Income
In Australia, people living with disability have lower incomes and are more likely to live in poverty than people without disability (ACOSS, 2014). Their relative income is also much worse than observed in most other OECD countries across a number of indicators. In 2003, the median personal income for people living with disability was $225 per week compared with $480 for people without disability, and the income of primary carers was $237 compared with $407 for people who did not have this role (ABS, 2004).
The relative income of people with disabilities in Australia is approximately 70 per cent of those without disability. This is the lowest of all the 29 countries in the OECD (Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs,
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However, it was found that children with an intellectual disability had better academic and social outcomes if they attended mainstream schools. The social impact on other children has been found to be consistently positive and the impact on academic performance is either neutral or positive (Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, 2011).
Housing
People with disabilities are disadvantaged in the housing market and particularly vulnerable to the effects of living in inadequate accommodation (unaffordable, unsuitable and insecure) which can put a household at-risk-of-poverty. 95% of people with a disability reside in households rather than cared accommodation establishments (AIHW, 2008). Indigenous Australians with a disability, particularly those living in regional and remote communities, often live in inaccessible and poor standard housing (ACOSS, 2014).
The proportion of people with disabilities in public housing is double that of the general Australian population (The Australian Network of Disability, 2014). It is common for people with a disability to ‘fall out of home ownership’ due to the costs of their disability (medical, transport, personal care services), with 32 per cent of people with disability who are rental tenants reporting that they used to be homeowners (AIHW,
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The Disability Discrimination Act 1992 also makes it unlawful to discriminate against people with disabilities in areas such as employment, education and housing, yet considerable inequalities persist across all of these issues. Potential reasons for ongoing discrimination include the lack of monitoring and enforcement of the Act and a complaints process that is lengthy and costly to individuals (National People with Disabilities and Carer Council,
Moran, John Jude. "Disability Discrimination." Employment Law: New Challenges in the Business Environment. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2014. 413-14. Print.
The Disability Discrimination Act of 1995 set out to end the discrimination people with disabilities encounter. The Act gave disabled people the right to employment, access to goods, facilities, and services and the right to buy and rent land and property. These rights came into force in December 1996, making treating a disabled person less favorably than an able-bodied person unlawful. Further rights came into force in October 1999, including the idea that service providers should consider making reasonable adjustments to the way they deliver their services so that people with a disability can use them. (The DDA...) However, despite these
Radley, M. (2009). Understanding the social exclusion and stalled welfare of citizens with learning disabilities. Disability and Society, 23(4): 489-501.
There is a definite lack of recent data on poverty in Australia, therefore we have to look back as far as reports from the 1970’s, in order to find any relevant information on poverty in Australia. In 1975 there was a report made on the extent of poverty in Australia by Professor Henderson. It has since been known as the Henderson Report. The Henderson Report found that 8.5 per cent of Australians were living under the poverty line. It also found that: “Most of the poor suffer from one or more of the following disabilities: old age, lack of a male bread-winner, a large number of dependant children, recent migration to Australia, or prolonged illness. The incidence of poverty was much higher in these categories than among those without any of these disabilities.”(Henderson 1975) At the time of this report average weekly earnings in Australia were $165 per week, the poverty line for a single person was set at $49.60 for a single person, and $93.20 for a couple with 2 children. (Jackson, McIver 1998)
Approximately twenty years ago there weren’t many improvements made to assist disabled people in the workforce. Ableism was recognized but not much was done. But that has changed significantly. People are much more aware of it and are trying to fix the mistakes of the past to create a better future. One major effect ableism has is that Canadians with disabilities are very likely to live in poverty.
The Equality Act of 2010 was put into place to protect people who had not only an impairment or disability but also those who had protected characteristics (Brown, 2014 Cited by Hodkinson, 2014). There are four kinds of unlawful behaviour in the Equality Act and these are; direct discrimination, indirect discrimination, harassment, and victimisation (Hodkinson, 2016). Brown (2014) believes that this act is based upon the medical model as it focuses on the individual’s ability to do the ‘normal’ day to day activities (Hodkinson, 2016).
"Disability the facts." New Internationalist Nov. 2013: 20+. Advanced Placement Government and Social Studies Collection. Web. 27 May 2014.
It is quite certain to say that discrimination can be deadly and can deprive a person from living a normal and happy life. Especially those with disability. Therefore, it is important for discriminatory practices to be avoided and dealt properly ones reported.. If these effects are dealt properly ,long term effects can be eliminated.
This statement from the Green Party Manifesto claims that “Disability is a social phenomenon” and “While many individuals have physical or sensory impairments or learning difficulties or are living with mental health problems, it is the way society responds to these which creates disability” (2010). The aim of this paper is to consider the strength of this view. With the help of modern and contemporary sociological theory surrounding disability and health, it will look at both the medical and social models of disability with the aim to conclude whether disability is a problem that needs to be addressed by medical professionals alone or by society as a whole. The medical model defines disability as “any restriction or lack of ability (resulting from an impairment of an individual) to perform an activity in the manner or within the range considered normal for a human being, for example, to climb stairs or walk to the shops (WHO 1981).... ...
You must be familiar with human development, how culture and society impact behaviour and the influence of economic structures on human behaviour. When working within the disability field, a human service worker should be able to have a holistic understanding of disability and should see their impairment as only one aspect of what makes them who they are. Therefore a human service worker should focus on maintaining and enhancing quality of life. Contributing knowledge and skills to assist people with disability, their families and communities through program design, counselling, case management and advocacy. Now there is a number of roles human services workers to expertise due to expansion of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). Human service workers also work alongside people with disability to advocate for their rights, and facilitate their empowerment so as to achieve their needs and aspirations (Australian Association of Social Worker, 2016). I as an individual, I think I might be able to make a great contribution to the sector through applying the knowledge I would have gained from this program to help clients reach their goals and be happier, healthier individuals and build more effective
The United Nations Decade of Disabled Persons from 1983 to 1992 raised levels public interest and attention across Canada regarding the rights of people with disabilities. The inclusion of disability within the Charter of Rights and Freedoms today reflects the collective efforts of a number of activists who worked diligently to push legislators in this general direction during the early 1980’s. In 1986, people with disabilities were included alongside women, visible minorities and Aboriginal people in the new federal Employment Equity Act. New disability organizations, such as the Advocacy Resource Centre for the Handicapped (ARCH), Disability Awareness Women’s Network (DAWN) were established to support people with disabilities and to protect
In General, Disability affects 15 percent of the world population. In the labor market, women with disabilities experience gender discrimination as well as disabling barriers (World Health Organization (WHO), 2011). Diversity reflects “the groups which are visibly or invisibly different from whatever is considered mainstream in society”
This is acknowledged in official reports: Improving Services, Improving Lives states that disabled people can feel ‘steered towards choices made by other people’ , in particular, that sometimes staff, managers and parents try to control the lives of people with learning disabilities (Wood, 2010). Among other reasons, this is because of imbalances in the skills, knowledge and resources available staff , In practice, creating change in services for people with learning disabilities has not proved easy (Fyson & Ward, 2004). Much of the progress to date has focussed on supporting the active involvement of people with learning disabilities in policy-making at local and national level (Fyson et al, 2004) and moving towards person-centred planning as the lynchpin of individual change (Institute for Health Research, 2005). In relation to service developments, the emphasis has been on promoting models of service provision which prize independence – in particular a move away from residential care homes and towards supported living as the preferred option for providing housing and support. Supported living (sometimes also known as ‘independent living’) may result in people living alone or in small groups, but differs from residential care in that it is premised upon legal tenancies and individuals with learning disabilities being in control of choices about where, how and with whom they live (Paradigm,
People with disabilities often face societal barriers and disability evokes negative perceptions and discrimination in society. As a result of the stigma associated with disability, persons with disabilities are generally excluded from education, employment, and community life, which deprives them of opportunities essential to their social development, health and well-being (Stefan). It is such barriers and discrimination that actually set people apart from society, in many cases making them a burden to the community. The ideas and concepts of equality and full participation for persons with disabilities have been developed very far on paper, but not in reality (Wallace). The government can make numerous laws against discrimination, but this does not change the way that people with disabilities are judged in society.
This act established old age benefits and funding for assistance to blind individuals and disabled children and the extension of existing vocational rehabilitation programmes. In present day society, since the passage of the ADA (American with Disabilities Act of 1990) endless efforts of the disability rights movement have continued on the focus of the rigorous enforcement of the ADA, as well as accessibility for people with disabilities in employment, technology, education, housing, transportation, healthcare, and independent living for the people who are born with a disability and for the people who develop it at some point in their lives. Although rights of the disabled have significantly gotten better globally throughout the years, many of the people who have disabilities and are living in extremely undeveloped countries or supreme poverty do not have access nor rights to any benefits. For example, people who are in wheelchairs as a transportation device have extremely limited access to common places such as grocery stores, schools, employment offices,