Definition of Disability according to the Act
Disabled persons are such who also have the right to live happily along with their families (Steele et al. 2019). Also, they have the right to take part in any kind of social, recreational and creative activities. The legislation must include certain provisions that provide the protection of disabled people in the workplace if any kind of discrimination happens to them. There is an issue of accessibility that is regarded as a barrier to those disabled people in society. Some kinds of barriers include attitudinal, systematic, information, technology, organizational, architectural and communication issues are faced by them (Sellwood, Raghavendra & Walker 2022). It is important that no such disability be conducted during the workplace as disability etiquette involves the promotion of goodwill as well as respect amongst several persons. The paper will recognize the reasons for the requirement of legal protection for a person with a disability along with a determination of several legal principles based upon the welfare law. The paper will accomplish a critique regarding the legislation available for them.
The definition of disability according to the Act includes intellectual, neurological and physical disability (Temple, Kelaher, & Williams 2018). The definition also extends to physical disfigurement along with it also involves the HIV virus.
The provisions regarding reasonable accommodation for the purpose of a particular employee, make sure that every employee must have an equitable treatment along with those employees who have disabilities. There must be some contribution made regarding their improvements based upon morale as well as increased respect related to the diversity in the workplace. Also, every person has fundamental rights regarding work. Such right is important for the realization of other kinds of human rights and also it involves human dignity. In Australia, when a person is discriminating against any person in the workplace then such an act is considered unlawful. There must be protection that must be provided to persons with disability. As in the workplace, every person should be treated equally. There must be the maintenance of equality in the workplace. Every employee is the same to the company and their work determines their chances of promotion in the workplace (Smith et al. 2018).
Some workplaces are there that do not treat their employees equally and many times they discriminate against them on certain bases in which a person with a disability also gets discriminated against. Therefore, it is important that these persons must get protection in the workplace. It is also the duty of employers that they must make reasonable adjustments regarding the employees. The objective of the duty of employers is to maintain equality in the workplace and disabled persons should be made available the same access that is provided to every employee. All those employees that are non-disabled and those who are disabled involving in the same type of work then in such cases they must have access to the same things that everyone has at the workplace (Wong et al. 2018).
Disability discrimination is considered as important within the workplace as they are not able to access the same level of opportunities which is available to other employees. Therefore, a law has been established namely Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (DDA). The legislation prescribed that the discrimination which is made against a person is regarded as unlawful that involves several areas concerning public life. It includes the areas like employment, services, accessing public places, education and buying a house and the reason involves is a disability. The legislation covers such persons that have permanent as well as temporary disabilities, intellectual, neurological, psychological disability, physical disfigurement, and work-related injuries. It also includes physical, sensory, learning disabilities, disease and medical conditions (McKercher & Darcy 2018).
Reasonable Accommodation in the Workplace
The Act prescribes the disability of a person that has occurred in their past along with it involves potential future disabilities. It also involves such people who have assumed that they might come under the category of disablement. The DDA provides protection to those people who have disabilities and there are chances that they may be discriminated against in any place. The Act provides protection to a person with a disability that is harassed due to the reason of disability during the course of employment. The legislation states that those people who have a disability have the right to terms of the same employment opportunities. Some changes are to be adhered to by the employees by providing some changes to disabled employees like an instalment of ramps (Bunbury 2019). It is the duty of the employers that they are not required to make any changes within the workplace through which some difficulties might arise, the concept is referred to as “unjustifiable hardship”.
The Australian Government’s Workplace Modification Scheme involves some kind of assistance which can be provided to them regarding the modifications of the workplace for which the eligible employees are those who have a disability. Also, there is the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) which is referred to as the first convention which has introduced the social model concerning the disability. It involves the changing of the direction that is in compliance with the persons with disability and it also involves the placement of the workplace. The CRPD does not involve the creation of rights with respect to the individual with a disability. The Scheme involves some existing rights and later takes steps and interprets them which is related to the context of individuals with disabilities (Martel et al. 2021).
Article 27 of the CRPD states about the state parties have the power to recognize a person with a disability and they should work on an equal basis as others. The article prohibits discrimination against those people who are based on disability and it all includes the forms of employment. The Article states about the just as well as favourable conditions to be provided to a person with a disability at the workplace. The person with disabilities has the rights within the labour as well as trade union rights which are based upon equality like other persons. The Article provides general technical as well as vocational guidance programmes, vocational as well as continuing training that is available to the persons who have a disability. It also promotes employment opportunities as well as career advancement with respect to persons with disability (Devine 2018).
The Disability Discrimination Act 1992 involves the provision regarding discrimination in the workplace. The Act states the elimination of some of the grounds regarding disability. The Article in the legislation focuses on the social model that states the disability movement and it is regarded as a critique concerning the Act within the past decade. Certain researchers are there that have criticized the provisions of DDA. The Act has stated some aspects regarding the definition of “disability” but it is contrasting the provisions of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 as well as the Race Relations Act 1976. The provision of these legislations prohibits discrimination which is made against anyone that has been made upon the grounds related to gender. It is regarded as the main criticism concerning the applicability of the Act. Also, strict interpretation is required concerning the definition of disability prescribed in the Act (Slee Corcoran & Best 2019).
Protection against Discrimination
Another critique of DDA is that the Act emphasises individualized as well as a medical model regarding disability. Also, the implementation was a failure regarding the establishment of an enforcement body for providing support to the discrimination that has directly attacked the disability movement as well as the oppositional Labour Party. The social model approach which has been prescribed in the Act was not adopted properly due to which it receives certain criticism. The concept stated in the Act regarding disability has strengthened the medical model regarding disability which have been linked to carrying out daily activities. Another criticism of the Act is that the definition of the disability does not emphasise upon medical perspective. The Act emphasises the concept of the discrimination that is faced by a disabled person but it does not explain the features that are present in a person for which he has been discriminated against. Therefore, certain critique regarding the Act is there which is countable under the definition of disability. The scope of the definition is wider but it makes use of some approaches that is not always fit into the definition (Anderson & Boyle 2019).
The discriminatory behaviour arises during the time when a different treatment is received by an employer during working hours. The reason for different treatment is on the ground of disability. There is the involvement of direct as well as indirect discrimination that has been faced by an individual in their workplace. The paper has recognized the legal protection which is required for disabled people in the workplace along with the protection provided to them from any kind of discrimination that they face. The paper has accomplished the legislation which applies to the discrimination that is against the people with disability. The legislation is such that provides protection to such kinds of persons. The paper has analyzed certain critiques against the Act that provides protection against any kind of discrimination faced by a person with a disability.
References
Anderson, J., & Boyle, C. (2019). Looking in the mirror: Reflecting on 25 years of inclusive education in Australia. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 23(7-8), 796-810.
Bunbury, S. (2019). Unconscious bias and the medical model: How the social model may hold the key to transformative thinking about disability discrimination. International Journal of Discrimination and the Law, 19(1), 26-47.
Devine, A., Carroll, A., Naivalu, S., & Seru, S. (2018). Promoting Effective Implementation of Disability Inclusive Sports for Development Programmes. Lessons Learnt from Australian Government Programs in the Pacific. Journal of Paralympic Research Group, 9, 43-62.
Martel, A., Day, K., Jackson, M. A., & Kaushik, S. (2021). Beyond the pandemic: the role of the built environment in supporting people with disabilities work life. Archnet-IJAR: International Journal of Architectural Research.
McKercher, B., & Darcy, S. (2018). Re-conceptualizing barriers to travel by people with disabilities. Tourism management perspectives, 26, 59-66.
Sellwood, D., Raghavendra, P., & Walker, R. (2022). Facilitators and barriers to developing romantic and sexual relationships: lived experiences of people with complex communication needs. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 1-14.
Slee, R., Corcoran, T., & Best, M. (2019). Disability studies in education–building platforms to reclaim disability and recognise disablement. Journal of Disability Studies in Education, 1(1-2), 3-13.
Smith, P., McVilly, K. R., McGillivray, J., & Chan, J. (2018). Developing open employment outcomes for people with an intellectual disability utilising a Social Enterprise Framework. Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation, 48(1), 59-77.
Steele, L., Swaffer, K., Phillipson, L., & Fleming, R. (2019). Questioning segregation of people living with dementia in Australia: an international human rights approach to care homes. Laws, 8(3), 18
Temple, J. B., Kelaher, M., & Williams, R. (2018). Discrimination and avoidance due to disability in Australia: evidence from a National Cross Sectional Survey. BMC Public Health, 18(1), 1-13
Wong, P. S., Donelly, M., Neck, P. A., & Boyd, B. (2018). Positive autism: Investigation of workplace characteristics leading to a strengths-based approach to employment of people with autism. Revista de Management Comparat International, 19(1), 15-30.
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