21 April 2021

Today, the Disability Royal Commission published an issues paper on the rights and attitudes of and towards people with disability.

The paper is designed to assist the Royal Commission in its investigation about people’s awareness and understanding of the rights of people with disability.

It also seeks feedback about community attitudes towards people with disability and about how well advocacy is working for people with disability, to prevent or help respond to violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation.

Please note, the information below contains sensitive material that may be triggering
for people with disability.

The Rights and Attitudes issues paper noted that people with disability experience being called ‘inferior’, ‘a burden’, or ‘a menace’.

They are also subject to assumptions that they are ‘of no value’, ‘not fully human’, are ‘objects of pity’, ‘eternal children’ or ‘better off dead’.

Responses from people with disability to the Rights and Attitudes issues paper

Many people with disability told the Royal Commission of how damaging the use of derogatory language is. They also shared that it sadly reflects the discrimination towards people with disability that still exists in Australia today.

Over 4.4 million Australians have a disability, or 1 in 5. That number increases to 1 in 2 for those aged 75 years and older.

Despite that the extent of disability in the community, many people with disability told the Royal Commission that there is a lack of awareness and understanding of their rights.

One woman with disability in her early fifties said “… in her entire life to date, she had been told what she ‘could’ do or was ‘allowed’ to do, but that she had never before been asked what she might want”.

Respondents also expressed significant concerns about Australia’s systems of guardianship where decisions were made for people with cognitive disability instead of with them.

One person shared that although the idea of placing a person with disability under guardianship is to protect them, in reality “… removing ‘control from a person who is being abused … [makes their trauma worse]”.

Many people with disability told the Royal Commission that changes must be made to promote supported decision-making, which provides people with disability with support to make their own decisions.

People with disability also expressed the need for:

• More education about the rights of people with disability, particularly in schools to prevent discrimination, promote equality and combat ignorance and intolerance towards them.
• Greater recognition of the importance of advocacy and significantly more funding for advocacy services
• The end to the “negative” portrayals of disability through stereotypes. Instead, responses called for the media to promote positive attitudes and honest representations of people with disability.

To view the full list of responses to the Rights and Attitudes issues paper click here.

For more information on the work of the Disability Royal Commission, please visit the Disability Royal Commission website.