Source: The Age
Author: Graham Innes
Posted October 4, 2013
Forty-five per cent of the two million Australians living with a disability, live in or near poverty, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. This is partly because most of us spend much of the small income we receive on services and supports. The new national disability insurance scheme will address this over … Continued
Source: Overland: Issue 212, Spring 2013
Author: El Gibbs
Posted September 27, 2013
With the launch of the new national insurance scheme, DisabilityCare, disability is for once high on the public agenda. Many Australians now agree that the previous system failed those in need and they thus support this long-overdue reform. What is more, there is finally real money on the table, money that can help address the … Continued
Source: The Telegraph, UK
Author: Victoria Ward
Posted August 23, 2013
A man with significant learning difficulties has been ordered to undergo a vasectomy to prevent him from having further children in a landmark legal ruling by the High Court. Mrs Justice Eleanor King, sitting in the Court of Protection, said there was “no question” of the 36-year-old having the mental capacity to use contraception and … Continued
Source: The Age
Author: Richard Baker and Nick McKenzie
Posted July 29, 2013
Timewell Crescent in Boronia is home to some of Victoria’s most severely intellectually disabled people. Run by the state’s biggest non-government residential care service, Yooralla, the house has been in crisis for several years. Poor management and inadequate staffing have enabled residents to violently assault each other or disappear from the premises unsupervised for hours. … Continued
Source: The Age
Posted July 22, 2013
Families who take their disabled children overseas to be sterilised should face criminal charges, a parliamentary inquiry has recommended. For 10 months, senators have been weighing up human rights issues and the challenges faced by carers, while investigating reports some people with disabilities are being sterilised without informed consent. An upper house committee made 28 … Continued
Source: The age
Author: Matty Silver
Posted July 22, 2013
In recent months discussions about disability featured widely in the media. One issue however has been noticeably ignored. In the months before the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) was launched on July 1, discussions about disability featured widely in the media. One issue however was ignored – the sex lives of the disabled. Sex and … Continued
Source: The Age
Author: Clementine Ford
Posted July 5, 2013
When Stella Young was four years old, she broke her leg while on a family holiday in Adelaide. For Stella and her family, such an incident wasn’t uncommon. The disability advocate and editor of ABC’s Ramp Up was born with osteogenesis imperfecta, a congenital condition more commonly – and crudely – known as brittle bone … Continued
Source: The Age
Author: Toby Hall
Posted July 5, 2013
I recently made some widely reported comments about helping more disabled people – particularly disability support pensioners – into jobs. In response, I received two death threats and about 50 emails, phone calls and letters, many from people who wished me in fairly graphic terms – how do I say this politely? – to refrain … Continued
Source: The Age
Author: Rachel Browne
Posted July 5, 2013
Jock Watson spent most of his 20s in a nursing home after a car accident left him with an acquired brain injury, meaning he needed constant care. While fellow residents tried to engage the young man in their bingo games and sing-a-longs, it was an isolating experience. ”He spent much of his time in his … Continued
Source: The Age
Author: Dan Harrison
Posted July 5, 2013
It began with a mother’s plea and had many champions. Australia’s groundbreaking disability insurance scheme starts today. One day in 2006, Bruce Bonyhady went to visit a kindergarten in the Melbourne suburb of Endeavour Hills. Bonyhady, then chairman of Yooralla, was confronted by a woman demanding to know why she couldn’t get the support she … Continued
Source: Global Accessibility News
Author: GAATES
Posted July 5, 2013
International negotiators meeting under the auspices of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) adopted on June 27 a landmark new treaty that boosts access to books for the benefit of hundreds of millions of people who are blind, visually impaired and print-disabled. The treaty, approved after more than a week of intense debate among negotiators … Continued
Source: New Matilda
Author: Stephanie Gotlib
Posted June 14, 2013
The PM has delivered on Gonski’s recommendations for a funding boost to students with disabilities. Money is necessary, but will only go so far – attitudes must change too, writes Stephanie Gotlib On Monday, Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced an additional funding boost to special schools of $76 million over six years. This equates to … Continued
Source: The Australian
Author: Rick Morton
Posted May 31, 2013
The disability and aged-care workforce, already one of the fastest-growing in Australia, will need to expand by a fifth in the next four years as major Labor reforms worth billions power up. That this will also happen against a backdrop of a rapidly ageing workforce presents unique problems for the sector, according to a new … Continued
Source: Herald Sun
Author: Rachel Browne
Posted May 31, 2013
The national disability insurance scheme DisabilityCare Australia is at risk of ”grinding to a halt” unless enough workers can be trained to provide care by the time the program is running in 2018, according to community sector workforce analysis. Community Services and Health Industry Skills Council chief executive Rod Cooke said there was a critical … Continued
Source: Brisbane Times/Opinion
Author: Donna McDonald, Griffith University
Posted May 24, 2013
Legend has it that before the introduction of Medibank (now Medicare) in 1974, then-prime minister Gough Whitlam convinced the premiers at a Commonwealth-states meeting to introduce a national disability insurance scheme similar to New Zealand’s comprehensive insurance scheme, which was established in 1972. But during a meeting break, his treasurer Bill Hayden apparently persuaded Gough … Continued