NDIA Accountability Project

Submission 135 — Youth CaLD Disability Collective — Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability

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Submission to the

Disability Royal Commission (DRC)

Recommendations

Family, community, and identity:

  1. Provide a diverse range of culturally responsive, translated, awareness raising resources and support for parents to understand that their children have disability, how disabilities are defined in Australia, what support the government does have in place and how to access it.

  2. Provide grassroots funding to create community led spaces for young people with disabilities from culturally and linguistically diverse (CaLD) backgrounds, including those already doing it, focused on well-being, connecting with others with shared lived experience, and informal support.

  3. Ensure support provided (e.g. through NDIS) is appropriate and responsive to young people from CaLD backgrounds with a disability within the context of their family lives and cultural community events.

Education:

  1. Equip schools and teachers with resources to support students, including disability liaison officers and information on ways to offer support.

  2. Educate all teachers on recognising invisible illnesses amongst students, how to treat them and how to respond to them properly.

  3. Ensure ongoing support is available after young people finish their education and enter the workforce. This support should be flexible to the person’s context and lets people choose the way they feel they can do the work best and comfortably.

Employment:

  1. Put a legal standard and accessibility mandates for all workplaces and schools to meet the needs of people with disability, and provide funding for organisations to be able to provide that facility.

  2. Ensure support in workplaces cater to the specific needs of people with disabilities by asking the person what kind of support needs and accessibilities they have.

  3. Maintain the flexible work arrangements brought in during COVID-19 for all employees including those with disabilities (e.g. flexible hours, working from home, well-being days).

Representation in the media, service provision, and advocacy organisations:

  1. Diversify the advocacy workforce, disability services, and youth services to include people from CaLD backgrounds with a disability

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  1. Include quotas and identified positions for people from CaLD backgrounds with a disability in advocacy organisations, disability services, and youth services

  2. Include quotas for representation of people from CaLD backgrounds with a disability in broadcasting and what is shown on television.

Inclusion and accessibility:

  1. Make grant application processes accessible to people from CaLD backgrounds with a disability, including language accessibility for those from non-English speaking backgrounds, having options that are not writing and accessible to people with a range of disabilities.

  2. Make medication for people with disabilities affordable regardless of financial status.

  3. Ensure that NDIS applicants are listened to during the application process.

  4. Make the Disability Support Pension (DSP) requirements more inclusive of the understanding that disability is fluid and people with disabilities may need to work inconsistent hours due to the nature of their disabilities.

COVID-19:

  1. Maintain community care and mutual aid during the recovery phase of COVID-19, including access to culturally appropriate food relief and medication.

Co-design, universal design and youth participation:

  1. Ensure young people from CaLD backgrounds with a disability are included in co-design processes from the beginning, throughout the process, and after the co-design process is finished. Ensure young people are paid for their time, opinions, and knowledge. Include fresh people to bring different perspectives (e.g. young people who are not already known to government organisations or services), not just the “bright and shiny”.

  2. Apply universal design when designing support across education, employment, and service delivery, as this will allow for more individual support for people with a range of disabilities.

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Selected quotes

Family, community, identity “I never had friends who were part of the disability space, I still kind of don’t. When I think about it, you guys are some of the only people I speak to with disabilities. And I find that really strange. I lived here all my life, and I’ve been disabled for more than a decade … but I don’t have any friends or anyone in the community that I can really speak to and be like, ‘hey, how did you deal with this?”’ ­ (she/her)

“… There are systems and resources in place that are so non-accessible to parents or CaLD communities because they’re not translated, they’re hard to find in really niche websites, they’re kind of hidden away unless you’re really trying to find it. So it’s important to make the things that do exist more accessible and presented in a variety of ways, visually and through word and through websites.” – (she/her)

“There is so much distrust with government and things like that, especially for people that might have escaped various situations where their governments weren’t the most great … We need lots of options, use local newspapers created by people from the community, and social media, and make Whatsapp stuff because, wow, Whatsapp education is a thing!” – (they/them)

“People from CaLD backgrounds have such a difficult time to make sure their family fits into essentially racist societies and so to add a disability on in an ableist society, it’s not really their fault that they’re trying to get their kid accepted in a society that’s actively not accepting of them.” ­ (they/them)

Education

“I had mental health issues, primary school, high school, university, not once did a teacher or senior figure ever talk to me about it, or recognize it or even raise the issue of mental illness with me. So I think this was 10 plus years ago so maybe things are better now but I think it would be great if all teachers were … better trained to recognize and assist people who have that issues, or any issue that’s invisible.” -••■ (he/him)

“It shouldn’t be out of the teacher’s kindness that accommodations that are really necessary to someone being able to study or work … “ – (they/them)

Inclusion and accessibility “ … Sometimes what the sector sees is that the culture is the problem and the family is the problem, and then what that leads to is the child or the person with the disability being removed from that space. And I’m all for that if the space is unsafe for that young person or for that person to be there anymore, but it’s not that the culture is a problem, or the family is a problem. It’s that the awareness is not there about what this disability that this child is experiencing or living with is, and how to talk to the family about it to get them to a place where they can offer that child or that person that support to be able to come to full awareness about themselves and their disability and how to navigate that, and how the family can help them navigate that as well… “ – (they/she)

“So one thing I’ve found really difficult is access to meds, because prior to getting a health care card, it was expensive. I can’t remember the exact cost, I think it was like 50 bucks for a pack that would

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get me through a few months. Now that I’m on the health care card it’s much cheaper, it’s like a few dollars. So I don’t see why it can’t be cheap all the time, why are they trying to profit off our suffering, you know?

"There were days when they were expensive where  I wasn't working much, so  I was rationing

them ...  I had days in which  I was pretty much as bad as  I was prior to treatment because  I was

reverting, because  I wasn't on the things  I needed to be on. So yeah. I'm not angry, it'd be nice if

there was accessibility because it’s good to have a fair society where help is given to those who need it.“ -•• ■(he/him)

“Disability is fluid and all our policies need to recognise that … “ - (she/her)

Representation in the media, service provision, and advocacy organisations “A lot of advocacy organsations are very white, like it is a white person dominated sector and I think that contributes to the problem because even if you’re aware of cultural differences and how to approach things culturally respectfully, there is a level of distrust… Advocacy should reflect the people that they’re advocating for and people with disabilities from CALO background definitely do exist and therefore should be reflected in the advocacy workforce.” -2 (she/her)

“ … The value and importance of representation isn’t always seen or viewed as important because it’s just just TV, it’s just something that we consume. but it’s so important to see people who look like you and build that community and validate your experience and that the government see you and these ads are targeting you and you’re the person who’s supposed to receive this… It’s such an important part of how people with disability gain information is through consumption and talking to people and seeing things which are very general in our lives. It’s not through really niche research papers, and intense investigations… It’s through really casual places that we gain the information that we do.“ – (she/her)

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