Viewing disability through a different lens 

Viewing disability through a different lens 

Apr 28 , 2022

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Julie-Anne Dietz

There has been a lot of commentary about Prime Minister Mr Morrison’s response to a parent who has a son who receives funds through the NDIS. Her question was about what the future of the NDIS looks like under the coalition government. Mr Morrison said that he was “blessed” that he and his wife had two children who did not have to go through that! By that, he went on to explain, was to regarding parents with children who are disabled, (and that) he can only try and understand the (parent’s) aspirations for their children.

Now, I make a point of not entering political debates, mainly because I am not overly driven by political debates, and I genuinely believe that most of our leaders attempt to do the best for our country whatever their persuasion.

Exclusionary Language frames people, whether it be by disability, age, nationality, culture, or any other label.

For many people who live with disability, however, the use of this type of language is far from an isolated incident taken out of context; it goes to the very heart of the disability rights movement that has turned away from viewing people with disability as only inspirational or deserving of pity.

"Therein lies the issue. People with disability deserve dignity and respect, not misplaced pity".

What we need to do is talk more about the way we can change our language.

We need to have a broader conversation about how we are speaking about disAbility so that we do not fall into the familiar language that has become our narrative.

Source ABC news -April_2022.

The one position both sides of politics agree is that the NDIS, as established by the Gilliard Government and passed in legislation in March 2013 (but did not go into full operation until 2020 and is quite an immature policy in political terms), will agree that the NDIS is one of the best pieces of Social Policy in Australia’s history.

They go to great lengths to state that the NDIS is not a welfare program, but a program designed to offer the financial support needed for the 1 in 5 Australians today that are living with some form of disability, and further to assist their caregivers who support them.


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