Australia’s more than 6000 disability homes were to be among the first to receive vaccinations under phase 1a of the plan released by Mr Hunt in January. But a parliamentary COVID-19 committee heard on Tuesday that just 93 group disability homes – or about 1500 of the 25,000 residents – had received their first vaccinations.
Disasters like flooding can worsen social inequalities around health and housing. For people with disability, however, the effect can be especially profound.
nd and low-vision Australians are being shut out of the Covid-19 vaccination process because the government’s eligibility checker and clinic finder website fail to meet basic web accessibility standards, according to Australia’s biggest provider of low-vision services.
In moves to address climate change, many of us make assumptions about how to make a difference. Stop using straws, get rid of packaging, use less air-conditioning. But what if that straw makes the difference between being able to drink or not, you rely on packaged, pre-cut fruit because you’re unable to cut it yourself, if air-con is essential for your ability to function.
A disability royal commission report in December found that the federal government failed to make any significant effort to consult with people with disability or their representative organisations during the early stages of crisis.
Disaster planning for people with disability matters. We perpetuate inequality with every step we don’t take, and risk entrenching disadvantage. And if you make things inclusive for people with disability, you tend to make it inclusive for large swathes of groups also at risk in emergencies, including older people, socially disconnected people and others. Many birds, one stone.
I have lived over 50 years with my lifelong disabilities. I thought my understanding of disability was fully formed and realistic. But I think that in the long run, what I will remember most vividly from this pandemic is the lessons I am learning about disabled people and their true place in American society.
During times of crisis, critical information is often communicated visually, but in response to the experiences of Australians who are blind and low-vision in the Black Summer bushfires, Vision Australia is calling for a new emergency hotline to be established.
My GP told me to isolate a week or two before the lockdown, after the kind of conversation that I never want to have again. I was lucky: I already worked from home, and I had the financial resources to manage the increasingly expensive supplies. I knew that if I got COVID, it wouldn’t be good. My already fragile body would struggle with that extra load. I was so scared.
This research abstract reports on a survey of over 700 families that explored how Australia’s National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) supported children and young people and their families to learn remotely during COVID‐19. The results suggest that participant experiences varied widely, with some people able to make the changes they required and others left with a significant service gap. This shows that individual funding schemes are not necessarily more flexible than traditional systems in an emergency situation.
The COVID-19 pandemic has been the greatest challenge Australia’s aged care sector has faced. Those who have suffered the most have been the residents, their families and aged care staff. The report is the result of a hearing of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety into the impact of COVID-19 on aged care, which was held in Sydney from 10 to 13 August 2020.
“But the impact of the pandemic on many people with disability, especially those with high support needs, would have been significantly ameliorated if the Australian government had complied fully with the letter and spirit of its obligations under the [UN convention] from the very outset of the pandemic.”
The Disability Royal Commission’s issued a scathing report into how government agencies failed disabled Australians during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings point to failures by government officials to consult with people with a disability in the early stages of the pandemic and to even consider what was needed to protect them from the virus. And that left people with disability feeling anxious and stressed, and forgotten by both governments and wider
It was a “serious failure” that no Australian Government agency with responsibility for disability policy, including the Department of Health, made “any significant effort” to consult with people with disability or their representative organisations during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, a report by the Disability Royal Commission says.
The report makes 22 wide-ranging recommendations in light of evidence from people with disability, advocates, experts and government representatives during the Royal Commission’s fifth public hearing held in August. Chair Ronald Sackville AO QC said it was clear that official lines of communication had failed between decision-makers and people with disability, leaving them feeling “forgotten and ignored”.