Within and without – where can we take accessibility?
05/02/2015
Speech delivered at the February 5 meeting of the Combined Access Groups of the local government areas of the Barossa, Campbelltown, Playford, Salisbury and Tea Tree Gully.
Today, I want to give you some things to think about, I’m going to rattle off a shopping list of the sorts of issues my office is dealing with, and I hope together we can open a dialogue, and naturally I will be happy to field some questions at the end.
I want to invite you to look within to the work of your own Council, and look without to the work of others, both her in SA, across the country and internationally. I know that you all operate within tight budgetary restraint, but sharing knowledge guarantees we can work smarter, and cheaper, not harder! It is important to know what CAN be done, even when the current budget won’t allow for it. We are all in this together, and as policy makers I hope we can take the opportunity to set the standards high.
Dignity for Disability is a small, SA based political party and I am the sole elected representative so far. Since I was elected to Parliament in 2010, I have been overwhelmed by constituents seeking advocacy on every issue you can imagine – mostly relating to disability in some way.
While as a member of the Legislative Council I represent all South Australians, I regularly get calls from people both here and interstate needing advocacy on issues, advice around legislation or policy, or other broader systemic matters surrounding disability. These could include viewing matters through a disability lens in health, transport, housing, emergency services, corrections, the justice system, discrimination, employment, education, disability services, planning + universal design, the Immigration Act and pretty much anything else you can think of.
From my records, I have gathered some Examples of local government issues that my office has been contacted about:
• Footpaths that are unsealed or broken and don’t allow wheelchair access, of course if it’s unsafe or not navigable by wheelchair, it’s also hopeless for prams, pushers, tricycles and walking frames too.
• Shopping centres that are non-DDA compliant, such as having lift doors that close too quickly.
• Parking fines relating to disability parking permits. The misuse of parking permits is a good example of an issue about which there are very passionate and varied opinions. It’s a base issue that many people can understand, as the community in general is very frustrated when they see the misuse of the permit Park. Dignity for Disability is currently considering measures to introduce demerit points for the misuse of accessible parks, as we believe that this punishment might better reflect the severity of the offence in terms of taking away from people’s ability to access community easily and safely.
• Need for handyman/handywoman services around the home.
• Speed zones for safety.
• Toilets that may be accessible – but without being able to open the door people don’t know if they are or not. Another issue is just getting access to ANY toilet in an emergency, without being given a run around.
• Rates being charged when services are not provided and difficulty in paying rates when there is only a single Disability Support Pension income.
• Garden maintenance issues, when people physically cannot do this themselves and cannot get assistance at below market rate they are stressed and frustrated.
• Getting into restaurants, clubs, and cafes and finding the accessible toilet is a store room for spare tables and chairs.
• Pedestrian safety when crossing roads.
• Care for animals generally, and specifically problems with dogs barking.
• Problems with hoarding households.
• Access to appropriate day options activities.
• Issues with people having difficulty putting out their rubbish for collection.
Of course, councils’ ability to respond to these issues is very much dependent on the number of people reporting them and this is why I am particularly pleased to see a number of local councils developing mechanisms like smartphone apps which enable people to report issues quickly and with ease.
Callers to my office often have a range of complex disability or chronic health conditions such as physical disability, mental health problems, social isolation and intellectual disability, low literacy or borderline intellectual functioning.
My constituents are frustrated, hurt and downright angry when they hear about multi-million dollar projects going ahead when at the same time they find themselves battling to receive regular help through Disability SA with showering, continence aids; respite care or access to education.
As a younger person myself, I am finding that the intensive care and support that some students require, because of their disability, to participate in tertiary study, is not always being provided, and if a young person is living in a regional area, this access to care and support can be non-existent. Young people with a disability or mental health issues are trying to access services, and they don’t want to be told to stay home and study online, because they want to get out and participate with others, and of course they have a right to do that.
On a daily basis, I am contacted by people in crisis – often due in part to the disproportionate chunk of their lives people with disabilities have to spend battling bureaucracy simply to gain fair access to the world. My primary goal is to make myself redundant, this goal will be realised when having a disability in South Australia no longer constitutes a full-time job. At the moment it all too often is. I am sure you will know of people and their family carers who spend an inordinate amount of their time attempting to achieve access to services that others take for granted. In a very real sense, I exist in my current position as a member of parliament to ensure that there is a paradigm shift within government that will result in a deep understanding of what it does and does not mean to live with a disability.
With perhaps the best will in the world, there are many people involved in the disability sector who do not respect the rights of people with a disability and in the 21st Century, in a state like ours, this is not acceptable. I think there are three keys to getting it right, “fairness, inspiration and respect” fairness because we all deserve a fair go, inspiration – not, I assure you in the “you have a disability, and yet you got out of bed today!” sense, but because we need to look for creative solutions and respect because it doesn’t matter whether you can help an individual or not, displaying respect means we all hold our heads high.
Of course broadly speaking we have an unfair system, where the squeaky wheel gets the oil and so many other people’s needs go unmet. Not everyone has a family member or support worker who can afford to spend the time on the phone, writing letters and emails, going to meetings and generally sorting things out so that they can receive all that they are entitled to. Again, I am sure you will have seen examples at both ends of this spectrum within your practice, the people who have the ability to get their share, and those that don’t even know what it is that they could be getting. People with an intellectual disability are particularly disadvantaged, as are others who are illiterate and to some extent those who are not hooked up to computers and email for their communications.
I hope I have given you some food for thought in describing the everyday problems at local government level people are bringing to me. There is no single category that they fall into, yet many come down to very basic needs, and in the end everyone wants to feel that they belong and can live comfortably in the community.
There is a saying that all politics is local, and it means that the level of issues that most voters think about are the issues they trip over or drive past every day in their local area. Access is more than provision of ramps, and these days it includes the digital realm, and getting it right necessitates genuine consultation with the broad cross section of people who will use any given service.
When it comes to measuring how local councils are doing in terms of meeting the access needs of their citizens with disabilities, this can be a difficult thing to measure. Not only because, as I alluded to earlier, just because it’s not being reported doesn’t mean it’s not happening, but also because in a world where access is to the being done correctly; where people’s needs are truly being met, we would not need to measure these things. Creating a paradigm shift to enable a level of access to all services by all people is the gold standard I hope we can all aim for.
