Over the June long weekend, PDCN’s President Chris Sparks was recognised on the Queen’s Birthday Honours List with a Medal of the Order of Australia for his services to people with a disability.
Chris has spent much of his life involved in Paralympic sport as a member of the NSW men’s wheelchair basketball team from 1983-1991 and the Australian Wheelchair Basketball team from 1985-1990. He has also given much of his free time to various disability organisation on voluntary boards, from Wheelchair Sports NSW (1981-1996), the Northcott Society (1993 – 2002), and now PDCN from 2016 to the present.
In addition, Chris was a member of the NSW Minister for Disability’s Disability Council from 2012 – 2015, providing expert advice to the NSW Government, and is currently Vice Chair of his local Bega Valley Council’s Access and Inclusion committee.
Coupled with his career, in which he also worked at executive level within the assistive technology sphere – (Dynamic Living Designs, Seating Dynamics, Invacare, and the Assistive Technology Suppliers Australasia) there are not too many wheelchair users who wouldn’t have run into Chris at some stage, or benefited from his huge knowledge of adaptive equipment.
Chris is a tireless advocate for access and inclusion, and PDCN congratulates him on this well-deserved recognition of everything he has achieved!
