |
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Spending time with friends and family makes Ellie feel happy. |
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Ellie is inspired by people with disability who try new things. |
