Disability Rights update: October 2009

Other recent editions: August 2009 | April 2009 | February 2009 . Material from older editions is incorporated in the Commission'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 Australian Human Rights 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, Australian Human Rights Commission, GPO Box 5218, Sydney NSW 1042.

Overview

Access to premises : Standards progressing; partnership with local government expanding; successful national forum on universal design in housing.
DisCo : Commission working closely with Government internationally on Disability Rights Convention and seeking closer involvement in domestic implementation strategy development
Media access: Progressing television captioning access through exemption process, pending release of DBCDE media access review
Employment and disability : Resource on mental illness and employment close to release; meeting with government arranged to follow up release of National Mental Health and Disability Employment Strategy
Accessible public transport: Commission advancing access through co-operative work on rail, bus, aviation, pending release of review of Standards for Accessible Public Transport
Health access: Work with RACGP on adjustable examination beds progressing
Hearing impairment in indigenous communities: Commission makes submission to Senate inquiry on hearing health
Electoral access: Commission contributing to AEC work on accessible voting
Government 2.0: The Commission contributed to the Government 2.0 taskforce with a submission emphasising accessibility

Access to Premises

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

Premises Standards : Important progress is being achieved in finalising the draft Premises Standards following the release of the Parliamentary report in June.

Of particular importance is the work on revising the technical material in Australian Standards which are referenced in the Premises Standards. These technical documents have to be finalised before the Premises Standards can begin the Parliamentary process. We understand that work on these technical documents is almost complete and hopeful that Government will set out a timetable for completion of the Premises Standards soon.

Partnership with local government : The partnership between the Commission and local government based on the access resource The good, the bad and the ugly has attracted considerable interest, with more than 20 local government authorities currently negotiating partnership arrangements. Commissioner Innes will be meeting with the Parliamentary Secretary for Infrastructure, Local Government and Regional Development in November to discuss possibilities for building on this and other Commission initiatives for human rights partnerships with local government.

Housing access : The Commission participated in a National Dialogue on Universal Housing on 27 October. The Dialogue was hosted by Ms Therese Rein and Mr Bill Shorten and brought together representatives from the building and property sector along with Government and community sector groups. This meeting provided an opportunity for the Commission to contribute to an important discussion on reform in the way we design and construct housing to meet the needs of the community. The meeting concluded with a very positive joint statement committing participants to developing a national strategy to address lifetime housing needs. The Commission first raised the need for such a strategy at the Australian Network for Universal Housing Design Forum at the end of 2006.

Convention on Human Rights and Disability

For more in this area see our Convention page.

Commissioner Innes represented the Australian Government together with delegation leader the Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance at the second Conference of States Parties to the DisCo in New York in September, and participated in side events on the Convention and international development assistance (sponsored by AusAID) and on the role of national human rights institutions. Thanks are due to AusAID for financial assistance to enable the Commissioner to attend.

With the Committee on the Rights of Disabilities having indicated it is giving early consideration to Article 12 on recognition and exercise of legal capacity by people with disabilities, the Commission assisted in convening an Australian expert forum on issues in this area in September.

National Disability Strategy : A Commonwealth inter-departmental committee has been established to work on development of a National Disability Strategy with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities as a major focus. The Commission is not presently included in this IDC but has been working to contribute as fully as possible.

International co-operation : The first of the training sessions in the Commission and the Pacific Disability Forum's joint AusAID funded project, Building capacity and knowledge of DPOs and government representatives in the Pacific to progress disability issues was conducted in September in Vanuatu . It is already clear that this partnership project will provide important lessons on designing further human rights education and capacity building projects both internationally and for application within Australia . Formal evaluation reports will be provided throughout the project commencing in December, but very positive feedback on the initial session has been received from governmental and DPO participants alike. Commissioner Innes has passed this feedback on to the Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance and also participated with him in the Pacific Forum Disability Ministers meeting in October.

Employment and Disability

Resource for employers : A guide for employers prepared jointly with Safe Work Australia which provides practical guidance on a range of workplace adjustments and accommodations for workers with mental illness is now close to readiness for release.

National Mental and Disability Employment Strategy : Following the release of the Government's National Mental Health and Disability Employment Strategy paper we have arranged to meet with the Minister for Employment Participation, together with other members of the Strategy advisory group. To discuss further opportunities for working together to advance employment opportunity and participation for people with disability.

Audio description, captioning and media access

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

Departmental investigation into media access : Release of the Department of Broadband, Communication and the Digital Economy report on media access remains pending. We are hopeful this report will make a valuable contribution to mapping out improvements in media access and have expressed our hope it will be released as soon as possible.

Television captioning : Discussions are taking place with the Australian Subscription Television and Radio Association (ASTRA) and representatives from the community sector on ASTRA's application for temporary exemption and proposal for further increases in captioning levels.

Accessible public transport

Five year review of standards : The release of the report of the initial five year review of the Disability Standards for Accessible Public Transport continues to remain pending.

Rail access: We have been assisting the Australasian Railways Association in development of a Code of Practice on achievement of access to rail services. A draft Code is nearing readiness for release by the ARA for public comment.

Aviation issues: Work continues through the Aviation Access Working Group established by the Government on co-operative development of a co-regulatory approach involving development of access compliance plans. Co-operative work through this group also contributed to development by Virgin Blue of revised access policies on which the Commision was able to congratulate the airline in September.

Bus stops: The Commission has received over 30 submissions on the draft Guidelines on accessible bus stops. Many of these submissions provide extensive technical comment and valuable examples of how organisations in different parts of Australia are currently working to meet their responsibilities in this area and provide access to mobility and social participation for people with disability. We expect to finalise the Guideline by early December.

Electoral Access

Commissioner Innes has continued to participate in the Australian Electoral Commission's working groups on improving access to independent and secret voting for people with disability.

Health access

Height adjustable examination beds : The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) has started a review of the Standards for General Practices and has invited the Commission and other interested parties to make submissions on areas of possible change.

The Commission is meeting with representatives from the disability and aging sectors to discuss submissions in relation to the issue of height adjustable examination beds in GP surgeries.

Indigenous people with disability

The Commission provided a submission to the Senate Community Affairs Committee on the Inquiry into hearing health in Australia, based on the research project we have commissioned on the impact of hearing impairment and deafness in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. While the research is only at an initial stage, it has already enabled the Commission to highlight issues of the prevalence of hearing impairment and deafness in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities; contributing factors and impacts on whole of life outcomes and human rights dimensions of these outcomes; and to make initial recommendations. Further work from this project will be available shortly.

Information accessibility

The Commission contributed to the Government 2.0 taskforce with a submission emphasising accessibility which is available on the Commission's and the Taskforce's website

Recent meetings / speeches / media

As at 27 October 2009

Disability Discrimination Commissioner, Graeme Innes

Date	Event
24-25 Aug	Welcoming School Communities conference, Perth
24 Aug	WA Ministerial Advisory Council on Disability, Perth
26 Aug	National Equity and Diversity Conference, Canberra
26 Aug	Aust. Local Govt Association, Canberra
27 Aug	Captioning Awards and related meetings, Sydney
31 Aug	Standards Australia committee meeting, Sydney
11 Sep	Radio interviews re Virgin airlines revised access policy
15 Sep	Seminar with VEOHRC on improved disability rights protection, Melbourne
18 Sep	AEC assisted voting working group, Sydney
22 Sep	Seminar on Disco Article 12, Sydney
24 Sep	Meetings Aust. Sports Commission; Universities Australia; Comcare, Canberra
29 Sep	Meeting Parlt.Sec for Workforce Participation, Sydney
29 Sep	Keynote at DEAN Professional Development Day, UTS, Sydney
7 Oct	Adult Guardianship and Administration Council re DisCo, Adelaide
15 Oct	Diversity at Work awards, Melbourne
16 Oct	Launch of captioned telephone pilot, Ultimo
19 Oct	AEC electronic voting working group, Canberra
21 Oct	Physical Disability Council NSW AGM, Glebe
22-23 Oct	Pacific Forum Disability Ministers meeting, Raratonga
27 Oct	National Dialogue on Universal Housing, Kirribilli House, Sydney

Commission staff

Date	Event
14-18 Sep	Disability rights capacity building workshop 1, Vanuatu, Ms Ricci

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