Target and Kmart feature young stars — some wearing hearing aids and using walk frames — in their January catalogues, modelling a range of products including new back-to-school items.
Australia’s rates of employing people with a disability are among the lowest in the developed world. They’ve been stagnant for 20 years, and in some areas, are getting worse. Advocates and experts are now calling for radical change. Some want quotas introduced, to encourage businesses to hire more people with disability, or risk a fine.
The government announced in the December mid-year economic review that $3.7 billion from the Education Investment Fund, used to fund university infrastructure, would be credited into the NDIS. However it has now emerged the move will require the approval of a hostile Senate, leaving the $22 billion scheme facing a shortfall.
The disability sector has backed calls for the Centrelink debt recovery “fiasco” to be suspended immediately amid concerns about the impact it is having on people with disability.
The not-for-profit sector is calling for urgent action amid concerns people living with a mental illness could “fall through the gaps” as the National Disability Insurance Scheme absorbs some mental health services.
Australia’s consumer protection agencies have produced a range of educational materials to help you understand your consumer rights and to help you use these rights if something you pay for isn’t right.
The inaugural chair of the agency running the National Disability Insurance Scheme has emphasised the importance of his board’s independence and experience in the disability sector, as he prepares to leave the role.
The parents of a Melbourne teenager with intellectual disabilities are seeking legal advice after he was commanded to perform a sexual act by another student on a school mini-bus which was supposed to be supervised by a chaperone. Victorian Education Minister James Merlino told 7.30 he had commissioned an independent investigation into the school’s handling … Continued
Ten thousand disabled workers who were underpaid at government-funded workshops across the country will be able to claim compensation from the Commonwealth, following a Federal Court ruling.
The first national curriculum for Auslan, the language of the deaf community in Australia, will soon be rolled out in schools across Australia, in a move being described as a “huge step for equality”.
Bhajan Kaur has been living in Melbourne with her family ever since they moved from Singapore to Australia in 2008. But now, this close-knit family is faced with a real prospect of being torn apart because of Ms Kaur’s intellectual disability.
To say it’s been a tough year for everyone in the sector is an understatement. Earlier this year providers were left unpaid by the new MyPlace portal. People were unable to access services. Some parents were harassed by debt collectors.
As representatives of many religious traditions and different faiths, we stand together in affirming that all people have gifts and contributions that enliven and strengthen the community to which they belong and seek to ensure that people with disabilities have equal opportunity to participate in the faith community of their choice.
Matthew, a non-verbal man with autism, was sharing a state-funded emergency facility, Autism Plus, with four other young people. One of them had already attacked Matthew several times.
Many people with disabilities are still working for less than $3 an hour almost four years after Australia’s High Court ruled they were being underpaid at Government-supported workshops.