Disability Rights update: February 2008

Other recent editions: November 2007; September 2007; July 2007; May 2007; February 2007; November 2006. Material from older editions is incorporated in HREOC's annual reports available online.

About this update

This Update from Disability Discrimination Commissioner Graeme Innes is a slightly edited version of his regular disability rights project report for meetings of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. It is published as close as possible to Commission meetings, which are generally held 6 to 8 weeks apart. Events are notified first in the What´s New section of the Disability Rights home page, so check there if you want to keep fully up to date.

You can subscribe to our email list to be notified when new editions of this update are issued and when other major developments occur, by sending a blank message to join-drupdate@list.humanrights.gov.au

Your comments on any project or issue are welcome, preferably sent by e-mail. Contact us at: disabdis@humanrights.gov.au , or by mail to Disability Rights Unit, Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, GPO Box 5218, Sydney NSW 1042.

Briefings for incoming government

In recent weeks I have written to a number of Ministers to discuss current areas of work and possible collaboration:

• to the Prime Minister and the Special Minister of State regarding electronically assisted voting

• to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Education, Employment and Workplace Relations regarding the Government's social inclusion agenda and proposed national disability employment strategy

• to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Attorney-General suggesting expedited ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

• to the Attorney-General urging the early introduction of amendments to the Disability Discrimination Act to implement the reforms recommended by the Productivity Commission over two years ago, and a number of associated reforms including regarding recognition of assistance animals

• to the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research and the Attorney-General seeking support in concluding the very long running negotiations for a Disability Standard under the Disability Discrimination Act in relation to access to premises

• to the Minister for Health and Ageing regarding work on access to health services for people with disability

• to the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy and the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts regarding work on captioning and other media access issues.

I also intend to write shortly to relevant Ministers on a number of other issues including

• to the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government and the Attorney-General regarding the current review of the Disability Standards for Accessible Public Transport, and associated regulatory reform issues

• to the Minister for Finance and Deregulation on the desirability of introduction by the Commonwealth of an accessible procurement policy, such as has long existed in the United States under section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act in that country

• to relevant Ministers on possible co-operation in the development of a cross government disability strategy.

As well as meeting with the Attorney together with other members of the Commission, I have had initial discussions with the Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children's Services on ways in which the Commission and his office might co-operate in advancing disability issues.

Convention on Human Rights and Disability

For more in this area see our Convention page.

In addition to continuing to promote ratification by Australia as early as possible, we have been working with the Asia Pacific Forum to provide members of the Pacific Disability Development Forum with knowledge and skills to assist their governments in working towards signature and ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Access to Premises

For more in this area see our access to premises page .

I have had initial discussions with relevant Ministers in the new Government concerning the proposed Access to Premises Standard. Indications are that the Government wishes to proceed with finalising the Standard. I understand Ministers are reviewing progress made so far before deciding how to proceed.

Work is proceeding on reviewing our resource The good, the Bad and the Ugly with a view to re-issuing in late February.

National Inquiry into Employment and Disability

The Working Group which we have convened on occupational health and safety and employees with disability met again in January to discuss further work to address this barrier to employment for people with disability. Following the finding last year by the Australian Safety and Compensation Council that there is no conclusive evidence to support the suggestion that workers with disability are more likely to be injured at work than other employees, the working group decided on five key areas of work: (1) development of various fact sheets for distribution to employers, recruitment and on-hire companies, risk assessors and people with disability; (2) development of promotional activities for employers; (3) capacity building for regulators, employment service providers, unions and legal advisers; (4) empowering people with disability; and (5) guidance material for employers to accommodate employees with mental illness. It is hoped that some aspects of this work will also contribute to components of the Government's first phase of harmonisation of OHS Laws.

With regard to the scoping of issues and barriers to employment for Indigenous people with disability, meetings were held with the NSW Aboriginal Disability Network and the Indigenous Training Network (established by Jobs Australia with joint funding provided by DEEWR). Research is continuing in this area and key contacts are being established.

With regard to wages for people with disability working in Business Services, concerns were raised at the most recent Australian Fair Pay Commission Disability Roundtable meeting in December regarding consistency of pay across various Wage Assessment Tools used in Business Services. We are also contributing to a review of ten new Wage Assessment Tools awaiting approval by the AFPC.

I recently met with the Director General of the NSW Department of Disability, Ageing and Home Care to discuss a number of education and employment responsibilities which are shared between Commonwealth and State and Territory governments. These issues included: costs related to employment, transition to work programs, procurement, and people with disability working in the public sector.

I also recently met with Diversity Council Australia to discuss a variety of strategies to assist employers to recruit and retain employees with disability.

Freedom from Abuse

In November I gave a presentation at the Domestic Violence, Disability and Cultural Safety National Forum. I was delighted that Commissioner Broderick was also able to give a brief presentation at this conference via video indicating that both Commissioners are keen to progress work in this area to reduce the rate of violence and ensure services are able to respond to the needs of people with disability experiencing violence and abuse.

One clear message from the conference was the need for whole-of-government responses in each State and Territory. I subsequently met with the NSW Minister for Disability Services, Kristina Keneally, to discuss such an approach for NSW.

Women with Disabilities

Recognising that both the Disability Rights Unit and the Sex Discrimination Unit have expertise on discrimination issues and barriers for women with disability, in December Commissioner Broderick and I met jointly with Women With Disabilities Australia (WWDA). Issues raised at this meeting included: sterilisation, violence against women, access to breast and cervical screening, removal of children from mothers with intellectual disability, lack of data regarding disability and concerns raised at airports regarding personal aids which are required during transit.

Audio description, captioning and media access

For more in this area see our captioning and media access page.

The proposed Departmental investigation into media access which will look at the availability of captioning and audio description across a range of media including TV, cinema and DVD has been delayed while the relevant new Ministers consider how to proceed.

In the meantime I have continued discussions with community organisations and industry bodies in an attempt to encourage proposals to improve media access.

Health access

For more in this area see our health access page.

Mental Health

For more in this area see our mental health page

I recently met with the Mental Health Council of Australia (MHCA) to discuss current areas of work and potential key priority issues for people with mental illness. The Government's commitment to develop a national employment strategy for people with disability and mental illness and the focus on homelessness were discussed during this meeting.

Information and communications technology

For more in this area see our information and communications page.

The Disability Rights Unit continues its active involvement with web accessibility and the promotion of best-practice standards. In response to the release of the latest draft version of the Worldwide Web Consortium's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, the Unit hosted a meeting of key web accessibility experts in Australia to discuss the changes from previous version, and to identify areas that should be the subject of comment to the development committee. Once the committee has considered comments on this draft, the Guidelines will move to the status of a Candidate Recommendation, following which selected participants will be invited to "road test" the guidelines. We will be having discussions with the committee to ensure that Australian input is received during this process.

E-commerce

For more in this area see our ecommerce page

Accessible consumer electronics products

For several years we have been encouraging manufacturers and providers of mobile phones to do more to make them accessible to people with disabilities. Nokia Australia have recently announced an initiative whereby users of their 6120 Classic mobile phone (a Next G handset) can freely download a font enlarging utility that is of value to some people who have low vision. Nokia Australia have concluded an licensing agreement with the utility's developers to allow for this software to be made available free to users. It is encouraging that Nokia have embarked on this local initiative, and we are assisting them by eliciting user feedback.

Accessible public transport

For more in this area see our transport page.

The draft report of the initial five year review of the Disability Standards for Accessible Public Transport has been released. Comments have been requested by 31 March and we have commenced work on a submission.

Exemptions

For more in this area see our exemptions page.

Tiger Airways: On 1 February the Commission granted a very brief (one month) exemption to Tiger Airways regarding physical access to aircraft, pending delivery of their passenger lifting devices and on condition that they work with disability representative organisations to address access issues more broadly.

Queensland Rail Tilt Train : Queensland Rail have applied for an exemption for five years to permit them to maintain current levels of provision of allocated spaces on their tilt train services. A recommendation on this matter will be before the Commission shortly.

Queensland and Western Australian Taxi Councils: Taxi industry representative bodies in these two States have applied for their member radio co-operatives to be exempted from the requirement under the transport Standards to ensure equal response times for accessible cabs as for other taxis. A recommendation on this matter will be made once the Commission has the benefit of submissions from transport jurisdictions later this month.

Regional Express (REX) : REX airways applied in October 2007 for temporary exemptions to permit Rex placing certain restrictions and requirements on the carriage of passengers with specific disabilities on its SAAB aircraft. REX has requested time to consider and respond to issues raised in public submissions on the application. A recommendation in this matter will be made following REX having responded.

Recent meetings / speeches / media

Commissioner Innes except where otherwise indicated

8/9 Nov - Domestic Violence, Disability and Cultural Safety National Forum (Cmr Innes, Ms Ricci)
15 Nov: Forum on disability standards for education, Sydney University 19 Nov: Qld Disability Advisory Council re Convention
20 Nov: Interviews re electronic voting
26 Nov – Meeting: Diversity Council Australia (Cmr Innes, Ms Ricci)
28 Nov: National Disability Services CEO meeting, Canberra (Cmr Innes)
30 Nov: Employers Network on Disability, Sydney
3 Dec – Meeting: Women with Disabilities Australia (Cmr Innes, Cmr Broderick, Ms Ricci)
3 Dec – International Day of People with a Disability events
4 Dec – Meeting Media Access Australia
7 Dec – Australian Fair Pay Commission Disability Roundtable Meeting (Ms Ricci)
11 Dec Meetings, Melbourne: AFDO; AEC forum on electronic voting (Cmr Innes)
13 Dec: Meeting Aust. Bankers Association, Sydney (Cmr Innes, Mr Small, Mr Maguire)
18 Dec: Access to premises reference group meeting , Sydney (Cmr Innes, Mr Small)
19 Dec – Meeting: NSW Minister for Disability Services (19 Dec – Meeting: Aboriginal Disability Network NSW (Cmr Innes, Ms Ricci)
4 Jan: Interviews re bus stop access
11 Jan: Interviews re transport standards review
17 Jan – OHS and Employees with Disability in the Open Workplace Working Group Meeting (Mr Mason, Ms Ricci)
22 Jan: Virgin Blue re access issues (Cmr Innes, Mr Mason, Sydney)
23 Jan: Meeting Mr Shorten, Parliamentary Secretary for Disability (Sydney )
1 Feb – Meeting: Mental Health Council of Australia (Cmr Innes, Mr Mason, Ms Ricci)
5 Feb – Meeting: Brendan O'Reilly, Director General, NSW Department of Ageing, Disability and Home Care (Cmr Innes, Ms Ricci)
7 Feb: Australasian Railways Association , Canberra (Mr Mason)

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