The Disability Discrimination Act plays an important role in upholding the rights of people with intellectual disability in Australia. The review of The Disability Discrimination Act presents as a significant opportunity to seek greater inclusion of people with intellectual disability in their own health care and in all aspects of community that others take for granted. At the Centre, we advocate for the rights people with intellectual disability to have access to quality health care.
This includes the right to access health care that is free from discrimination. In Australia people with intellectual disability are passing away 27 years earlier than the general population and have four times the rate of potentially avoidable hospitalisations. People with intellectual disability also experience many barriers to receiving safe and quality health care at the doctor. Improving the experience people with intellectual disability have when they visit hospital, and their doctor, can improve health outcomes and change lives.
Two of our Centre's consortium members, the Council for Intellectual Disability (CID) and Down Syndrome Australia (DSA), recently heard from many people with intellectual disability about their experiences of discrimination, especially in relation to the health care they had received. Our submission shares the words of many people with intellectual disability. For example, Len, CID Project Worker who says, "If you make decisions for yourself, that’s it, you’re free."
We thank the Attorney-General's Department for the opportunity to provide comment and applaud the thorough and inclusive consultation process.
Our recommendations
We recommend the Attorney-General’s Department:
- Modernise the Act and embed a human rights model of disability
- Recognise support for decision making.
We strongly urge the adoption of these recommendations in the review of the Disability Discrimination Act. We welcome the opportunity to engage further to continue building an Act that upholds the rights of people with intellectual disability to live a life free from discrimination.
We have told the Attorney-General's Department what we think. Read our full submission here.
