Angel Dixon

Queensland Young Australian of the Year

FACED WITH A world that appeared empty of role models for people with disabilities, Angel Dixon decided to become one. From appearing in advertising campaigns to designing fashionable canes, the 29-year-old is fighting for change on a number of fronts. “When I first acquired my impairment I didn’t have any role models around me,” says Angel who woke up after a stroke at age 19 to be told she may have difficulty walking again. “You almost feel like you don’t belong in society anymore because your identity is excluded from everything around you.”

Angel set to work, tackling advertising, fashion and television – the spaces that are supposed to reflect society, but often only represent select parts of it.

“Those mainstream environments … really needed to be changed and revolutionised,” she says. “The other thing was I just wanted to get my cane into an environment that would completely destigmatise it and had absolutely no attachment to a medical model.” So she reached out to Bezgraniz Couture – a Russian fashion label that emphasises universal design – and modelled for the brand at MercedesBenz Fashion Week in LA and Moscow.

It was a big deal to have a cane on a catwalk, but Angel wanted to break into mainstream fashion. She set her sights on Melbourne, and last year she and Jason Clymo became the first agency-signed models with visible impairments to appear in a mainstream runway show in Australia.

On top of this, Angel is designing a range of walking canes that will be both high-tech functional and fashion accessories. She started the design process about four years ago and hopes to have a product ready for the market by the end of 2019.