Blind Citizens
Response to the Human Rights and Equal
Opportunity Commission (HREOC)
Interim report of the National Inquiry
into Employment and Disability - ‘WORKability: People with Disability in the Open Workplace’
September 2005
Introduction
Blind Citizens Australia (BCA) is the National
organisation of people who are blind or vision impaired. Our mission is to
achieve equity and equality by our empowerment, by promoting positive community
attitudes and by striving for high quality and accessible services which meet
our needs.
Input
into the eight issues selected for further development by the Inquiry
1. Develop a one-stop-information-shop (Interim
Recommendations 1 and 2)
BCA Response:
A) All information available at the ‘one-stop-shop’, electronic
or otherwise, must be made available in accessible formats including braille,
audio, large print and plain text html files. We emphasise that the option of
plain text files must be provided, where information is presented in PDF
format, to ensure that blind people who use screen readers have access to this
information. Blind Citizens Australia would be pleased to consult with HREOC
and government departments on the issue of accessible formats.
B) The ‘one-stop-shop’ must have specific information on
blindness services. Blindness is a low incidence unique disability and blind
people often get the best outcomes from agencies that have blindness specific
knowledge and skills.
2. Improve the Workplace Modifications Scheme (Interim
Recommendation 11)
BCA Response:
BCA strongly supports this recommendation with the
following comments:
The Workplace Modifications Scheme (WMS) should be
expanded and the cap increased to cover specialist equipment (including
upgrades, repairs and modifications) for work experience and job searches as
well as applications.
3. Develop a pilot project to identify any risks
associated with occupational health and safety laws, disability discrimination
laws and industrial relations laws (Interim Recommendation 13)
BCA Response:
BCA is concerned that this pilot project, undertaken on
the basis of the recommendations wording, will simply reiterate and reinforce
the long standing myths of risk and cost when employing a person with a
disability. Employing any worker has financial and legal risks relative to the
bulk of these laws noted in the recommendation. We call upon the inquiry to
understand and reiterate the similarity of risks in this pilot
project rather than attempting to simply isolate the minor exceptions relating
to a worker with a disability.
On the basis of these comments, BCA asks that this
recommendation be reworded in the following way:
“3.
Develop a pilot project to demonstrate to employers the similarity of risks
associated with employing a person with a disability as compared to a worker
without a disability under the suite of employment laws including occupational
health and safety, disability discrimination, equal opportunity and workplace
relations”.
4. Develop a model for work trials (Interim Recommendation
15)
BCA Response:
BCA supports this recommendation with the following
comments:
- All workers involved in these trials should be paid
according to the appropriate award or relevant workplace Agreement.
- Any work trial undertaken must include WMS funding to
ensure that a true workplace scenario can be tested. For people who are blind
or vision impaired this would include the provision of specific adaptive
equipment.
5. Develop a model for providing ongoing support to
employers and employees with disability (Interim Recommendations 17 and 18)
BCA Response:
BCA strongly supports this recommendation.
6. Develop a model for a flexible workplace (Interim
Recommendation 19)
BCA Response:
BCA supports this recommendation while commenting that any
flexible workplace model should include allowing workers with a disability to
work remotely from home and that any modifications required to the workers
home-office be funded through government grants.
7. Research international models for increasing
participation and employment (Interim Recommendation 4)
BCA Response:
BCA supports this recommendation, with an emphasis on the
‘whole-of-government’ approach to supporting people with disabilities find
employment. Systemic barriers to employment including education, transport and
access to premises must be tackled by government in harmony with all employment
initiatives.
8. Research international models for government
procurement policies (Interim Recommendation 24)
BCA supports this recommendation and emphasises the importance of this
issue given the number of blind people who are denied jobs or whose jobs are
put in jeopardy by the use of inaccessible technologies.
Commenting on the priority of the eight matters, BCA considers Work
Place Modifications, post-employment support and procurement policies as the
most important.
Comments
regarding the Interim Recommendations and the overall content of the Interim
Report.
Comments - Interim
Recommendations
Recommendation 12
Like every other worker in the community, people who are blind or vision
impaired want to be employed on their merits and for what they can bring to the
workplace. Accordingly, Blind Citizens Australia has strong reservations
concerning the level of respect tax incentives give to the work capabilities of
people with disabilities and the type of message these employer centric
incentives deliver to the community. All financial incentives that encourage
the employment of people with disabilities should be based on and reinforce the
positive aspects of employment for both the employer and the employee and send
the right message to the community.
Recommendation 23
Blind Citizens Australia would like to reiterate our calls for the
public sector to demonstrate leadership through actively employing people with
disabilities and setting a positive example to the private sector. Due to the
importance of this issue, we call on the Inquiry to extend the eight issues
selected for further development to include this recommendation.
Comments - Overall
content of the main report
4.2. In relation to the transition from school to work, students with a
disability in non-government secondary education should have the same access to
assistance and employment programs as government school students.
4.3. Providers of vocational education and training should ensure that
education material is provided in accessible formats. Also, instructors/trainers
should be given awareness training on how to deal with people who have a
disability.
4.4. With regards to universities, we would like to highlight that a
major concern for blind and vision impaired students is access to educational material
in a timely and accessible format.
5.2. On the topic of employment agencies, greater training is needed for
employment agencies on how to deal with people who have a disability. Perhaps
the financial government assistance to such employment agencies can be linked
to their performance outcomes of helping people with a disability find
employment. This would avoid the problem of people with a disability falling
into the too hard basket for employment agencies. It would also be fair for
disability advocacy organisations to have access to this performance
information.
Conclusion
Blind Citizens Australia wishes to extend our appreciation to HREOC for
the breath and scope of this interim report. We look forward to the launch of
the final report and responding to its findings.