Changes to the Disability Discrimination Act
We want to know what you think
Easy Read version
How to use this document
We are the Attorney-General’s Department (AGD).
We wrote this document.
We wrote some words in bold.
We explain what these words mean.
There is also a list of these words on page 41.
You can ask someone you trust for support to:
- read this document
- find more information.
This is an Easy Read summary of another document.
It only includes the most important ideas.
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You can find the other document on our website.
www.consultations.ag.gov.au/rights-and- protections/dda-community-survey
In this document, we talk about things that might upset you.
We have a list of support services you can contact.
Their contact details are on page 34.
This is a long document.
You don’t need to read it all at once.
You can take your time.
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What’s in this document?
- About the Disability Discrimination Act 5
- Why we are reviewing the Act 6
- How to tell us what you think 8
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Update what disability and discrimination mean 11
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Stop discrimination from happening 15
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Make organisations more inclusive 18
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Better protect people with disability 24
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Check when people can be treated in a different way 28
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Update some rules in the Act 30
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Other changes we could make 33
- Support for you 34
- Word list 41
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About the Disability Discrimination Act
The Disability Discrimination Act is a law that protects people with disability from discrimination.
In this document, we just call it the Act.
Discrimination is when someone treats you differently because of part of who you are.
Many people with disability in Australia still experience discrimination in different parts of their lives.
For example, at work or school.
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Why we are reviewing the Act
The Australian Government is reviewing the Act to find out:
- • what is working well
- • what changes we could make.
The Act was made 30 years ago.
This means there are parts of the Act that don’t work well anymore.
The government could make changes to the Act to make sure it protects people with disability from discrimination.
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The Disability Royal Commission’s Ideas
The Disability Royal Commission shared 15 ideas about how to make the Act better.
The Disability Royal Commission looked into problems that people with disability experienced.
It helped the Australian Government find out:
-
what went wrong
-
what needs to improve.
The government has used these ideas to help decide what parts of the Act we could change.
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How to tell us what you think
We explain 6 areas in the Act.
We want to know how the government could change each area.
We also want to know if there are other areas in the Act that you think the government could change.
We ask you some questions.
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Submissions
You can answer:
- all of our questions
- some of our questions.
You can send us your ideas in an email.
You can also send us your ideas in a letter.
Human Rights Branch, Attorney-General’s Department 3-5 National Circuit, Barton ACT 2006
You can also share your ideas on the phone.
(02) 6141 6280
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You can leave a voicemail telling us when we can call you back.
You can find out when you need to share your ideas by on our website.
www.ag.gov.au/rights-and- protections/human-rights-and-anti- discrimination/australias-anti-discrimination- law/review-disability-discrimination-act
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1. Update what disability and discrimination mean
We want to know how the government could update what some words in the Act mean.
This includes:
- disability
- discrimination.
The government could update what disability means in the Act so it shows:
- more respect for people with disability
- that people with disability can experience discrimination because of other parts of who they are.
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The government could update what discrimination means in the Act so:
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it’s easier to understand
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it better protects people from discrimination in their daily life.
They could also make sure the words in the Act better follow the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).
The CRPD is an agreement between different countries.
It says that people with disability should have the same rights as everyone else.
Rights are rules about how people must treat you:
-
fairly
-
equally.
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What we want to know
How do you think the government could explain ‘disability’ in the Act?
Please write your answer in the box below.
The explanation of ‘disability’ needs to be broad in acknowledgement that ‘disability’ is different for everyone and should not be limited to listing formal diagnoses. People with disability may experience physical, mental, intellectual, neurological or sensory differences that can impact on their full and equal participation in society when combined with environmental and societal barriers. ‘Disability’ may not always be visible. It is important that the way ‘disability’ is explained in the Act takes that multitude of individual factors into consideration. The social model of disability highlights that environments are disabling and until that concept is addressed many people with disability will continue to experience disadvantage. ‘Disability’ does not define a person; it is one part of their identity. The focus should instead be on the person’s ability – what they can do rather than what they can’t do. For that reason, the use of positive terminology and a strengths-based approach is critical.
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Understanding ‘Discrimination’ in the Act
How do you think the government could explain ‘discrimination’ in the Act?
Please write your answer in the box below.
No response.
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2. Stop discrimination from happening
People with disability can only make a complaint after they experience discrimination.
A complaint is when you tell someone that something:
- has gone wrong
- isn’t working well.
We want to know how the government could change the Act to stop discrimination before it happens.
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There could be new rules for organisations to make sure:
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they take action to stop discrimination from happening
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everyone can take part.
When we talk about organisations in this document, we mean:
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schools
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businesses
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services.
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What we want to know
What rules could the government include in the Act to make sure organisations stop discrimination from happening?
Please write your answer in the box below.
The Act could be framed to mandate a positive duty on organisations to prevent discrimination and facilitate access to their physical and digital spaces. This would require organisations to make reasonable adjustments for people with disability. As recommended by the Disability Royal Commission, it would be in line with a human rights model of disability to remove the word ‘reasonable’ from the phrase so that cost or difficulty alone would not determine whether an adjustment was needed. Such adjustments would include making buildings and digital platforms accessible; adapting workplaces and services to prevent discrimination through use of universal design principles; mandating that all government services are communication accessible; and ensuring anti-discrimination policies were in place, with penalties for discriminatory behaviours and actions. Ideally, the positive duty would be reinforced through campaigns on mainstream and social media that spoke about the consequences for organisations that continue to discriminate. In the longer term there would be checklists for organisations to complete self-audits, and depending on the effectiveness of these measures, the potential for third party audits in future. It also needs to be easier for people to speak up now when they see discrimination happening. This might include rules that facilitate the use of accessible reporting systems, including phone apps.
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Make organisations more inclusive
We want to know how the government could change the rules in the Act that organisations must follow to be more inclusive.
When an organisation is inclusive, everyone:
- can take part
- feels like they belong.
Reasonable adjustments
The Act includes rules about making reasonable adjustments.
Reasonable adjustments are changes that organisations need to make so people with disability can take part. For example, so they can work or study.
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Adjustments
We want to know if we should change the Act so it just says ‘adjustments’.
This would make it clearer to everyone what rules organisations must follow.
Employers
There are rules for employers about deciding if people with disability are able to do a job.
What is an employer?
An employer is a person who hires other people to work for them.
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The employer must think about if the person:
- has the right skills
- has the right training
- can do the tasks that the job needs.
We want to know if the government should update these rules so employers must:
- think about what reasonable adjustments they could make to support a person to do a job
- talk to the person about what reasonable adjustments they need to do a job.
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Unjustifiable hardship
Organisations must make reasonable adjustments for people with disability unless it would cause unjustifiable hardship.
Unjustifiable hardship is when organisations find it too hard to change things for a person with disability.
For example, if the reasonable adjustments:
- are too hard to do
- cost too much money.
We want to know if there should be different rules for organisations about unjustifiable hardship.
These rules will help organisations make better decisions about unjustifiable hardship.
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Organisations’ responsibilities
For example, the rules could say that organisations should:
- talk to people with disability about what support they need to take part
- think about other ways they can support people with disability to take part.
Clearer rules for schools
We also want to know how the government could make the rules clearer for schools about how to support students with disability.
For example, the rules could say that it is discrimination if a school stops a student from coming to school or taking part because of their disability.
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What we want to know
What rules could the government include in the Act to make sure organisations support people with disability to take part?
Please write your answer in the box below.
There are some practical measures that the government could implement to increase the participation of people with disability. The best place to start would be to create a positive duty for organisations to take proactive steps in preventing discrimination and taking active measures to advance accessibility and inclusion. Regular audits of organisations would provide evidence of those organisations that work to improve accessibility and inclusion; their work could be highlighted in the media and recognition might extend to a formal awards program. Organisations could be accredited for achieving and mandatory minimum standards. There could also be incentives for organisations to progress further e.g., incentivise organisations to hire people with disability into roles along equitable pathways with opportunities to progress into more senior roles. There should be more explicit requirements to enhance accessibility, for example, by making it clear in the Act that accessibility extends to digital platforms, virtual spaces and all information formats as well as physical premises. This should then be reinforced through disability inclusion and awareness training that is developed in consultation with people with disability. Having a Disability Liaison Officers organisations, where feasible, would also be a welcome and positive step.
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4. Better protect people with disability
Offensive behaviour
We want to know how the government could change the Act to better protect people from experiencing offensive behaviour because of their disability.
Offensive behaviour is when someone says or does something serious about a person’s disability that could:
- intimidate them – make them feel scared or unsafe
- humiliate them – make them feel very bad
- offend them – make them very upset
- insult them – make them very angry.
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Spreading hate
We want to know how the government could change the Act to stop people from spreading hate about people with disability.
They could make new rules that make it against the law to spread hate about people with disability.
Treatment by the police
There are rules in the Act to stop the police from treating people differently because they have a disability.
We want to know how the government could make these rules clearer.
This could help people with disability to get the support they need from the police.
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What We Want to Know
What rules could the government make to better protect people with disability from:
- offensive behaviour?
- spreading hate about people with disability?
Please write your answer in the box below.
This requires a wide-ranging approach. The building blocks start with education: disability inclusion should ideally be an integral part of the curriculum starting in primary school and extending through to ongoing public education campaigns that are designed in close collaboration with people with disability. More information and resources need to be readily available so that people recognise, report and prevent offensive behaviour. It is vital to involve people with a range of disabilities, including people with complex communication, people with intellectual disability and autistic people, in designing these campaigns.
Reporting offensive behaviour will inevitably involve interactions with first responders and perhaps the justice system. In the most serious instances, ambulance services and hospitals may be involved. There needs to be a specific focus on ensuring that people working in those roles understand the complexity of working at the heart of those situations. For that reason, there needs to be a greater focus on education for professionals in those areas. Collecting data to analyse trends will enable the effectiveness of targeted initiatives to be tracked. This data should include offensive behavior that is reported but not pursued by complainants who still want their voices and stories to be heard.
Many people form their views of disability from various forms of media. This encompasses both the representation of people with disability and stories that feature people with disability. There should be more attention
t f i i i ti l i l ti h it t h th di t
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How could the government change the rules about how the police should treat people with disability?
Please write your answer in the box below.
There should be minimum standards introduced in police training on disability and how to communicate effectively with community members who have a disability. This would encompass police being trained to recognise different types of disability so that they always provide consistent, appropriate, person-first support. Further training would include understanding human rights, de-escalation techniques appropriate to different types of disability, and responding to the specific needs of people with disability in law enforcement interactions. All 24-hour watch stations should have communication aids on hand and officers on duty must have had training in how to use these aids to ensure effective and respectful communication with community members who have communication disability.
From a holistic perspective, there should be mandated screening of youth offenders and prisoners to identify people who may have an undiagnosed disability. Following discharge from prison, any parolees with disability should have follow-up support to ensure their individual needs are met.
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5. Check when people can be treated
in a different way
There are rules in the Act to stop people with disability from experiencing discrimination.
But the Act also says there are times when people or organisations don’t have to follow these rules.
For example, they might be allowed to treat people with disability in a different way to:
- • support the person to take part
- • keep everyone safe.
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What we want to know
How should the government change the rules in the Act about when people with disability can be treated in a different way?
Please write your answer in the box below.
The issue of exceptions to the Act should be reframed so that the standard is not about making ‘reasonable adjustments’ but about the ‘undue hardship’ experienced by people with disability. The burden of proof should shift to the person that is seeking the exception rather than the person with disability. Best practice would involve close consultation with the person with disability to achieve resolution. There needs to be clear and practical communication to prevent misuse of exceptions, and real-world examples available to prevent any confusion.
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6. Update some rules in the Act
Assistance animals
We want to know how the government could update the rules in the Act about assistance animals.
Assistance animals are trained to support people with disability in different ways.
For example, a guide dog.
They could look at how to update these rules to make them clearer about:
- training for assistance animals
- how to prove that an animal is an assistance animal.
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Disability action plans
We want to know how the government could update the rules in the Act about disability action plans.
We could look at rules to make disability action plans work better.
Disability standards
We want to know what rules the government could include in the Act to make sure organisations follow disability standards.
Standards are rules about how to do things well.
You can:
- meet standards
- go above standards
- not meet standards.
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Disability standards include rules about making it easy for people with disability to:
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find and use services
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move around.
What we want to know
What could the government include in the rules:
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about assistance animals?
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about disability action plans?
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to make sure organisations follow disability standards?
Please write your answer in the box below.
Having greater certainty and consistency around assistance animals is essential. The foundation would be to introduce a national scheme to accredit trainers and organisations to ensure appropriate levels of behaviour and hygiene for assistance animals were maintained. All assistance animals would need to be registered and people with disability would be able to display confirmation of that registration if needed. Campaigns on mainstream and social media would clarify that the animals had a practical role in assisting people with disability and the animals were not solely companion animals. The Act would need to affirm clearly that people with disability who have assistance animals are protected against discrimination and that assistance animals have access rights. There could be assistance animal welcome signs posted in public
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7. Other changes we could make
Are there other things you think the government could change in the Act that we haven’t talked about?
Please write your answer in the box below.
There needs to be greater prominence given to addressing intersectionality, which may compound the discrimination that people with disability face. As with any members of society, people with disability will have different aspects to their identity, and may experience discrimination based on factors such as race, ethnicity, gender, sex, LGBTIQA+ status, and religion that occurs concurrently with disability discrimination. While there is legislation that addresses each of these factors it would be preferable to emphasise that discrimination against people with disability that has intersectional elements is distinctly egregious. The Disability Royal Commission drew particular attention to intersectionality through hearings that focused on issues of great significance to First Nations people with disability, the experiences of culturally and linguistically diverse people with disability, and experience of women and girls with disability. It would be refreshing to see this emphasis on intersectionality reflected in the Act.
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Support for you
There are services you can contact if you need support.
You can find their contact details on the following pages.
Translating and Interpreting Service (TIS)
If you need something in a language other than English, you can call the Translating and Interpreting Service (TIS).
131 450
You can ask them to connect you to one of the services below.
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National Relay Service (NRS)
You can call the National Relay Service if you:
- are deaf or hard of hearing
- find it hard to speak using the phone.
TTY (Type and Listen)
1800 555 677
Speak and listen
1300 555 727
You can ask them to connect you to one of the services below.
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Lifeline
Lifeline is a service for people who are at risk of ending their own life.
You can call Lifeline any time.
13 11 14
You can use Lifeline’s online chat to talk to someone.
www.lifeline.org.au/crisis-chat
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13YARN
13YARN supports Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.
You can call them any time.
13 92 76
Kids Helpline
Kids Helpline supports children and young people who are 5 to 25 years old.
You can call Kids Helpline any time.
1800 551 800
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1800ELDERHelp
1800ELDERHelp supports older people who have experienced abuse.
Abuse is when someone:
- • hurts you
- • scares you
- • controls you.
You can call them any time.
1800 353 374
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National Disability Abuse and Neglect Hotline
The National Disability Abuse and Neglect Hotline supports people with disability who have experienced:
- abuse
- neglect.
Neglect is when someone is not helping you the way they are supposed to.
You can call them:
- Monday to Friday
- 9 am to 7 pm.
1800 880 052
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1800RESPECT
1800RESPECT supports people who experience domestic and family violence.
Domestic and family violence is when someone close to you:
- hurts you
- scares you
- controls you.
You can call them any time.
1800 737 732
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Word list
This list explains what the bold words in this document mean.
Abuse
Abuse is when someone:
- hurts you
- scares you
- controls you.
Assistance animal
An assistance animal is trained to support people with disability in different ways.
Complaint
A complaint is when you tell someone that something:
- has gone wrong
- isn’t working well.
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Disability Royal Commission
The Disability Royal Commission looked into problems that people with disability experienced.
It helped the Australian Government find out:
- what went wrong
- what needs to improve.
Discrimination
Discrimination is when someone treats you differently because of part of who you are.
Domestic and family violence
Domestic and family violence is when someone close to you:
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hurts you
-
scares you
-
controls you.
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Employer
An employer is a person who hires other people to work for them.
Humiliate
When someone humiliates you, they make you feel very bad.
Inclusive
When an organisation is inclusive, everyone:
- can take part
- feels like they belong.
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Understanding Harm
Insult
When someone insults you, they make you very angry.
Intimidate
When someone intimates you, they make you feel scared or unsafe.
Neglect
Neglect is when someone is not helping you the way they are supposed to.
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Offend
When someone offends you, they make you very upset.
Offensive behaviour
Offensive behaviour is when someone says or does something serious about a person’s disability that could:
- intimidate them
- humiliate them
- offend them
- insult them.
Reasonable adjustments
Reasonable adjustments are changes that organisations need to make so people with disability can take part.
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Review
When you review something, you check to see what:
- works well
- needs to be better.
Rights
Rights are rules about how people must treat you:
- fairly
- equally.
Standards
Standards are rules about how to do things well.
You can:
- meet standards
- go above standards
- not meet standards.
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United Nations Convention on the Rights
of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)
The CRPD is an agreement between different countries.
It says that people with disability should have the same rights as everyone else.
Unjustifiable hardship
Unjustifiable hardship is when organisations find it too hard to change things for a person with disability.
The Information Access Group created this Easy Read document using stock photography and custom images. The images may not be reused without permission. For any enquiries about the images, please visit www.informationaccessgroup.com. Quote job number 6176.
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