Information accessibility during the COVID-19 crisis

Information accessibility is a right under that UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (Article 21) and is an area protected by the Disability Discrimination Act in Australia. Yet in the face of the COVID-19 crisis, the immediate reality and implications of this right have never been more apparent for people with disability: having access to good quality, up-to-date information in accessible formats is quite literally a matter of life and death. Dr Ariella Meltzer from the Centre for Social Impact, UNSW Sydney, examines some questions about what providing accessible information in such a crisis means.

Advocacy, AccessibilityPower to Persuade1 April 2020Disability

Podcast: Coping in isolation – mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic

In this podcast created and originally published by ANU’s Policy Forum Pod, Martyn Pearce talks to Professor Luis Salvador-Carulla and Dr Sebastian Rosenberg about how to care for mental health during an unprecedented period of community isolation due to COVID-19. If you or anyone you know needs help on that front, contact details for support services are listed at the end of this post.

IssuesPower to Persuade31 March 2020COVID-19, mental health

Bushfires, coronavirus… and a newborn. Living through 2020 as a new mum

2020 has been no ordinary year. Still reeling from the destruction of the bushfires Australians are now having to adjust to also dealing with a global pandemic. In today’s blog post Dr Laura Davey gives her personal reflections on what it has been like to live through these unprecedented times at the same time as becoming a mother for the first time.

IssuesPower to Persuade27 March 2020mental health, Children, motherhood

People with a disability are more likely to die from coronavirus – but we can reduce this risk

Prior research has shown that health inequities worsen during pandemics. In this blog piece Professor Helen Dickinson and Professor Anne Kavanagh highlight the health inequities already faced by people with disability and how the Covid-19 pandemic could make these worse. They outline steps the Government urgently needs to implement to protect people with disability as the pandemic progresses.

Other countries are shutting schools – why does the Australian government say it’s safe to keep them open?

The issue of school closures in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic has been polarising the political and public discourse in Australia. In this blog post Professor Peter Collignon from ANU Medical School discusses why the Australian Government recommends keeping schools open for now.

Policy and governancePower to Persuade26 March 2020government, education, Policy making, public health

Data underpinning COVID-19 decisions should be made public

As Covid-19 case numbers have been rising quickly in Australia Government responses and recommedations to the public have also been fast moving. In an age where trust in our political institutions is at an all time low Professor John Shine from the Australian Academy of Science argues that in such a fast moving environment transparency must be at the core of Government responses. The Academy has thus called on the Government to make all the data and science underpinning their Covid-19 decisions be made public.

Homelessness and overcrowding expose us all to coronavirus. Here’s what we can do to stop the spread

The Covid-19 pandemic is exposing a raft of issues with social welfare policy in Australia. Australia’s lack of social housing and lack of affordable rentals means many people are living in crowded or inadequate housng, or are homeless. In today’s blog post Nicole Gurran, Peter Phibbs and Tess Lea discuss the issues Australia is now facing as Covid-19 intersects with homelessness and inadequate housing, and what governments need to do to help.

Advocacy groups call for immediate changes to Australia's welfare system in the face of COVID-19

As unemployment surges in the face of Covid-19, advocacy groups are calling for Government to respond by raising the rate of all welfare payments and put an end to the Cashless Debit Card trial. Yesterday the Accountable Income Management Network and the Australian Unemployed Workers Union issued a joint Media Release outlining their calls to the Federal Government. Below are their demands:

AdvocacyPower to Persuade24 March 2020government, policy problem, Social Welfare

The COVID-19 pandemic is highlighting the importance of inclusive work and a strong and flexible safety net

Covid19 is creating massive employment upheavals with significant implications for peoples’ mental health. In today’s blog Post Aurora Elmes discusses the role social enterprises can play in providing flexible and supportive workplaces for vulnerable people and the need for government to consider how they can support these businesses to help cushion some of the economic and social fallout from Covid-19.

Women’s safety in a time of quarantine

Australians are increasingly isolating in an attempt to flatten the curve of Covid-19’s spread. This is having profound impacts on our everyday lives, but the evidence is clear that the impact is far greater for women. In today’s piece, Policy Whisperer Susan Maury (@SusanMaury) of Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand (@GoodAdvocacy) outlines some of the key concerns for women’s safety that quarantine measures and its impacts are raising. If you need immediate help, call 000. If you are looking for advice or support, contact 1800RESPECT.

People with disability left behind in COVID-19 response

There is a very real fear that Covid-19 will have a worse impact on people with disability and yet, as Professor Helen Dickinson discusses in today’s blog post, they are being left out of the Government’s response.

Issues, Policy and governancePower to Persuade23 March 2020Disability

Insider/outsider: exploring factors that limit or promote the influence of organisations outside government on public policy

Paige Fletcher, a PhD Candidate at Flinders University, is examining the influence of actors outside government on public policy through a case study of feminist organisations and policy addressing gendered violence. She explains here why this research is needed and how to get involved.

Policy and governancePower to Persuade21 March 2020gender

Urgent measures needed to support people with disability during COVID-19 crisis

COVID-19 is rapidly changing the world around us, and disability peak organisations in Australia have called on government to move quickly to guarantee continuity of essential services, support and information for people with disability, and to curb the risk of infection for people with disability and their support workers. People with disability are rightly worried about the particular risks this health crisis poses for them. This message from the Australian Federation of Disability Organisations, Children and Young People with Disability, Disability Advocacy Network Australia, First People Disability Network, Inclusion Australia, National Ethnic Disability Alliance, People with Disability Australia and Women with Disabilities Australia explains what needs to be done.

Policy and governance, Service DeliveryPower to Persuade20 March 2020COVID-19, pandemic, Disability

What is COVID-19 and what does 'flatten the curve' mean?

In today’s post, Dr Kathryn Snow methodically and clearly addresses some key questions about COVID-19. Dr Snow is a health services researcher and epidemiologist at the University of Melbourne and the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, and collaborates with clinicians, health authorities, and qualitative researchers to improve health services for vulnerable groups. This post was originally published on her blog.

IssuesPower to Persuade17 March 2020pandemic, coronavirus, COVID-19, health

People with disability and the COVID-19 response

Leading health and disability researchers in Australia are calling for urgent action from State and Federal governments to develop a targeted response to COVID-19 for people with disability, their families and the disability service sector. In this post originally published by Croakey, Professor Anne Kavanagh from the University of Melbourne and Associate Professor Gemma Carey from UNSW flag risks facing people with disability in this rapidly shifting environment and set out recommendations for government to mitigate those risks.

Advocacy, Issues, Service DeliveryPower to Persuade16 March 2020disability, NDIS, health, COVID-19, pandemic

The sad ableism in Australia towards people with Down syndrome and the parents that choose to have them: from an online study

When 60 Minutes aired a segment called ‘Does Australia really want to see the end of Down syndrome?’ in August 2017, its Facebook platform was flooded with negative comments about people with Down syndrome and their parents. Belinda Johnson and Dr Raelene West from RMIT University examined the online responses to the program and uncovered confronting views of Down syndrome as an economic burden, a medical burden and a social burden. As they worked their way through comments questioning the right of children with Down syndrome to access publicly funded disability services in light of advances in prenatal testing, for example, the authors began to question the extent to which derogatory and ill-informed comments that push people with disabilities into an exhausting and endless process of justifying their existence should be tolerated in the name of free speech. Their findings were recently published in the Journal of Sociology.

Advocacy, IssuesPower to Persuade16 March 2020disability, NDIS, social media

The gender divide in social inclusion: The unheard story of older women

Social inclusion is a determinant of mental health and wellbeing. In today’s analysis, Autumn Pierce (@otonoenespanol) of Women’s Health East (@WHEast) shares highlights from their important new report The Unheard Story: The Impact of Gender on Social Inclusion for Older Women, which explores how inequalities accumulate across the lifespan to increase the risk and impacts of social exclusion for older women.

Generation Equality? Reflections on weight stigma and diet culture on International Women’s Day

In the wake of International Women’s Day last Sunday, an annual United Nations day with a 2020 theme of ‘I am Generation Equality: Realising Women’s Rights’. Sarah Squire (@SquireSarah) of the Butterfly Foundation (@BFoundation) explores the role that diet culture and other sociocultural factors play in women and girls’ lives. Reflecting on some key challenges, she suggests policy levers and tips for improving women’s relationships with their bodies. This blog originally appeared on The Butterfly Foundation website.

What does the NDIS mean for women and girls? Considering the implications of our market-based system for gender equality

Implementation of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is the biggest reform to the disability sector since deinstitutionalisation. To the broader community it can be assumed that the NDIS will benefit all people with disabilities. In the week of International Women’s Day, Jen Hargrave (@Jen_Hargrave) of Women with Disabilities Victoria (WDVtweet) and University of Melbourne (@MSPHSC) and Maeve Kennedy (@mkennedy_vic) of Children and Young People with Disability Australia (@CDA39) look into the reform’s fitness to achieve gender equality now and for the next generation.

In this piece we discuss the NDIS’ capacity to provide women with greater choice and control, and a number of areas of equity and sustainability. We also examine the way the NDIS supports, or fails to support, women experiencing violence and consider the potential impact of broader gender equality measures on a market-based scheme.

Feminised services and the gender pay gap: On International Women’s Day government inaction could turn back the clock

As described in our piece on what the revocation of the Equal Remuneration Order may mean for Australia’s female-dominated community services sector, ongoing government funding is critical to maintain quality services. In today’s companion piece, Kathy McDermott of the National Foundation for Australian Women (@NFAW) describes the advocacy efforts of the sector and peak bodies with the Morrison Government on this issue, and calls for meaningful engagement.

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