Kelly Vincent – Vision Australia Interview on Scuba Diving, the New Disability Discrimination Commissioner and Willing to Work
20/07/2016
On Wednesday 20 July, Dignity for Disability MLC Kelly Vincent was interviewed on radio station Vision Australia to discuss Determined2, a business providing scuba diving opportunities to South Australians living with physical disabilities and injuries. Ms Vincent also spoke about the new Disability Discrimination Commissioner and the Willing to Work report. Here is the transcript and audio from the interview.
Pam Green: Time now to welcome to 5RPH, Dignity for Disability MLC Kelly Vincent. Hi Kelly.
Kelly Vincent: Hi Pam.
Pam Green: Well Kelly it sounds like you’ve been having a busy but very interesting few days. Could you tell us a little about the SCUBA diving opportunities you learnt about on Monday for South Australians living with physical disabilities and injuries?
Kelly Vincent: Sure. Well I had the pleasure of meeting with Peter Wilson on Monday, who has recently established a business called Determined2 and the business basically allows people with all manner of disabilities or acquired injuries to experience scuba diving. Now it’s not really diving in that they don’t teach you how to dive and it does happen in a pool rather than an ocean because it can be quite difficult to get some people in the ocean. But nonetheless, it is achieving some great results. Including the first person not with known epilepsy but diagnosed epilepsy, to ever be approved medically to use scuba equipment. So very big achievements happening here and giving people with disabilities equality of opportunity and showing that really the only barrier is having the right supports and thinking available and when we put our thinking caps on and put the right supports in place we can find a way to experience the same things as anyone else. So it’s a great organisation, achieving some great things.
Pam Green: Sure is. And as we discussed several weeks back, after a couple of years without a dedicated Disability Discrimination Commissioner in Australia, the federal government has appointed Alastair McEwin to a full time role based at the Sydney Human Rights Commission office – can you tell us a bit about Alastair since you caught up with him on the weekend?
Kelly Vincent: Yes, well it’s a win for the Deaf community and a win for the Adelaide community as well that Alastair has been appointed because he was born in Adelaide but he now lives in New South Wales obviously, where he’ll now be working the Human Rights Commission. But it’s a great win to see a Deaf person elevated to the role of Disability Discrimination Commissioner, particularly because as you said, we haven’t had anyone in this role for such a long time, it’s a really big win. And Alastair is a very hard working person with a background in areas like law, arts as well as business and I think does qualifications will hold him in great stead for the job and we’re looking forward to seeing what he will achieve and congratulate him on this very exciting role.
Pam Green: And the person who has been the part time Disability Discrimination Commissioner, Susan Ryan, was in Adelaide on Monday talking about her Willing to Work report on employment. I know we’ve discussed this report before, but what did you learn from your discussion with Commissioner Ryan about older workers and employing people with disabilities?
Kelly Vincent: Well that’s right. The Human Right Commission through Susan Ryan has done a very lengthy and comprehensive report into the barriers implement not only for people with disabilities but also older Australians, which is important for many reasons especially given that we are going to be expected to work later and later in life. So it’s really important that we tackle these barriers. And some of the key barriers that were identified in this report and time won’t permit me to mention them all but things such as the inaccessibility of the workplace, everything from inaccessible furniture like desks that could easily be mitigated by a height adjustable desk for example and to screen readers for people with vision impairment. And I think a key reason that we are not getting these things is that many businesses don’t understand that there is support out there available from the federal government to purchase modifications for the workplace so that workplaces can hire older workers and workers with disabilities. So we really need to tackle a lot of those attitudes that are out there that people with disabilities and older workers can’t do very much, and that we’re not good in the workforce and that we take too much time off when in fact we are statistically we’re more loyal and we stay in the workforce longer than people without disabilities or other barriers. So we really need to tackle those attitude problems and also make sure that employers are aware that when they do need to modify the workplace to employ someone who is older or has a disability there is support out there to help with those costs. So it really is an investment in their business making it more relatable to many different customer bases and making sure that they have loyal and productive workers far into the future. So we need to make sure that there is more understanding of what it actual does entail to hire a person with disability or an older worker in the workforce and also what it doesn’t have to mean. So a lot more awareness is needed about the assistance that is out there both for people with disabilities and for people employing people with disabilities to help them overcome those hurdles that they can face. So it’s really pleasing to see the Human Rights Commission tackling this in their Willing to Work enquiry.
Pam Green: Sure is. Thanks so much for your time today Kelly.
Kelly Vincent: Thanks Pam.
