The Disability Information and Resource Centre

Children with a disability are being left behind by the education revolution, according to the patron of a national disability organisation.
“It is still possible for a child with a disability in this country to leave school without the ability to read or write,” Dr Rhonda Galbally said today.
“Children with a disability lag behind on a whole range of indicators – yet very little progress has been made in closing
the gap. “The statistics are outrageous – but where is the outrage?” she said.
Dr Galbally made her remarks during an address to the National Press Club in Canberra today.
A long time campaigner for disability rights, Dr Galbally is the patron of the National Disability and Carer Alliance and is Chair of the National People with Disabilities and Carer Council.
During her address Dr Galbally presented material from Shut Out: The Experience of People with Disabilities and their
Families in Australia, a report recently released by the National People with Disabilities and Carer Council.
Shut Out is the product of extensive consultations across the country with people with a disability, their families, friends and carers. It is the first comprehensive picture of what contemporary life is like for people with a disability in this country.
The report details the discrimination and exclusion experienced by people with a disability and the multiple barriers they face in accessing employment, education, housing, health care and recreation.
Dr Galbally also used her address to add her support to the growing campaign for a National Disability Insurance
Scheme.
Dr Galbally said the introduction of such a scheme would provide government with a responsible economic solution to
the funding crisis which confronted them. At the same time it would ensure people with a disability, their families and
carers had the support and resources they needed to become full participants in the economic, social and cultural life of the nation.
“A National Disability Insurance Scheme would enable people with a disability to finally get what they need when they
need it to participate more fully in the life of the community,” she said.

The Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous
Affairs, Jenny Macklin, and the Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities
and Children’s Services, Bill Shorten, have progressed a range of
initiatives to support people with disability, their families and carers, over
the past twelve months. Read more in the full document (PDF)….