Page 4030 - Week 13 - Thursday, 2 December 2021
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
dissimilar to some everyday life experiences. Suddenly, everyone was experiencing exclusion from everyday activities and isolation from community, work and family, and difficulty accessing secure employment, services and everyday necessities. For people without disability, this experience should be motivating. We need to take these experiences and translate them into action to ensure that no-one should feel excluded or isolated because of disability.
I urge our community to not lose traction on the reasonable adjustments made by business and community over the past 18 months, such as the range of home delivery and click and collect options made available, and the option to work flexibly and participate online in meetings, forums, webinars and conferences.
Daily COVID-19 press conferences gave us the privilege of seeing Auslan interpreters. Let us now think about how we can continue this norm and use Auslan interpreters not just in emergencies but in other important public discussions.
I would like to acknowledge the people with disability who demonstrate their tenacity and leadership to ensure that their voice is heard and experiences included as they work with commitment to change our community for the better. I would like to thank the services, business and community groups who listen and respond and who seek out the voice of diversity in the shaping of their programs, service offers and businesses.
I would like to recognise the work of our health services in Canberra, who have led the nation in implementing an access and equity program and a targeted vaccination program to make it easier for people with disability and their families to get vaccinated and tested. The development of this work has been supported by a key group of people with disability and their allies working in partnership with government, providing advice and direction.
To better support the voice of people with disability across our supports and services, government has encouraged and supported government, community and business to develop disability action and inclusion plans. Disability action and inclusion plans enable community, business and government agencies to be strategically and practically responsive to the needs of people with disability and provide a tool to embed access, universal design and inclusion into systems, services and infrastructure.
I am so pleased that Canberra Health Services are developing their own disability action and inclusion plan and shortly will share the draft plan with the ACT community for their feedback via the YourSay platform.
In 2020 Canberra Health Services completed a disability needs assessment to inform the development of a specific and measurable plan for the organisation to reflect the needs of the community. The needs assessment reviewed local and national reports and available CHS data, including consumer feedback, to identify the key issues and themes relevant to people with disability, their families and carers. This work supported CHS to undertake consultation with patients and carers who access CHS, their staff, community members, and other external stakeholders, including community groups as identified by the ACT Disability Reference Group.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video