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Disability Rights

Access on the agenda

Paper delivered by Elizabeth Hastings Disability Discrimination Commissioner 1993-97 at the Creating Accessible Communities Conference Fremantle, 12 November 1996

Disability Rights

Disability Action Plans with State Government Departments

I want to start, though, by talking for a few minutes about the broader legislative context under the Disability Discrimination Act and about what all of this is for in terms of achieving access and inclusion.

Disability Rights

Providing Access to All

Some of us are women and some are men; some of us brought new names and accents in recent decades and some of us have Australian ancestry reaching back tens of thousands of years; and some of us have one or more disabilities.

Disability Rights

Disability discrimination legislation in Australia from an international human rights perspective: History, achievements and prospects

I want to talk today about the relationship between the lofty principles of international law on human rights and the practical realities for people with a disability in Australia.

Disability Rights

Maguire: Presentation to Ozewai Conference

I've always been fascinated by numbers. Although remembering some of my maths exam results, I'm not so sure that they have been as fascinated by me. If you ask a group of people to say the first number that comes into their heads, you'll get a lot of 7's. Perhaps it's because we all have an intuitive awareness that 7 is the smallest number of faces of a regular polygon that cannot be constructed with a ruler and compass.

Disability Rights

How Local Communities can Address Issues of Disability

In my presentation today I want to focus on the Commission's work with Local Government and the effect the Disability Discrimination Act has had on how they go about their business.

Disability Rights

Disability discrimination legislation and its implementation (1997)

When I was invited to prepare this paper, Andrew Byrnes encouraged me to concentrate on drawing out strategic thoughts from the Australian experience which might be relevant in Hong Kong , and perhaps in other countries also. That is what I hope to do, rather than spending much time simply reciting that experience or the terms of Australia 's legislation.

Disability Rights

Equal employment opportunity for people with disabilities: how to move from the theoretical to the actual

I congratulate EOPHEA for organising this discussion. Although, of course, your focus is primarily on employment in the university environment, the conference program is clearly designed to address equal opportunity issues of much more general significance. I have approached my own paper in the same spirit: I hope it will be particularly relevant in your own context as equity practitioners in higher education, but I have taken the opportunity to raise issues of wider relevance.

Disability Rights

Roundtable on Information Access for People with Print Disabilities

A long, long time ago, I can still remember sitting down to write my first Roundtable speech.And I thought if I had a chance, then human rights I could advance And equal access wouldn't stay just out of reach And now I'm here again to give a Few thoughts and perhaps deliver Some good news on your doorsteps And talk about some next steps

Disability Rights

Disability and human rights

Allow me to commence by acknowledging the traditional custodians of the land on which we meet, the Wallumattagal clan of the Eora peoples. Let me also acknowledge my fellow speakers, as well as other distinguished guests and friends.

Disability Rights

Gov2.0 Roundtable on Accessibility for People with Disabilities (2009)

Last year a blind colleague of mine decided he needed a pet dog to be company for him and his teenage daughter. After checking various pet rescue websites and talking to various people, he found an 18-month-old German Shepherd / red Cattle dog cross that this bloke was giving away. He even brought the dog over in his car.

Disability Rights

Round Table on Information Access For People with Print Disabilities

One day a few years ago I went in to wake my son. I told him that it was good to get up in the morning, to which he grumpily replied, "yes, but dad, it's even better to stay in bed".

Disability Rights

Is there a slow lane on the information superhighway?

The title I have taken for these remarks is "Is there a slow lane on the information superhighway". I fear that by now there may already be something dated or quaint in using the term "information superhighway". I am going to use it anyway, and perhaps make matters of style worse by adding reference to a slow lane, because I think a few important issues are suggested by this title.

Disability Rights

The Disability Discrimination Act Seven Years On

I wrote the title for this presentation almost a year ago when I was first asked to give it. I came back to it two weeks ago to write the actual paper and thought "what does this mean?"

Disability Rights

Hot Topics

Can I also acknowledge Blake Dawson Waldron lawyers for providing the venue and facilities, and the NSW Disability Discrimination Legal Service for their initiative in organising this forum.