Beyond Tolerance: National Conference on Racism. 12 - 13 March 2002. Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission

"I just want to be treated with respect": The double discrimination felt by people from immigrant cultures
Licia Kokocinski

Action on Disability within Ethnic Communities, or ADEC, has been in operation for over fifteen years. It is based in Coburg, Victoria, it is a statewide provider, and is managed by a Committee of Management. During its period of operation, it has completed a significant number of projects. ADEC has also developed an extensive range of resources to achieve its aims of ensuring equal opportunity for people with a disability from ethnic communities to participate in all facets of community life.

ADEC runs an extensive number of programs:

It is the only disability advocacy and service provider in Victoria that operates statewide and has as its constituency people with a disability and their carers from immigrant cultures.

Since the first International Year for Disabled Persons nearly two decades ago, many people believe that discrimination on the grounds of disability has lessened. However, it is recognized that people from immigrant cultures who also have a disability experience "double" or "triple" discrimination.

Firstly, many people from ethnic communities have language difficulties. Literature, language and terminology used by service providers may be inaccessible. Also poor English skills of the primary carers inhibits full participation in the community.

Secondly, cultural barriers imposed by service providers may inhibit access to support services and information. Current information about disability and the range of supports may not have been available in the country of origin. Such barriers cannot be overcome if agencies are unable to access communities or gain the confidence or trust of individuals

Thirdly, many people with a disability and their carers from ethnic communities are isolated within their own cultural community, sometimes due to the family's perception of disability, at other times, due to isolation imposed by that particular culture.

In the previous financial year, 315 individuals requested assistance by way of an Individual Advocate, a massive increase of 60% from the previous financial year. Even though we have two Advocates this year, (instead of three), I expect this figure for this financial year to be similar.

Clients come from a huge range of non-Anglo backgrounds (well over 30 language groups).

These 315 People came to ADEC with over 1,000 issues and concerns,

The prevalent issues were:

Nearly all the issues that the Individual Advocates handled can be brought under five headings. They were:

Individual Advocates also have to work with families where one or more member(s) has a disability, on the issue of:

The HREOC Report published in 2000, called On the Sidelines: Disability and People from non-English Speaking Background Communities is an excellent expose of the current situation facing people with disabilities from ethnic communities. It provides case studies and personal stories.

The Victorian State Government, through the process of developing its State Disability Plan developed a number of reports to support the final document. These documents are excellent in providing personal stories as well as facts regarding disability and the level of citizenship experienced by people with disabilities.

I will not go through these myself, and decided against presenting further case studies or stories. Both of these documents present many stories.

I would like to spend more time talking about what strategies organizations and groups can take to ensure that the barriers mentioned above are not insurmountable. I will focus on two strategies that my organisation has developed:

In Victoria, service providers play a major role in ensuring that people with a disability are able to enjoy the same opportunities to fulfil their aspirations and to participate in the life of the community, be it in recreation, employment, social activities, or any other facet of life.

However, many of these organizations will admit that the number of people they assist from NESB is very low - this is verified by the tiny number of people from NESB who currently utilize disability services in Victoria.

ADEC believes that one of the reasons for this situation is that agencies, in particular advocacy agencies, do not have the skills that are required to effectively reach ethnic communities and then work with the individuals able to access a service.

This is NOT due to malicious intent, but more a lack of skills, knowledge and supports to redress this situation. From ADEC's experiences in working with generic organizations, money to fund translations is only a secondary issue.

My organisation has developed a model which aims to:

We do this is by incorporating two elements in our support to providers:

Firstly, utilizing our nationally-accredited training course "Planning for Culturally Relevant Services for People with a Disability", and secondly, the involvement of the Individual Advocates to share and impart their skills and expertise in working with people with a disability and their carers from NESB.

Have a flyer that shows the course in three parts.

ADEC would like to undertake a formal project which would involve developing effective and constructive partnerships with advocacy or other organizations. These partnerships would be reinforced in three ways: Firstly, by the development of working relationships with individual organizations, secondly by the creation of linkages between local agencies and community groups and thirdly, via a working group to oversee any collaborative arrangements.

ADEC believes there is a strong reservoir of goodwill and awareness that organizations are not meeting the needs of diverse communities to the fullest extent possible, and any initiative must take advantage of this goodwill.

The aim is to improve the practices and processes of agencies that work with people with disabilities to work through the various issues that are currently preventing greater access by people from NESB communities.

ADEC knows, through past experience, that such an exercise works and is sustainable into the long term- providing there is a commitment from the organization to achieve internal cultural change.

Many organisations have worked with ADEC on information accessibility plans - which, for those who have persisted in the implementation, have led to a substantial increase in use of services by people from ethnic cultures. This increase has been sustained, leading to people with a disability from ethnic backgrounds and their carers being seen as part of the whole community, not just a separate part, outside the main community group.

The second strategy is the development of language-specific self-help groups - especially for those people who have poor or negligible English skills.

ADEC has been operating language-specific carer support and disability support groups for a number of years. However, we are now establishing newer groups that operate more on a self-help model - people are encouraged to discuss issues they confront or have difficulty with - these can range from attitudes to their disability by family members, by other members of their specific or general community, or by service providers or other shops, etc.

These self-help groups are showing a dramatic increase in self-esteem by the participants - they are working through the issues that trouble them - whether it is the lack of respect accorded to them by professionals, issues of medication, rehabilitation or other treatments, and importantly, how to get connected to the community around them.

The aims and objectives of the newer groups are very much geared to integration into the general society - full citizenship, I think we call it today.

Each group is facilitated by a paid worker, and is self-driven by the group. However, it is important to note that the facilitator's job is to prevent navel gazing - and to encourage the participants to move on from their isolation, into the community.

There are a number of advantages of such language-specific groups - firstly, they provide an environment where people are able to talk comfortably in their own language, where they are equals (and equal to any professional speaker or facilitator) and they are treated with respect. The groups provide a forum to developing their own solutions, supported by each other.

In summary, ADEC has developed an expertise to articulate and advocate with people with a disability and their carers from ethnic backgrounds. It has developed two very important, practical and cost-effective models of support - firstly, individual and systemic advocacy, and secondly, the development of language-specific self-help groups to support people to develop their own solutions, where the community may be slow or tardy in accepting them.