Page 824 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 20 March 2019
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12 languages: AUSLAN, Arabic, simplified and traditional Chinese, Filipino, Greek, Hindi, Italian, Macedonian, Samoan, Vietnamese and French. This fits in, of course, with the predominant language groups in the ACT, which are English, Mandarin, Vietnamese and Cantonese.
This is part of the answer to ensure that information is available in a range of accessible formats, because everybody has the right to live in communities that are welcoming and inclusive. This should not change because of the language you speak, or because of your cultural background.
Barriers to access include having a disability in the first place; knowing which services to use; language; religious or personal beliefs; where you live; information that does not suit your needs; not enough information about supports; and service providers that either cannot or do not know how to help.
I believe that part of the solution lies with NDIA service providers and disability advocacy services to ensure that they have sufficient cultural diversity in their staff and know where to go for additional cultural advice or interpreters. Similarly, cultural organisations need to ensure that they are disability aware and accessible. They need to build relationships with each other, because strong relationships are important for building trust. With that trust comes better service provision and increased client engagement.
The National Ethnic Disability Alliance encapsulate the challenges well when they say:
People with a linguistic disability who are from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds will be more likely to experience multiple forms of discrimination throughout their lives. They are likely to experience discrimination from the wider community due to their ethnicity and discrimination from both within their cultural group and the wider community due to their disability.
They recognise the importance of building partnerships with key stakeholders to promote the rights and interests of people from CALD backgrounds with disability in all areas of Australia’s policy and practice. This fits with the need for organisations to be agile, flexible and relationship-building so that they can call in the assistance they need to ensure that their services meet the needs of clients and prospective clients.
Disability advocacy organisations should already have culturally diverse staff or access to cultural advisers in order to ensure that their organisations are accessible to this group. Similarly, multicultural organisations need to ensure that their services are accessible and that they have staff who either have a disability or understand disability issues. Either way, dedicated and specific strategies can also assist to bring deliberate focus to an organisation’s goals to increase participation by community members of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds or people with disability, or both.
I believe the motion put forward by Ms Lee with the best of intentions does not quite address the problem, and that is why I am supporting the amendment put forward by the government. Grants for programs do not need to be specific for each distinct group.
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