Articles
UN Convention on Rights of People with Disabilities.
A summary by Kathy Leitch
The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the first legally binding disability-specific human rights convention, is aimed at promoting, protecting and ensuring the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by persons with disabilities (United Nations 2008). With the entry into force of the Convention on 3 May 2008, a new era was ushered in. All stakeholders are now legally obligated to realize the shift from a charity-based approach to a rights-based approach to disability, a new perspective enshrined in the convention. The Convention provides an estimated 400 million persons with disabilities in the Asian/Pacific region, for example, with strong support which they can use to claim their rights and enjoy equal opportunities in terms of development and participation in society. In accordance with the Convention, Governments are expected to:
(a) develop rights-based policies and legislation;
(b) mainstream disability perspectives in sectoral laws and policies;
(c) strengthen national coordination mechanisms;
(d) enhance national capacities in data collection and analysis of disability statistics.
Furthermore governments are expected to mandate:
☺ reasonable accommodation must be made for persons with disabilities
☺ accessibility to Work and employment (article 27) - human resource policies and practices
☺ right to work
☺ disability specific measures may be necessary to ‘accelerate or achieve de facto equality of persons with disabilities'.
☺ For example a person with disabilities using a wheelchair to access decent work, the person needs to be able:
to physically move in and out of his or her home
to access the public space and transportation
to access the work facilities (both the built environment and its information and communications systems)
☺ Every aspect of an organization’s activities must be analyzed to ensure accessibility and inclusion. A few examples:
Do we require our partners/grantees to have policies and practices in place to ensure inclusion of persons with disabilities?
Do we collect data on the number of persons with disabilities which benefit from our development activities?
Do we design our development projects and programmes to ensure that persons with disabilities can participate and benefit?
☺ Monitoring and Implementation
Data on persons with disabilities are hard to come by in almost every country. Specific data on their employment situation are even harder to find. Yet persons with disabilities face the same predicament everywhere. All activities must include the participation of persons with disabilities.
- Why Hire Persons with Diabilities?
Persons with disabilities are frequently not considered potential members of the workforce. Perception, fear, myth and prejudice continue to limit understanding and acceptance of disability in workplaces everywhere. Myths abound, including that persons with disabilities are unable to work and that accommodating a person with a disability in the workplace is expensive. Contrary to these notions, many companies have found that persons with disabilities are more than capable. Furthermore:
• Just like others, the majority of persons with disabilities want a dignified and productive life.
• Employment provides not only income but also opportunities for social participation. This is especially important for persons with disabilities.
• Spending on systems and facilities for persons with disabilities is not for the privilege of a small minority, but an investment for everyone.
• Diverse work groups develop better solutions to business challenges.
• Many companies have found that by employing persons with disabilities they have been better able to understand and serve their customers with disabilities. Adapting services to meet the diverse needs of persons with disabilities allows business to develop greater flexibility, builds reputation and reaches out to a sizeable market.
In summary:
- The challenge of implementing the Convention is now
- Need for training, capacity building, awareness raising, good practices collection and validation and knowledge management
- Need to mainstream disability in all development activities
- Need for implementation of Convention principles in the internal operations of organizations
- Need to include persons with disabilities in all stages of implementation, and build capacity of organizations of persons with disabilities to do so
Feature Article
There is a big difference between non-discrimination (equal opportunity), a minimalist approach and having a pro-active approach to a diverse work force. In order for someone with a disability or for someone from another disadvantaged group to prove discrimination there has to be blatant and obvious reasons for discrimination. This needs to be clearly the reason for a person not to get the job.. read mor
Recently, ADDE was involved in the judging of the Diversity@Work 2010 Employment and Inclusion Awards: People with a Disability. This award recognises excellence in initiatives or programs related to the employment and inclusion of people with a disability. Peter Rickards, ADDE president, was a judge on the panel and stated how happy he was to once again have the opportunity to judge the nominations.. read more
ILO (International Labor Organisation) Employment Working Paper No. 43
A summary: We hear a lot about the costs of inclusion of people with disabilities - pensions, subsidies, services, access etc - but hardly anything about the costs of exclusion. The following report estimates the costs of exclusion from the world of work as between 3-5% of GDP: http://sebastian.buckup.de/4.html
While this study looks at ten low to middle income countries, the percentage is probably higher for countries like Australia.. read more
- The health and saety conundrum read more
- Australia signs the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities read more
- Some personal remarks about disability By Roger Beale (AO) read more
- GOVERNOR-GENERAL Quentin Bryce has advocated the introduction of quotas to ensure more women are appointed as directors on the boards of Australian companies. Theage.com.au, 8/3/11 read more
- Rethinking Australia’s employment services
Summary of this essay, by Lisa Fowkes (board Member, Australian Council of Social Services (ACOSS)), presented at the Whitlam Institute, March 2011. Edited by Kathy Leitch read more
Our mission is to increase employment opportunities for
people with disabilities and from diverse backgrounds
in Australia. For those of you who are not aware we were
officially formed on September 7, 2005 at Victorian Council
of Social Services (VCOSS).
ADDE promotes pro-active employment
policies and practices for disadvantaged groups including
people with disabilities, mature age workers, people from
culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds as well
as indigenous people. People who fall into more than one
of these categories are recognised as being even more
disadvantaged. Therefore, we see a greater need for a
change of attitude and awareness.