A newspaper published sensationalist articles about a Queensland forensic unit with headlines such as ‘Gates of Hell’ and ‘Door prone to unlocking as mentally ill walk past’. The language used included ‘criminally insane’ and ‘asylums’.60
Case Study
An Australian television program called ‘Domestic Blitz’ ran an episode on doing a ‘home makeover’ for a ‘very deserving’ woman in a wheelchair. The program’s formula portrays the stereotypical view that people with disability are in need of sympathy and charity.
There is a lack of disability awareness training in the workplace resulting in continuing stigma regarding the work capabilities of people with disability.61 The skills of mainstream recruitment and employment agency personnel are often insufficient for addressing the needs of people with disability as a result of minimal personal contact with people with disability, limited disability awareness training and little knowledge of anti-discrimination legislation.62
In Australia, people with disability experience prejudice and discrimination within the justice system due to inadequate knowledge and awareness of disability by judicial and non-judicial staff. (See also Article 13) Police officers receive only minimal disability awareness training and there are only a limited number of specialist online courses containing information on issues concerning, for example, persons with intellectual disability.63
The negative experiences of parents with disability in relation to child protection matters before the courts demonstrates a lack of awareness training on the human rights of parents with disability and their capacity to be effective parents.64
Disability awareness training is not compulsory in health and medical courses at university or in the workplace, and there is a lack of trained staff to meet the disability-related requirements of people with disability.
The large numbers of people with disability who are unable to have their support needs met in the disability service system often results in lobbying for additional government funding that is based on strong negative messages and portrayals of people with disability. Rather than portraying people with disability as individuals unable to enjoy full inclusion, participation and independence because of the lack of supports, the focus is on the ‘burden’ on carers and family members.
The presentation of people with disability as an unbearable burden of care perpetuates a strong image of disability as being about personal incapacity at the individual level and a social and economic impediment at the societal level.
