Posted May 8, 2020
he COVID-19 pandemic has left many feeling uncertain of their future, but for those living with a disability the challenges posed are proving to be far more complex. Andrea Mason is the Commissioner for the Royal Commission into violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation of people with a disability. She says for people living with a disability the anxiety caused by the current health crisis is exacerbated by the feeling that they are being left behind or ignored in government and community responses.
Posted May 8, 2020
Disability support workers have had poor access to personal protective equipment and other health precautions during the pandemic, a new survey reveals.
Posted May 7, 2020
Many children have been learning at home during the pandemic. But for parents with children living with a disability the transition has been tough. Some families say they’re exhausting their NDIS funding to pay for support workers, to try to make sure their children don’t fall behind.
Posted May 7, 2020
Homeschooling is difficult enough for most families, but parents of students with disabilities say they urgently need more support to help educate their kids. Fiona Sharkie, CEO of Victorian peak body for autism Amaze, said students with disabilities and their families had been forced to scramble for their own solutions to homeschooling. “The silence is really deafening from the [Education] Department,” she said.
Posted May 4, 2020
Whether it’s been the bushfires, the floods, the disability royal commission or the COVID-19 pandemic, they have been there, beside our leaders at every press conference. Auslan interpreters have been in high demand this year as they convey critical and life-saving information to the deaf and hard of hearing community.
Posted April 30, 2020
A coalition of advocacy groups are demanding the government include people receiving the disability support pension on the fortnightly $550 COVID-19 supplement following the exclusion of disabled people and their carers, despite welfare recipients such as those on JobSeeker, Youth Allowance and Austudy being eligible.
Posted April 27, 2020
Although the experts welcomed the response plan, they say it needs to be based on human rights and principles to make sure ethical decision-making is used. Professor of Bioethics and Director of the Disability Innovation Institute at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Jackie Leach Scully says that the national response plan is just the starting point of ensuring the needs of people with disability are met.
Posted April 24, 2020
The lack of awareness of our human rights permeates throughout the health sector and recent hearingsby the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability have shed light on the human cost. Health sector responses have been a life-and-death matter for people with disabilities for a very long time. Throw in a global pandemic and reforms to health sector policy and practice have never been more urgent.
Posted April 24, 2020
This Statement of Concern is made by internationally recognised independent experts in the area of human rights, bioethics and disability who have come together to emphasise key human rights principles and standards that need to underpin ethical decision-making in the context of disability and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Posted April 24, 2020
In brief – This article outlines the legal obligations of providers to uphold client and employee privacy and workplace safety during the COVID-19 Pandemic and suggested strategies to strike the right balance are outlined below including a privacy impact assessment.
Posted April 23, 2020
People with disability are at significant risk during the COVID-19 pandemic, but you’d be forgiven for not knowing this as Australia’s senior government officials and politicians have barely mentioned disability.
Posted April 21, 2020
The Australian Health Sector Emergency Response Plan for Novel Coronavirus guides the Australian health sector response. This management and operational plan focuses on people with disability.
Posted April 20, 2020
The forum covered a lot of issues, including PPE and support for self-managing participants. Two notable coming changes are more flexibility to use NDIS funding for devices for people who don’t already have one, and need one to access therapy and supports, and a conversation on grocery delivery charges for people who cannot access the supermarket or essentials through other ways.
Posted April 17, 2020
“We haven’t heard anything about how disability and those living with disability are going to be prioritised at this moment,” disability leaders say.
Posted April 17, 2020
But for many people, this sense of isolation and detachment from “normal” life isn’t a temporary phase; they aren’t waiting out the lockdown for normality to resume. For a large percentage of the population, including the elderly and many of the 1.3 billion people living with a disability worldwide, this daily experience of isolation and exclusion is unfortunately the norm.
