How are the NDIA and the sector performing when it comes to employing disabled leaders? Only 5.7% of NDIA Senior Executive Services positions are held by people who identify as disabled. This equates to 4 out of 71 senior positions. Yet the NDIA’s Corporate Plan 2021-25 reveals that it aims to employ disabled people in 11% of its senior executive positions.
Barriers to employment will be a key focus of the Jobs and Skills summit and Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth has said she wants to ‘close the gap’ on employment outcomes for Australian’s living with a disability.
“I hear revolting stories where, you know, people overhear their managers saying, ‘oh, we have to interview these people because they’ve come through the RecruitAbility framework, but we’re certainly not going to have them on our team’… it’s prejudice. Straight up. Unfortunately, Ryan said, even companies working in the disability sector are getting this wrong, operating without a person with disability at the helm or within the leadership team — including the NDIS.
The minister’s move is being lauded by many in the disability community. Writer and advocate El Gibbs tweeted that people with disability had long been campaigning for changes to the DES system.
Greens Senator Jordon Steele-John is calling for employment outcomes for people with disability to be a clear priority at the Albanese government’s upcoming jobs and skills summit.
Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth said despite warnings, some organisations still failed to provide adequate support for people with a disability. “Poorly performing DES providers were given every opportunity to put measures in place to improve and were aware of the formal review process,” she said.
The current Disability Employment Services (DES) programs end in June 2023. The consultation report summarises public feedback gathered via a submission process that closed in February 2021. The consultation asked for ideas on how to boost jobs outcomes for disabled people. Key issues identified were reducing jobs barriers, allowing better access to jobs services, and providing more holistic, wrap-around services and complementary supports. People with disability also needed clearer information on supports available to them as well as greater flexibility in program and service delivery.
Murdoch argues if any other business told workers they “had to pay 1.5% to access their pay this week, people would be kicking up a bit of a stink about that”. “I’ve earned that money, I’ve worked hard for it – yet I’m having to pay a fee to access it in a timely manner.”
In 2022, people with disabilities made up just 6.3 per cent of university enrolments in Australia, and only 1.2 per cent had a profound disability. Of those, only a handful studied science. Geologist and lecturer Melanie Finch believes the lack of inclusion in geoscience is an attitude problem rather than a lack of opportunities for disabled academics.
Over the past 20 years, people with disability could have wallpapered our houses with the many plans and strategies we were promised would close the employment gap between us and our non-disabled colleagues – but in reality, very little has changed.
Dr Peterson was left a a quadriplegic by the accident in Orange, New South Wales, but assistive technology and modifications to his home and work environment have enabled him to continue practising.
As workplaces strive for inclusivity, some businesses are showing the way forward in how to remove barriers and demonstrate the benefits of employing people with a disability. Mr Basha, who works as an office assistant alongside radio hosts Fitzy and Wippa, said his employer has high expectations of him.
Kerriene Minjoot never felt like her blindness was a barrier to her succeeding at work, until she joined the very government agency tasked with improving the lives of Australians with disabilities. “I did not expect to go into working at the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) and ending up feeling more disabled than I ever have before,” she said.
There are lots of different supports for people with disability who want to work. This guide can help you understand which supports you could use to help you pursue your work goals. The Guide has been created to help participants, their families and carers think about what supports might best suit their individual needs in … Continued
Called Women in the Workplace, the program is the brainchild of Tara Shekede, founder of Me Plus More — an online resource platform for people living with intellectual or cognitive impairment to learn independent living skills.