The Disability Inclusion Act aims to make the social model of inclusion part of ACT law. Photo: Comms@Work.
It’s estimated there are more than 80,000 people living with a disability in the ACT, yet there’s no legislation requiring their full inclusion by society.
Labor MLA for Yerrabi Suzanne Orr wants to change that and has launched the public consultation phase on her new bill to introduce a Disability Inclusion Act for the Territory.
Ms Orr said the legislation would move the ACT towards a “social model of understanding and addressing disability”, a shift away from how it was currently viewed.
“Historically, people with disability have been required to adapt to a world that fails to respond to their needs,” she said.
“This isn’t fair and through this bill we hope to change that.”
Currently NSW and South Australia are the only jurisdictions in Australia with Disability Inclusion Acts.
The proposed ACT bill contains a framework for creating disability inclusion strategies across the government, including in areas of health, education, employment, justice and social inclusion.
It would require government agencies to develop disability inclusion plans specific to their organisation, as well as detail how they were going to adapt work processes and programs to be more inclusive of people with a disability.
“A social model of disability recognises that to support people with disability, we as a community need to alter the physical, attitudinal, communication and social barriers we often unintentionally, through these norms, establish,” Ms Orr said.
“We need to ensure people with a disability feel included and supported in our community. This Disability Inclusion Bill will drive long-term and systemic change to better promote the inclusion of people with a disability in the ACT community.”
Legislation in the ACT currently uses the ‘medical’ model of disability to inform its policy approaches. The medical model considers disability as a health condition to be individually addressed, while the social model argues for society and its environment to adapt to enable people living with impairments to participate in society on an equal level with others.
Advocacy for Inclusion head of policy Craig Wallace said the launch of public consultation on the draft legislation was an “important step forward” for inclusion plans and strategies in the ACT.
“[This] bill provides a sensible and comprehensive framework for ensuring strategies and plans are introduced and maintained across time, as well as placing expectations on all agencies to develop such plans to a good standard,” he said.
“We look forward to the introduction and passage of the bill through the Assembly, and we are also looking forward to the early realisation of this approach through the full implementation and funding of the ACT Disability Strategy and ACT Disability Health Strategy.”
Even though disability strategies are already being developed, Ms Orr has introduced the bill to ensure they exist in an ongoing capacity for years to come.
She said the strategies were only one component of the legislation, which would also establish a Disability Advisory Council and strengthen the requirements of the strategies.
It’s expected the bill will be introduced to the Assembly later this year.
Public consultation on the Disability Inclusion Act is open until 20 October.
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