From: Robyn Gregory [RobynG@whwest.org.au]
Sent: Monday, 12 September 2005 5:39 PM
To: disabdis
Cc: WHWests
Subject: ARA exemption
To: Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission

I am writing on behalf of Women's Health West (WHW) to express our opposition to the Australian Railways Association's application for a five year exemption from the DDA Transport Standards.  Under the Disability Discrimination Act, service providers are obliged to begin to make their services accessible to people with disabilities.  We strongly urge that HREOC reject the ARA's request and encourage the association to implement the standards as a priority.
 

WHW undertook two comprehensive analyses of the health needs of women in the Western region (WHW, 1997, 'Who counts? A report on the health needs of women in the Western metropolitan region of ', WHW, Melbourne; WHW, 2002, 'Beyond Symptoms: Women's Health Needs Analysis for the Western Region', WHW, Melbourne).  The second of these analyses identified that 18.7 percent of women in the Western region live with a disability (WHW, 2002: 98).  The Department of Human Services (DHS, 1996) also identified the high level of disability experienced by women living in this region.  Beyond Symptoms identified that women with disabilities living in the outer Western suburbs experienced high levels of social isolation and associated health disadvantages (WHW, 2002).  Both social isolation and disadvantage are compounded by the difficulties women with a disability have in accessing public transport, which in turn limits their access to social opportunities, mainstream health services, and independent and positive life outcomes.

 

The Victorian State Disability Plan 2002-2012 identified five priority areas that include strategies relating to access to services for people with disabilities.  WHW supports these strategies and views the provision of accessible public transport as key to achieving identified goals.  A five year exemption from a number of provisions relating to railways, buses and air travel, delays access to key services that decrease isolation and disadvantage, contradicting the goals of the Victorian State Government, increasing the difficulty that organisations such as our own have in meeting our goal to empower isolated women, and further seriously disadvantaging the women themselves.

 

Please contact me if you require further information.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Robyn Gregory

 

 
 

Robyn Gregory

Manager

Health Promotion, Research and Development

Women's Health West

317 Barkly Street

Footscray   3011

Phone: (03) 9689 9588

Fax: (03) 9689 3861

Email: robyng@whwest.org.au

 

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