From recent film releases to sporting triumphs at the Paralympics, there has been more celebrated exposure of people with disability this year, but advocates say misrepresentation remains a problem and outcomes for those in the community are progressing too slowly.
Disabled person and spokesperson for Disability Rights and Services Senator Jordon Steele-John has announced the Australian Greens have released a plan to improve the lives of disabled people across the country.
Soprano Jordie Howell talks about how she’s learnt about drama and stage craft as a blind person and explores how the opera industry could be more accessible for musicians and singers who are blind.
The Strategy) is a national framework that all governments in Australia have signed up to. It sets out a plan for continuing to improve the lives of people with disability in Australia over the next ten years. The Strategy supports Australia’s commitment under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The Strategy’s vision is for an inclusive Australian society that ensures people with disability can fulfil their potential as equal members of the community.
Arts Access Victoria’s Caroline Bowditch offers ideas on how to not only welcome a new audience but include performers of all levels of ability, in order to make an event that everyone can attend. ‘It is really interesting to think that for so many people to experience the kind of isolation and the lockdowns that … Continued
The pandemic has brought with it different challenges for everyone. But for some Australians with a disability, it’s been a chance to find joy, independence and new passions.
Still, it’s insulting and discriminatory to grill a disabled person on their personal life, treat them like a potential con artist, or prevent their equal access — just because you’re a little suspicious of them, or because you have certain views about disability claims in general.
A former disability discrimination commissioner says Australia needs to introduce employment quotas for those who are disabled. Graeme Innes AM told Tom Elliott it was the only thing that would work when it comes to inclusion. “We have been employed at a rate 30 per cent less than the general population, so 52 or 52 per cent, and that has not changed for three decades,” he said.
Television and advertising should lift the numbers of people with disabilities if Australia hopes to increase employment numbers, a Royal Commission has been told. 53.4% of people living with disabilities are unemployed in Australia, a figure which hasn’t lifted in decades.
Instead of having to navigate nature’s unpredictability, video games allow travelers with different abilities to experience destinations from their homes.
Australians who have a disability are much less likely to be in work than someone without a disability. Join Christina Ryan, CEO and founder, Disability Leadership Institute and Robin Banks, former Tasmanian Anti-Discrimination Commissioner and director, Equality Building, who argue we shouldn’t just look at the physical barriers and misconceptions that stop people getting a job, but also the lack of genuine career progression and the failure to promote more people with disability to the top of organisations.
Although we’ve had to grieve my past self and career plans, you’ve freed me from the weight of my own expectations about who and what I should be. You’ve helped me become braver than I ever imagined. I’ve faced down institutional discrimination while fighting for the disability supports I desperately need. These battles have taught me more about advocacy than law school ever did.
But for those living with a disability easy access to accessible parking is not only desirable, but essential. And a new survey from the Australian Network on Disability found 80 per cent of respondents believed accessing suitable parking space was critical.
Mona Minkara is a bioengineer at Northeastern University, where she leads a laboratory focused on applying computational modeling to pulmonary research. She is also one of the only blind faculty members in her field. Recently, Minkara embarked on a different kind of experiment. She and 11 other individuals who have mobility, vision or hearing disabilities traveled on a parabolic flight with the Zero Gravity Corporation. The mission—which allowed participants to feel weightless but did not actually reach space—was organized by AstroAccess, an initiative dedicated to “advancing disability inclusion in space.”
A good place to start is how nondisabled people can avoid giving unnecessary offense to people with disabilities. This may seem like a minor issue compared with larger structural barriers. But the best workplace disability policies and practices can be undone in a moment by thoughtless, corrosive remarks from coworkers.