Disability Access News

SMH Mark Metherell
March 19, 2008

THE Rudd Government, shamed over the carers' bonus debacle, stands accused of an uncaring attitude to disabled people fighting unfair dismissal.

Hundreds of the disabled who have been sacked are seeking to be heard by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission but will have to wait longer because the Government has axed special funding for their cases.

The Government has removed $1.8 million in funding targeted to help disabled people caught by the removal of the unfair dismissal provisions under Work Choices, says the Disability Discrimination Commissioner, Graeme Innes.

"On the one hand the Government is saying we need to get people with disabilities back in employment, but on the other they are taking away money which protects the same people being discriminated against at work," Mr Innes said.

An irony was that the special funding for the commission had been instituted by the Howard government to protect those with disabilities when it axed unfair dismissal laws. The new Government was now axing the funding but not yet restoring the protection against unjust sackings.

Mr Innes said typical cases included those who were dismissed after being disabled because of an accident at work.

Since 2006 when the unfair dismissal provisions were removed in the Howard government's Work Choices legislation, the number of disability cases before the commission has jumped from 560 to 802 in the following year. Cases this year are expected to top 900. The cut in funding meant commission staff would have to be pruned and a backlog of cases would mean claimants may have to wait up to a year to have their cases dealt with.

A spokesman for the federal Attorney-General, Robert McClelland, confirmed that the Government announced last month "a reversal of spending by the previous government that formed part of its extreme Work Choices laws, which were expected to increase complaints of breaches of human rights.

"The abolition of Work Choices will ease the pressure on HREOC that was expected to be caused by these extreme laws."

BY: Vivian Collazo Montano*, E-Mail: serviex@prensa-latina.cu

Havana.- An important study, unique in the world, was done recently in Cuba as part ot the National Program for the Handicapped that covered genetic, psycho-social and teaching factors of all those persons with physical, motor and mental disorders.

Prevalence, the main causes of these pathologies such as Mental Retardation (MR), hearing disorders, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, Schizophrenia, Autism and Hereditary Ataxia, among others as well as the social impact on the family and society, were revealed.

The statistics were presented in a resent summary meeting on studies that counted with the participation of geneticists doctors, technicians, professors and local authorities among others in representation of the 34 thousand who carried out this task in two years.

For the development of this research, one of the broadest in Latin America and that could prove useful to humanity, the specialists applied diagnostic systems of the World Health Organization to reduce the possibility of errors.

The combined focus of biomedical, teaching and social tools was a more efficient and widespread cover.

This offered knowledge in the Island that the rate of handicapped persons was 3,26 per hundred inhabitants while Mental Retardation registered 1,25, data comparable to those of the most developed countries.

At the same time, due to the diagnostic tests, it was observed in the attention to the pregnant woman that only 0,078 percent of the births in the country presented Down’s syndrome, considered the primary cause of genetic MR.

According to the analysis made during the study, advanced maternal age was an important risk factor for this syndrome. For women over 40 the possibility of giving birth to a child with a disease is one for every 100 while those under 35 registered one out of every 275.

Another factor to consider is that 19 percent of the children with this pathology (Downs’s) had family histories of the handicap.

Other non genetic factors associated to MR are the environment, such as alcoholism, exposition to high temperatures during the first three months of pregnancy, viral affections and infections and maternal health, the study revealed.

The second genetic cause of MR in the country was the Fragile X syndrome, a dynamic mutation reported for the first time in the world in 1943.

However, Cuban health authorities assure that the country has the means to detect this mutation, give genetic advice and early diagnosis during the prenatal stage and determine the stage of affectation.

Work is on going on new treatments that include neurological and rehabilitation aspects.

Preventive actions on the community level, diagnosis and risk of recurrence, clinical knowledge of the physio-pathological features of the disease as well as genetic studies are combined to reduce the incidence of these illnesses and will cover the entire country.

As part of the effort of specialists of different institutions to achieve a better quality of life of the handicapped, importance is given to work links and an early insertion in the community, regardless of the degree of disability presented.

As a result, 76,87 percent of the mentally retarded have received specialized attention and education.

In addition to the decisions brought about by this study, aimed at a greater attention, including economic factors, of these persons, the study provided more objective statistics that permit working towards a higher level of health level and quality of life of this population group.

All this work was inspired by the words expressed by the Cuban National Hero, Jose Marti, who, while visiting Mexico in 1875, visited a home for deaf children when he said: Blessed are that hands that correct the errors of blind Mother Nature.

By Dirk Perrefort Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 03/14/2008 12:42:38 PM EDT

NEWTOWN -- Ryan Silveira, a senior at the high school, knows that it takes more than just having perfect pitch to put on a great musical production.

It also takes a great team.

Silveira, who will be portraying Rudolph the headwaiter during tonight's performance of "Hello Dolly," said the cast is one of the most dedicated and talented yet.

He has performed in many productions at the school and was selected to perform in the All-State Music Festival every year since he was a freshman.

"Everyone is putting their all into the performance," Silveira said.

He added that Sydney Russell, another student in the show, has done a fantastic job of bringing the character of Dolly to life. Quinlan Mitchell, he said, has also done a wonderful job portraying Horace, one of nine lead roles in the musical.

"It's been an extraordinary experience working with the entire cast," he said.

Besides having perfect pitch, which the director said he has only seen three times in his life, Silveira, 18, is also blind. The disability, however, does little to stop the student from pursuing his passion.

"It's all about making modifications," he said. "I'm no different than anyone else. I just can't see."

John Harned, who directs the school's chorus and the musical, said theater productions have been a tradition at the high school.

"You can throw just about anything at these students and they'll pull it off," he said. "They are all of a very high caliber."

An emphasis of music throughout

the town's schools definitely helps, he said.

"The performance you'll see on the stage tonight is the result of all the hard work and dedication of teachers in all the schools," he said.

Harned added that Silveira is a real asset to the program and "part of an outstanding cast of kids who have all put in a lot of effort."

"Hello Dolly," which is playing at the school through Sunday, is a 10-time Tony-awarding winning musical about two overworked store clerks and Dolly -- a matchmaker -- who finds the greatest match of all for herself.

Posted Thu Mar 13, 2008 9:22pm AEDT
Updated Thu Mar 13, 2008 9:21pm AEDT

The Tasmanian Government plans to reduce the number of people on waiting lists for wheelchairs.

The Health Minister, Lara Giddings, has told Parliament an extra $855,000 dollars will be put into the Community Equipment Scheme.

The money will also fund walkers, hoists and powered scooters.

Ms Giddings says demand for this equipment has been growing in recent years.

"We all receive calls from people each day seeking assistance to get access to equipment or aids which make their life a little easier, to allow them to maintain their dignity, in managing their own personal care," she said.

"This funding will support these people to be more safe in their own home and more independent in in their own community."

March 12, 2008 05:45pm

A DAMNING report into disability accommodation in Victoria shows one in three people who need help from the state doesn't receive it.

The Department of Human Services is unable to currently help about 1,370 people, or 30 per cent of all those requesting support, and demand is growing by up to five per cent per year.

The report into Accommodation for People with a Disability says the department has no strategy to close the gaps in capacity or expertise and "has not accurately quantified future support needs or the associated needs for resources''.

Community Services Minister Lisa Neville could not say how many beds the government had added to the system in the last four years.

The Opposition claims the government has added none.

"This government has fundamentally failed to address a crisis that has been brewing for many, many years,'' Opposition community services spokeswoman Mary Wooldridge said.

Ms Wooldridge said some parents of disabled people were "too scared to die'' because they had no confidence the system would look after their child.

The department provides shared supported accommodation (SSA) for about 4,600 severely disabled people, usually in groups of four or six with 24-hour rostered support.

The report says the department had created 77 new facilities to replace unsuitable facilities in the last four years, but had not increased bed capacity for shared houses.

Ms Neville said not all disabled people wanted to live in shared supported accommodation and the government was focused on individualised solutions.

"We've established the disabilities support register in order to understand the individual needs of people who need accommodation,'' she said.

"We are starting to both improve the current quality of accommodation that's available, but also to make inroads into meeting the needs of people who need accommodation.''

The report by Auditor-General Des Pearson says the department itself identified about 200 of its 914 houses as not meeting building access requirements for disabled people.

"Many SSA houses we visited were easily identifiable from the street as SSA by factors such as ramps, the style of construction and sometimes their state of disrepair,'' the report says.

In the last financial year the department allocated $395 million for SSA, including $156 million through community service organisations, the report says.

The department says in the report that it has started to systematically measure future demand and develop strategies to address it.

There are close to a million Victorians with a disability, the report says.

More than 320,000 of them are considered to have a severe or profound limitation that inhibits their ability to care for themselves, communicate clearly or perform normal cognitive or motor tasks.