Disability Rights update: November 2007

Other recent editions: 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.

Convention on Human Rights and Disability

For more in this area see our Convention page.

I have followed up the workshop we held in June for disability representative, advocacy and advisory bodies on the Convention with a round of meetings with State and Territory disability advisory councils to promote effective input to pre-ratification consultation processes which will shortly be commenced by the Attorney-General's Department and Department of Family and Community Services.

Access to Premises

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

The information CD (The good, the bad and the ugly) which I released in July has continued to attract very positive attention. The CD has been ‘launched' at a number of conferences and all 3000 of the initial production have been distributed with over 1500 on back-order. The CD is currently being revised to take account of the many helpful comments received and a new batch will be ready by the end of November.

Discussions are currently taking place with one local government authority with a view to entering into a partnership to ensure every applicant for a Development Approval for public buildings receives a copy. Such a partnership might act as a model for other local government authorities around Australia .

National Inquiry into Employment and Disability

Scoping of the issues and barriers to employment for Indigenous people with disability is well underway. As mentioned previously, these concerns were not raised during the Inquiry into Employment and Disability and are complex. A clearer picture of the issues and barriers will enable these issues to be incorporated into the follow-up work of the Inquiry.

Follow-up work by members of the Occupational Health and Safety and Employees with Disability Working Group meeting is also well underway. Importantly, the Working Group developed a fact sheet Safe, diverse and productive: A workplace with people with people with disability . This fact sheet was released jointly by the Australian Safety and Compensation Council and HREOC and is being distributed through networks across Australia , including JobAccess, to employers, employment service providers, private recruitment agencies, workplace compensation and workplace safety authorities, and union members. The fact sheet summarises the main findings of the recent report by the Australian Safety and Compensation Council Are people with disability a risk at work? This study was conducted as a result of the findings of the Employment and Disability Inquiry. Specifically that one of the main impediments to the employment of people with disability lies in employer concerns about increased exposure to legal and financial risks related to occupational health and safety. The report found 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.

A variety of other actions are being pursued by the OHS and Employees with Disability Working Group including: a stocktake of resources on OHS and employees with disability; design of employer promotional activities; capacity building for regulators, employment service providers and legal advisers; empowerment of people with disability; and accommodating people with mental illness in the workplace.

Audio description, captioning and media access

For more in this area see our captioning and media access page. Note also now announcement of investigation by Minister

DVD access

I hosted a second Roundtable on DVD access on 10 September with representatives from the Australian Visual Software Distributors Association (AVSDA), Government, the disability sector, Film Finance Australia and Media Access Australia (MAA).

Final agreement was reached on the form of access information to be provided on DVD slicks. Broad agreement was also reached on the content of an AVSDA Accessibility Framework which will promote the availability of access features on DVDs released in Australia . The AVSDA Board has reviewed final comments made and has placed the final Framework on their website. A targeted media launch of the Framework is currently being co-ordinated.

AVSDA also committed to providing final comments on a business case paper developed by MAA. The development of a sound business case is a critical part of the strategy to increase the availability of access features on DVDs and one of AVSDA's members has agreed to ‘road test' the analysis presented in the paper.

TV captioning

The Commission chaired a meeting on 17 September involving FreeTV, TV broadcasters, the disability sector and Media Access Australia to discuss the possibilities for further increases in captioning at the expiry of the current temporary exemption in May 2008.

The disability sector made it clear that their expectation was for a progressive increase in captioning to achieve 100%. While the broadcasters expressed a willingness to discuss increases they also expressed a view that the Departmental investigation into electronic media access currently underway was a good opportunity for all issues to be raised and considered. I will encourage all parties to continue to discuss the possibilities of an agreement that might be presented to the investigation as having broad support.

The meeting also discussed the finalisation of a set of Quality Guidelines on captioning and agreed on a timetable for their completion.

Cinema captioning

I chaired a meeting of representatives from the three major cinema exhibitors and distributors, the disability sector and Media Access Australia on 11 October.

The meeting was called to discuss a number of issues including the 2001 industry agreement in relation to cinema captioning and the recently announced Department of Communications , Information Technology and the Arts Investigation will be undertaken on the issue of electronic media access.

While the meeting was a valuable opportunity for each party to put forward their views on the cinema captioning program there was no agreement reached on how to move forward. A further meeting is to take place once the scope of the Departmental investigation has been clarified.

Health access

For more in this area see our health access page.

We have issued an open letter on the website which summarises work that has been undertaken over the past two years in relation to the availability of adjustable-height examination beds in general practices.

While we have welcomed the developments that have taken place in this area we will continue to advocate for adjustable-height examination beds becoming mandatory in general practices.

Information and communications technology

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

Mr Maguire continues to participate in the discussions of the US Access Board committee reviewing the standards on information and communications technology under s.508 of the US Rehabilitation Act.

E-commerce

For more in this area see our ecommerce page

Work has now been completed on the Australian Bankers' Association Guiding Principles on Accessible Authentication which will be released at the end of November/early December.

The Guiding Principles have been developed to provide guidance to financial institutions adopting stronger authentication technologies as part of their banking services while at the same time ensuring that all customers of financial institutions, including people with disabilities and older people, are able to access and manage their finances independently, securely and effectively.

Accessible consumer electronics products

A discussion paper on access issues affecting people with disability in using a range of consumer electronics products and possibilities for addressing these issues has been released and we are now commencing meetings with industry participants and relevant regulatory agencies on the issues raised.

While on leave in the US , Mr Maguire had the opportunity to give a presentation to graduate students in Design and Telecommunications at New York University about the principles of accessible design in general, and the Commission's recently-released discussion paper on access to consumer electronics in particular. Mr Maguire continued and developed this theme in a lecture he gave to Community Work students at the University of NSW in October. The overall topic for what has been an annual lecture for the past 6 years is Disability and Cyber-space. By emphasising the parallels between the virtual and the built environments, the principles of universal design can be seen to have a wider domain of application than is often realised.

Accessible public transport

For more in this area see our transport page.

The release of the draft report of the five year review of the Disability Standards for Accessible Public Transport has been delayed on the basis of caretaker government conventions.

We have continued to contribute to development by the Australasian Railways Association of an industry code to aid the implementation in practice of the Standards.

Exemptions

For more in this area see our exemptions page.

A temporary exemption in relation to assistance animals was approved on 24 September for rail operator members of the Australasian Railways Association. Recommendations for decisions on exemptions regarding boarding assistance and carriage of mobility aids are currently before the Commission.

An application for temporary exemption has been received from Regional Express (REX) Airlines. A request for public submissions has been issued.

Recent meetings / speeches / media

Commissioner Innes except where otherwise indicated

23 Sep: Electronic voting forum, Melbourne
10 Sept: DVD Roundtable, Sydney (Cmr Innes, Mr Small)
13 Sep: Vic EEO network re action plans (Melbourne)
13 Sep: Aust. Council of Deans re disability standards, Canberra
14 Sep: Disability convention taskforce meeting, Redfern (Cmr Innes, Mr Mason)
17 Sept: Free to air TV meeting, Sydney (Mr Small)
19 Sep: Meetings WA Minister for Disability Services, WA Disability Council, Job Access ( Perth)
20 Sep: Speech on accessible procurement, Perth
21 Sep: Aboriginal Disability Network NSW office opening, Redfern
24-28 Sep: Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions conference and associated meetings (Cmr Innes, Mr Mason, Mr Small)
28 Sept: Aust. Association of Special Education conference, Coogee
29 Sept: Deafblind Internationational conference, Perth
3 Oct: Seminar on disability Convention, Sydney
5 Oct: Communications Alliance , Sydney
11 Oct: Cinema Captioning meeting, Sydney (Commissioner Innes Mr Small)
16 Oct: Epilepsy Association AGM, Sydney
17 Oct: Meeting NSW DDLC (Cmr Innes, Mr Small, Sydney )
17 Oct: NCOSS conference, Perspectives on Poverty, Sydney
18 Oct: Anti-poverty seminar, Campelltown
19 Oct: Disability and Poverty: Causes, consequences and responses. Workshop on disability-inclusive development practice (Ms Ricci)
19 Oct: Speeches to MS forum and Blind Citizens Australia convention, Melbourne
22 Oct: Physical Disability Council Forum, Hobart (Mr Small)
23 Oct: Local Government Association, Tasmania (Mr Small)
24 Oct: Tas State Govt Depts on Action Plans, Hobart (Mr Small)
24 Oct: Aust. Independent Film Distributors re cinema captioning (Sydney )
25 Oct: Australian Institute of Building Surveyors , Melbourne (Mr Small)
26 Oct: MS forum, Sydney
29 Oct: ACMA re captioning (Cmr Innes, Mr Mason, Sydney)
30 Oct: Disability Advisory Councils meeting on Convention, Melbourne (Mr Mason)
30 Oct: Presentations at Griffith University and University of Queensland on disability standards
31 Oct: Diversity in emergency services conference, Melbourne
1 Nov: Employers Network on Disability seminar on reasonable adjustments, Melbourne
5 Nov: Meeting Australian Hearing Services (Chatswood)
6 Nov: Mexican Human Rights Commission senior staff re disability Convention (Sydney )
8 Nov: Domestic Violence, Disability and Cultural Safety Forum, Sydney 9 Nov: Liaison meeting with Attorney-General's Department, Sydney (Cmr Innes, Mr Mason)

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