Information for Supporters and Services
This page is to help family members, carers, support people, services and organisations to understand and support the rights of women and girls with disability.
Across Australia, women and girls with disability experience violations of their human rights in the form of discrimination, violence and exclusion from services.
While there are laws to protect people from discrimination, they only work if they are supported by people in the community.
Watch WWDA's video: 'Women with Disability Talk About Human Rights':
The situation
Approximately 20% of women and girls in Australia live with disability. That’s around 2 million people. [1]
Women and girls with disability have the same rights as woman without disability, however the reality is that their rights are often not supported.
In Australia, women and girls with disability:
- experience high rates of poverty (29%) compared to people without disability [2]
- have both lower workforce participation (53.4%) and higher unemployment rates (10.3%) than people without disability [3]
- are more likely to experience and face homelessness and are much more likely to be affected by the lack of affordable housing. Twice as many people with disability who are over 55 seek help from homelessness services compared to people without disability [4]
- are often denied the ability to make choices about basic things like what to eat, where and who to live with, when to go out and where to go [5]
- experience high rates of forced contraception, sterilisation and abortion [6]
- experience violence at much higher rates (47%) than people without disability (36%) [7]
- are forced to live in institutions, like residential care facilities and aged care facilities in order to receive social and personal care supports [8]
- are often denied the right to experience their sexuality, to have sexual relationships and to found and maintain a family [9]
- are less likely to successfully secure National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) services than men with disability [10]
- are almost twice as likely to experience sexual harassment and/or violence compared to men with disability. [11]
National anti-discrimination laws
Australia has 4 national anti-discrimination laws. These are:
1. The Age Discrimination Act 2004
2. The Disability Discrimination Act 1992
3. The Sex Discrimination Act 1984
4. The Racial Discrimination Act 1975.
As well as protecting people from discrimination, these Acts require businesses, professionals, support workers and services to ensure that people who are marginalised are included and protected.
If you are an employer, for example, you are required to ensure your organisation’s policies are fair to women. Policies should recognise the fact that women with disability are more likely to need to take time off work for healthcare, accessing service supports, and/or parenting responsibilities. The needs of women with disability should be reflected in clear policies on flexible work arrangements, parental leave and carers leave.
National Disability Standards
In all parts of Australia, the Disability Discrimination Act requires businesses, government organisations, schools and workplaces to follow three standards for accessibility. These are:
1. Disability Standards for Accessible Public Transport 2002 (external link)
2. Disability (Access to Premises - Buildings) Standards 2010 (external link)
3. Disability Standards for Education 2005 (external link).
These standards provide guidelines for state governments, councils and private businesses on their responsibilities to make sure that public services are accessible to people with disability. This includes ensuring public transport, public buildings and education services are:
- free or at a low cost for those that need the services
- physically accessible for people who use wheelchairs, or people with other physical support needs
- accessible for people with learning and/or psychosocial disability.
Organisations that protect rights
There are state and national organisations in Australia that protect the rights of women and girls with disability. You can find out more about the rights of individuals and the obligations of services and organisations on their websites:
- National: Australian Human Rights Commission (external link)
- Australian Capital Territory: ACT Human Rights Commission (external link)
- Queensland: Queensland Human Rights Commission (external link)
- New South Wales: Anti-Discrimination Board of NSW (external link)
- Northern Territory: Northern Territory Anti-Discrimination Commission (external link)
- South Australia: Equal Opportunity Commission South Australia (external link)
- Tasmania: Equal Opportunity Tasmania (external link)
- Victoria: Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission (external link)
- Western Australia: WA Equal Opportunity Commission (external link).
National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS)
The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) was introduced to support the rights and well-being of eligible people with disability and give them choice and control over their lives.
The NDIS supports services and organisations to provide support to eligible people with disability. To be eligible to become a registered NDIS provider, you must provide services that are consistent with:
- the NDIS registration requirements (external link)
- the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission requirements (external link).
If you are a service provider or worker, you can undertake an NDIS online training course (external link)
that explains the obligations of workers under the NDIS Code of Conduct (external link).
Tip: You can learn more in the provider section of the NDIS website (external link).
Footnotes
[1] Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2019) People with Disability in Australia (external link).
[2] Australian Council of Social Service (2018) Poverty in Australia (external link).
[3] Australian Network on Disability (2019) Disability Statistics (external link).
[4] Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2017) Specialist Homelessness services report 2016-2017 (external link).
[5] Women With Disabilities Australia (2016) Position Statement 2: Right to Decision-Making.
[6] Women With Disabilities Australia (2016) Position Statement 4: Sexual and Reproductive Rights.
[7] Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2019) People With Disability in Australia (external link).
[8] Senate Community Affairs References Committee (2015) Adequacy of existing residential care arrangements available for young people with severe physical, mental or intellectual disabilities in Australia (external link).
[9] Women With Disabilities Australia (2016) Position Statement 4: Sexual and Reproductive Rights.
[10] Malbon, E and Carey, G (2019) Women, Rural and Disadvantaged Australians may be Missing Out on Care in the NDIS (external link).
[11] Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2019) People with Disability in Australia: Sexual Harassment (external link).