Mary Durkin, the ACT Health Services Commissioner and Disability & Community Services Commissioner visited WWDACT on 24 February for discussion about issues affecting women with disabilities in the ACT.
Since the formation of the ACT Human Rights Commission (HRC), each person who has filled the role of Disability Commissioner has been concerned at the low number of complaints received from people with disabilities. Reasons for this are, without doubt, complex, but include lack of information about the powers of the HRC. The HRC can:
* investigate both sides of a complaint,
* call all parties together to resolve it through conciliation and
* make recommendations for actions which an organisation MUST take to fix the situation (where the complaint is found to be valid).
The Commissioner is streamlining the complaints process so that the ‘conciliation’ phase is reach more quickly, and a solution put in place. Good news for us.
Unlike many other national and state ombudsmen-type bodies, the ACT HRC can call for systemic changes when it gets a number of complaints in a particular area. It has the power to make those changes happen. There is more about the HRC at: http://www.hrc.act.gov.au/. One limitation is that the Disability Commissioner is can only investigate complaints about ‘Disability Services’. But this can include things like the Wheelchair Accessible Taxi Service, as well as service from Carer organisations. Commissioners do try to interpret ‘Disability Services’ as widely as possible.
The complaint issue you have may turn out to be the concern of the Health Commissioner or the Human Rights Commissioner. It is always worth giving the HRC a phone call for advice as to whether your issue could be formally lodged with them. Phone: 02 6205 2222; Fax: (02) 6207 1034; TTY: (02) 6207 0525
2/6/09
Access to Premises Standards - get submissions in now
URGENT – your submission needed on the Access to Premises Standards –by end February The re-opening of discussion on the Access to Premises Standards (APS) in December 2008, was an important action for all people with disabilities. The current Access to Premises Standards were incorporated into the 1999 Building Code of Australia (BCA) – so they are a decade old. They contained some accessibility requirements for people with disabilities, but these have been inadequate in number and scope. A new draft APS was drawn up by a committee in 2000. It is not the place here to go into the chequered history of this draft or discuss why it has taken so long for it to be on the consultation table again. Suffice to say that there were about 50 contentious items in the draft which could not be resolved between committee members with disabilities and other representatives. With intense discussions since December, most of these issues have now been resolved to a reasonable degree, but there are 5 or 6 outstanding matters of great importance to people with disabilities, and there is now an opportunity to give feedback. The Government has referred the Draft APS to its Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee, and opened a public submission phase. There is very tight time frame. SUBMISSIONS ARE DUE BY END OF FEBRUARY. Following this there will be a Public Hearings Phase in March and April. Parliamentary proceedings mean it will be end of 2009 before it passes Parliament. It may then take another 4-5 months before it is incorporated in the Building Code. Thenceforward it will be mandatory for builders and architects to comply with the Code. The bad (or worse) news is that there is such a time lag between submission of plans for approval and the start of building, that it could well be 2011 before we see any new buildings erected under the new Code, or compliant alterations done to old buildings. The APS is not easy for the layman to interpret, so a number of peak disability organizations have formed a Task Force to assist with its interpretation. An overview of the Draft APS is available on the websites of various Taskforce organisations, e.g. from Physical Disability Australia, People With Disabilities Australia, Blind Citizens Australia, Deafness Forum, Physical Disability Council NSW, and AFDO. The PDA overview of the APS is at: (http://www.pda.org.au/uploads/Premises%20Standards%20overview%20changes%20from%202004.doc) Amongst the outstanding items are:1. inadequate specifications for requirements for lifts in small, 2-3 storey buildings2. lax requirements for access to common areas in apartment complexes3. lenient requirements for providing universal access to smaller swimming pools, 4. lax requirement for access to the Principle Public Entrance of a building, and5. lax regulations for the provision of a proportion of accessible accommodation in holiday homes and complexes There are many improvements to the existing standards, but the submission and consultation phase give people with disabilities the opportunity to voice our opinions on getting these access to all buildings right.
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WAM Steering Committee meeting
Erlina (at back) and Maureen