Curbing disability discrimination in the workplace is everyone’s responsibility. And it’s unfair, though all too common, to place all of the burden on people with disabilities to absorb, defuse, or fight disability discrimination themselves. But what can people with disabilities do to prepare themselves for possible – and unfortunately probable – workplace discrimination?
There was good news from the Australian Government budget this week with the announcement of funding for a range of measures on supported employment. Supported employment for people with disability is typically provided in Australian Disability Enterprises, also known as sheltered workshops. Providers can legally pay employees as little as $2.75 per hour under the … Continued
Winnie and Gary Andrews jumped at the chance to have their son Ben join the NDIS during early trials in the Hunter region of New South Wales in 2014. It was a move that changed Ben’s life.
However, existing social bias, historical exclusion and insufficient research and data sets pose a challenge for the successful development and implementation of cognitive diversity policies.
It is assumed that by building a greater concentration of disability at the entry level, that over time disabled workers will drift upwards into positions of leadership and decision making. Over several decades this approach hasn’t worked, yet it remains the primary method used to achieve disability equality.
An Australian-first research project has found that disabled people working in the Australian screen industry regularly face prejudice and discrimination. Alarmingly, 77 per cent of disabled respondents reported negative impacts on their work in the screen industry, and 58 per cent of disabled workers in the screen industry earn less than $800 per week.
“People living with disability aren’t looking for a hand-out or to be given a job because they have a disability. All they want is a fair opportunity in the recruitment process, for employers to have an open mind towards how a task can be done, and to be considered according to their skill set and experiences they can bring, not their personal situation.”
In late 2022, the federal government convened a forum to discuss the National Disability Strategy. The final panel examined the issue of “attitudes” – a regular topic of conversation amongst those wanting to see improvements in disability equality. An unusual feature of this final panel was that the topic of disability leadership came to the … Continued
New research from the Australian Network on Disability (AND) has uncovered some of the barriers people with disability face in employment. The research comes at a critical time for disability employment, ahead of the release later this year of the report out of the Disability Royal Commission, which will address the issue.
A New South Wales Labor government would team up with former Australian of the year Dylan Alcott in a commitment to recruit more than 10,000 people with disabilities to the public sector, doubling the current number.
Australia is lagging other countries when it comes to employing people with disability. A gulf exists between the employment rates of working-aged Australians with and without disability. The gap here is 32 per cent, much higher than countries such as Sweden (9.5 per cent), Finland (12.4 per cent), France (9.9 per cent) and Italy (13.3 per cent).
Greenvale’s Tobias Ward-Boas said he couldn’t wipe the smile off his face when he received a call to say he’d landed a job with the Victorian Advocacy League for Individuals with Disability (VALID).
Damian Mellifont, Jennifer Smith-Merry and Kim Bulkeley
Disabled people working in Australia’s screen industry face prejudice and systemic discrimination, including lower pay, greater casualisation and stigma and stereotyping, a new report finds. The findings, drawn from a national survey of more than 500 people – both disabled and non-disabled – and in-depth interviews, are included in the Disability and Screen Work in Australia: … Continued
The Royal Commission has published its Report on Public hearing 21, which was held in February last year. The hearing examined the experiences of people with disability engaging with the Disability Employment Services (DES) program. It focused on Mzia (not her real name) who has ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder).