Blind Citizens
Submission to the Human
Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC)
National Inquiry into Employment and Disability
This
submission has been compiled by John Power, National Policy Officer for Blind Citizens
Australia and has been approved by the President of Blind Citizens Australia.
Contact Details
John Power: National Policy Officer, Blind Citizens
Fax: (03) 9372 6466 Email: john.power@bca.org.au
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. BCA’s response to the Terms of
Reference
1.1.1 Structural Barriers: Education
1.1.2 Structural Barriers: Transport
and the Built Environment
1.1.3 Structural Barriers:
Information Access
1.1.4 Structural Barriers: Access to
Adaptive Technology
1.1.5 Structural Barriers: Access to
Work Experience, Career Development and Peer Support
Mentoring
and Peer Support: BCA’s Initiatives
1.1.6 Structural Barriers: Job
Retention – Losing vision in adult life
1.2.2 Workplace Modifications
Program
1.2.3 Disability, Aging and
Employment Retention
1.2.4 Commonwealth Public Sector
1.3.1 Government Initiatives in
Employment
BCA and the 2004 Job Network Pilot
Project
The current climate of welfare
reform
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. BCA was one of the organisations to submit to
the commission’s initial call for comments on whether an inquiry into
employment and disability should be undertaken. We are pleased that HREOC has
taken the decision to undertake this national inquiry. Under the current
climate of federal welfare and workplace reform, the commission’s decision is a
timely one.
Employment is a
long-standing key issue for our members. People who are blind or vision
impaired can be divided into two sub-groups; those who have a congenital vision
loss and the larger group of people who loose their vision during adult working
life. In the past we have supported workers across a broad range of
occupations. We have provided advice and support to job applicants, people
seeking promotion, people who have not been provided with reasonable
adjustments in their workplaces and people who have been dismissed.
In the following submission
we provide a comprehensive discussion on the many unique barriers people who
are blind and vision impaired face while seeking employment and when employed.
Embedded within our commentary are first hand accounts from people who are
blind or vision impaired and relative statistics. Solutions that could mitigate
the impact of employment barriers faced by people who are blind or vision impaired
are presented in the form of recommendations. All information provided is
organised under each relative purpose articulated in the commission’s terms of
reference.
Braille is the primary form
of literacy for people who are blind.
People who have lost their sight and can no longer read are functionally
illiterate. It is of great concern to Blind Citizens Australia that instruction
in braille is not available to all children who need it and that the literacy
needs of adults who have become blind are not recognised in Commonwealth
literacy and numeracy programs.
Obstacles such as
inaccessible materials have resulted in a large majority of those who are blind
or vision impaired that have undertaken tertiary study not benefiting from
their post-secondary education and training.
“Course materials? Well, out of the four subjects I
am doing this semester, one teacher has enlarged the print for me. The rest of them they say they forget, but,
some of the print one of the teachers did enlarge it on A3 paper from A4, but
when I got home and started to read it, some sections of the copy was missing
from the original copy…”
Andrea,
student, vision impaired
Education providers are required to provide
students who are blind or vision impaired with materials in accessible formats,
including large print, audio and braille.
Braille education providers should be assisted
to develop adult braille literacy and numeracy courses that can be accredited
by the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, so that students are
eligible for the Literacy and Numeracy Training Supplement.
That the government ensure the
speedy passage through parliament of the Disability Discrimination Act (1992)
Standards on Education following the passing of the Disability Discrimination Amendment (Education
Standards) Act earlier this year.
Access to a safe and
affordable transport system and built environment significantly impacts on the
working life of a person who is blind or vision impaired. Deciding whether to
accept a job will depend on the safety of the premises and the accessibility of
public transport. The alternative of taxi travel, even with subsidies, is often
too expensive for a budget subject to a pension income.
“There is the issue of people who can’t drive or
take public transport, for example in rural areas…. We may have an enormous
capacity to work, but if we can’t physically get to work, we do not have any.”
Francesco,
employed, vision impaired
Blind Citizens Australia
supports the bringing into operation of the draft DDA Standard for Access to
Premises in its current form in the interest of achieving an accessible
environment for people with disabilities. However, the key issues of wayfinding
and access for our members are to be dealt with in the next stage of the
development of this Standard. Part of this process is the conduct of research
into the wayfinding and access needs of people who are blind and vision
impaired.
That the Government bring
into operation the Draft DDA Standard for Access to Premises in its current
form.
That the government work
with HREOC and the disability sector to expedite the next stage of the
development of the DDA Access to Premises Standard and in doing so support and
fund the conduct of research into the wayfinding and access needs of people who
are blind and vision impaired.
That the Commonwealth Government ensures that the Disability
Discrimination Act (1992) Access to Premises Standard provides the greatest
level of accessibility to the built environment for people who are blind or
vision impaired.
Access to the labour market
requires access to job advertisements in the first instance and when employed,
access to job related information.
Job classifieds in print
form are inaccessible to people who are blind or vision impaired, and ads using
the popular internet medium are, in most cases, not configured for adaptive
technology used by people who are blind or vision impaired. Even when a job can
be accessed electronically, the electronic application forms are usually in an
inaccessible format. Job details and application forms mailed to recipients in
print form, creating further entry barriers into the labour market for people
who are blind or vision impaired.
Employees who are blind may
use adaptive computer hardware and software in the workplace. Like other
computer equipment, adaptive technology is not compatible with all computer
systems. If an employer changes its
computer system without considering this, employees who are blind can be left
literally unable to work.
“Now with new equipment which is computerised but
often not compatible with screen readers and that can make life very difficult
because that takes you out of a lot of things straight away…. there is often a
lot of use of noticeboards and things like that and if you don’t have people
who are going to tell you about things, then you just don’t know what’s going
on.”
Angela,
student and part-time employee, blind
That Government agencies
should implement procedures whereby the compatibility of new computer systems
with the software and technology used by employees who have a disability is
determined prior to its introduction through implementing legislation modelled
off Section 508 of the US Rehabilitation Act. Section 508 requires that
electronic and information technology of US Federal agencies' is accessible to
people with disabilities.
(See: http://www.section508.gov/ )