Queensland deaf campaigner Gaye Lyons fights to serve on jury
A deaf woman excluded from serving on a jury because she required an Auslan interpreter is suing the Queensland Government for discrimination.
News and blogs
Stella’s Challenge disability awareness campaign announced at TEDxSydney
Campaign to change social attitudes towards people with disabilities was inspired by writer, comedian and advocate Stella Young, who died in December.
Educating Jake and Cooper
Many children are being let down by the education system as the rise in autism and behavioural disorders strains the resources of mainstream and special schools. Ann Arnold follows the story of 11 year old twins Jake and Cooper, and finds serious shortfalls in the schooling options for children with disabilities.
How Do We Expect People with Disabilities to Evacuate?
Australian building legislation does not currently mandate an inclusive approach to the safe evacuation of buildings. This poses a significant risk for the 20 per cent of the population with some form of disability, particularly the 10.5 per cent with a mobility disability when the options for evacuation in a multi-level building are generally limited … Continued
We must protect advocacy in the NDIS transition
As we transition to the National Disability Insurance Scheme there is a real fear advocacy services will become harder to access. This, at a time when their services will be needed most.
Disabled parking space breaches by other drivers should attract demerit points, MLC Kelly Vincent says
Drivers who use disabled parking spaces illegally should lose demerit points as well as face a fine, South Australia’s Dignity for Disability Party says.
Guide dog discrimination highest in Victoria; taxis, cafes refusing animals new survey finds
A new Guide Dogs Victoria survey found two-thirds of guide dog handlers faced discrimination in the past year, including at shopping centres and cafes. Legally, the only place guide dogs are not allowed is in operating theatres and at zoos.
Women fleeing violence only able to afford one suburb in Melbourne: Melton
New data shows that in the whole of Melbourne there is only one suburb where a woman on an average weekly wage can rent a two-bedroom home and not be in housing stress (when you spend more than 30 per cent of your income on housing)
Netflix adds audio-description feature for vision-impaired subscribers
Adding the audio description tool is a good move but more could be done for disabled TV watchers, say policy advocates.
Open Drum: we need a radical rethink on disability
As I leave the disabled bathroom behind, a mother glares at me. “You shouldn’t be using that,” she says. “That’s for disabled people only.” When this happens, as it regularly does, I always feel torn. On the one hand, I’m grateful that someone has thought about the disabled members of our community. They are trying … Continued
What has changed since disability care scandal of the 1980s and ’90s?
Despite rapes, deaths and neglect in care, the disability sector is obsessed with self-protection. The Age has recently detailed horrendous events that occurred in a disability house in the 1980s and 1990s. The question that cannot be avoided is: what has changed? Max Jackson is a consultant in the disability sector and former chief executive … Continued
Mental health services need more money, not a reshuffle
In 2014, the Commonwealth government asked the National Mental Health Commission to review Australia’s mental health programs and services. Although the review was submitted in November 2014, the government has yet to release it or provide a formal response.
Parents with a disability ‘judged on parental skills before they can learn’, inquiry hears
In Canberra today, the committee heard that parents with a disability often had their children taken from them straight after birth, and that those children were left in the foster care system before being told to fend for themselves when they turned 18.
Tech-enabled homes give people with disabilities independence
At 16, Bree Synot was feeling ready to give up on life. Born with osteogenesis imperfecta, or brittle bones, the prospect of finding a wheelchair-friendly house suitable for her needs was always going to be tough.
People with disabilities raped, beaten, neglected while in care, hearing told
The inquiry into the abuse and neglect of people with disabilities in residential and institutional settings began hearings in Perth today. A group of six women from the disability advocacy group Bolshy Divas gave collective evidence before the hearing, citing 40 examples where disabled people had been severely beaten or raped.