Having completed his Bachelor of Business degree, he began applying for accountancy jobs. He never got past the initial telephone calls, never had an interview. Having heard Gibilisco's slurred but thoughtfully composed words, nobody wanted to see him.

Undeterred, he decided to start his own business, and put an ad in the paper seeking clients. "There were quite a few phone calls," he says. But again, having heard his voice, these would-be customers decided they wouldn't be meeting him after all.

It wasn't simply a job that Gibilisco was seeking, but rather to take his rightful place in a world that - as a self-promoted meritocracy, where lifters, not leaners, are to be celebrated - rewards hard work, diligence and smarts. Equally important to engaging in meaningful work and earning his keep was the desire to contribute.

As he writes in his newly published second book The Politics of Disability: "My assertion is that our corporate responsibility increases in specific ways when those with severe disabilities take hold of the opportunities for professional development. Like any other student, a graduate with a disability is also on the verge of achieving a life's goal, which includes providing thankful service. The 'mutual obligation' has increased on all sides."

Regardless of the strength of his argument, in many crucial areas of his life, Gibilisco - who has since earnt four degrees, including a PhD from the University of Melbourne, where he is an honorary research fellow - has not even been granted a conversation.

As he writes in The Politics of Disability, regarding his doctorate: "In the examiners' reports I received great commendation. I had achieved, it was said, a standard that was 'above average'. However, I am left to wonder. Where has all this motivation for self-improvement got me? Although my efforts are appreciated and, at times, I have received acclamations for my academic achievements, I am still on a full disability support pension.

"If I am to take on the current world view, with its self-centred, political individualism, wouldn't I now view myself as a 'loser' because of my disability? I guess I would be sorely tempted to do so if I were to evaluate myself according to the tenets of neoliberalism. But that is just the point. I'm of the conviction that the advocates of such self-centred, political individualism have actually ended up 'losing the plot' by promoting a cruel and anti-humanist world view. Their 'survival of the fittest' dogmas have led us all astray about the value of the work that has to be done." 

Gibilisco was 14 when he was diagnosed with Friedreich's ataxia, a progressive disease where the messages sent from the brain via neurotransmitters are slower and weaker than they should be. In turn, muscular growth is hampered, giving rise to severe deformities. For Gibilisco this includes severe scoliosis and cardiomyopathy, where the heart muscle is inflamed and weak.

"By 23," he writes, "I was reliant on a wheelchair, but now I'm simply too unco-ordinated to make use of an electric one."

Until three years ago, Gibilisco lived alone, but with assistance from carers who visited morning and night. Now he resides in a care facility in the eastern suburbs. Every day he's on the computer, where it can sometimes take a couple of minutes to write one word. The technology that could translate his quick thoughts to lines of text on a computer screen is still in its embryonic stage. Meanwhile, with his eyes and ears in decline, he's planing to write more articles and another book. And he's trying to get an audience for The Politics of Disability, a blistering mix of personal revelation and analysis of how our society is structured to keep people such as himself locked in a box.

"Personally, the gradual and insistent progress of my disease ... has created a system of social exclusion, he writes. "Of course, there have been many enriching and fulfilling occasions that I have shared with beautiful people. However, the horrible and despicable times certainly have occurred much more often than the good. Some individuals, out of frustration and disbelief at seeing what I have to put up with, ask me, 'What is the point of your carrying on with this existence?' I reply in a similar way to most people, 'I proceed in the hope that maybe one day there will be a reversal of fortune, and I will be able to share in more good times'. Further, I am motivated by the belief that my work can contribute to changing this situation generally for people with disabilities."

In between scholarly passages on the failures of neo-liberalism, ideas for root and branch reforms, and the lowly self-defeating status afforded to care workers are heartbreaking declarations such as "I do not know or understand the reasons why I enjoy the chance or the fulfilment of making love. I guess it's because I am human. For example, this is the only human form of pleasure I am still capable of performing. While my ability to perform may be dwindling on a level of consciousness, my ability to love has increased."

Links: http://petergibilisco.com.au/