"Unemployment in Australia is expected to rise to 7 per cent, and many people will ask the question: "Why should it be a priority to get people with disability into the workforce? I need a job too."
I have two answers to this.
One is the standard sensible answer: That in the long term we have an ageing population and once this current economic crisis has passed we will need to use the potential of all members of society in all walks of life.
The second answer is more simple: When did basic civil rights become dependent on the state of the All Ordinaries, or the strength of the dollar against the yen?
People with disability should not be pushed to the back of the queue, the back of the bus, or out of the washroom, by the current economic crisis.
Because what we're asking isn't charity, and it doesn't involve sacrifice, and it never did. People with disability can be as productive as anyone else.
Take this example of four people looking for work:
One, let's call him Leo, is deaf, the second Frank is in a wheelchair and the third Helen, is blind and the fourth, Steve, can not make himself understood.
It is likely that all four resumes would be put on the bottom of the pile by a boss or a job agency too concerned about the problems that these unhappy unfortunates might cause.
That boss would have turned down Ludwig van Beethoven, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Helen Keller and Stephen Hawking. "
Here is the link to Parliamentary Secretary’s speech at the National Press Club.
http://www.billshorten.fahcsia.gov.au/internet/billshorten.nsf/content/right_to_ordinary_life_01apr09.htm [1]
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