Develop, support, promote disability leaders
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The Disability Leadership Oration is held each year to lead the discussion on disability leadership and set the national agenda. A thought provoking 45 minute talk that puts disability leadership into the centre of things and sparks conversation.
Centred on IDay in December (International Day of People with Disabilities), the Oration is a destination annual event for the calendars of the broader disability community, business and government leaders, and anyone interested in thought leadership and equality.
Each year a prominent disability leader shares their perspective on disability leadership, where it is going and what it looks like. Taking a broad view, they will outline the way forward and consider what needs to be done and who should be part of making progress happen. The 2025 Disability Leadership Orator is Dwayne Fernandes.
Dwayne Fernandes is a determined individual who has overcome adversity to achieve great things. Dwayne has set his sights on becoming the first double amputee in space and is on his way to achieve it by being an AstroAccess Flight 2 Ambassador.
AstroAccess is dedicated to advancing disability inclusion in space exploration for the benefit of humankind. AstroAccess believes that if we can make space accessible, we can make any space accessible. More information is available at astroaccess.org
Dwayne believes that with resilient minds and inclusive hearts, we can forge an accessible future!
Dwayne is an Indian-Born Australian double amputee who was recently diagnosed with ADHD. In addition to space travel, Dwayne works to deliver accessibility outcomes through his consulting company, IDEA Services. Dwayne is also the co-founder of Minds at Play, a national social gaming company that helps players build essential social and communication skills through games like Dungeons and Dragons and Minecraft. Under Dwayne’s leadership, the company has grown from 4 players in June 2022 to over 600+ players from every state and time zone in Australia. In his free time, Dwayne enjoys innovating, traveling, dancing, and setting world records in stair climbing, including at the Empire State Building in New York.
MC
Yenn Purkis
Yenn Purkis is a Deputy CEO of the Disability Leadership Institute. They are an autistic, ADHD, Asexual and non-binary advocate and author. They also have a diagnosis of schizophrenia and anxiety. Yenn is the author of eighteen published books and a contributor to many more. Yenn is an accomplished presenter and has given two talks for TEDx Canberra. Yenn has given presentations all over the world. They have a number of awards for their work and they have been an advocate for almost 20 years. Yenn lives in Canberra with their little tortoiseshell kitty, Sunflower.
DLI Host
Christina Ryan
In 2016 Christina Ryan took one of the most radical steps in her long career of activism and change making: she put the two words disability and leadership into the same sentence. Her next step was founding the Disability Leadership Institute.
Auslan interpreters
Anytime Auslan
– Andrea Llorens
Live captions
Rojaley Reporting
– Lisa Woolridge
Livestream and onsite photography
Patorama Studios
– Patrick Lindley
– Clare Lindley
Listen to the Oration on the ABC’s Big Ideas program on Radio National on 22 January 2026
Read the full printed version of all speeches and the Oration (in coming weeks)
Our major sponsors for this event
The Achieve Foundation
Our broadcast partners
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The ABC is supported by IDPWD, the Commonwealth Government, for their IDay programming.
Christina Ryan
Debbie McKenna
Yenn Purkis
Wendy Hill
Karlie Robinson
Onsite engineer: Christian Huff-Johnston
Claire Slattery (Big Ideas)
Karin Zsivanovits (Big Ideas)
also
Daniel Hirst and team
Jodie Haigh – DLI member
Thank you to Ralph and the TreeEighty3 crew for the catering
Thank you to Nip and GG’s Flowers for the floral arrangements
Thank you to the National Archives of Australia – Coordinator, Nick Wade