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Fifty years ago, disability rights pioneers fought to shut down large institutions where people lived as “captives of care”. They also wanted to see disabled children integrated into mainstream schools and an end to sheltered workshops.
Grim institutions such as NSW’s Peat Island and Victoria’s Kew Cottages have closed down, but they were replaced with group homes which often don’t provide people with disabilities choice about who they live with, where they live or their daily activities.
A young resident of Kew Cottages in 1975. The institution closed in 2008. Credit: Fairfax
The royal commission heard harrowing evidence of physical and sexual violence in some of these group homes. Restrictive practices are still sometimes used.
Sheltered workshops may have changed their name to Australian disability enterprises, but employees are still paid as little as $2.37 an hour. Some mainstream schools are still rejecting children with disabilities.
Some of the most controversial and contested recommendations in the royal commission’s final report are around addressing these issues.
The commissioners are divided over whether to phase out special schools, group homes and Australian disability enterprises over the long term. They also disagree on the philosophical meaning of segregation.
Three of the six commissioners want to see no new enrolments of disabled students in special schools from 2032 – and special schools abolished altogether by 2051. Two thirds of the commissioners also want segregated employment ended by 2034.
These recommendations are not supported by the chair, Ronald Sackville, and commissioner, John Ryan, who do not see all separation of disabled people as a form of segregation.
Sackville and Ryan argue that disabled people can attend a special school or live in a group home, for example, and still regularly interact with the broader community.
Four commissioners also recommend that group homes be phased out within 15 years, while one supports them being phased out “over a generational time frame”.
The division of views among the commissioners reflect those in society.
Some people believe, for example, there will always be a need for some special schools where students have very complex needs. They argue some children struggle to cope in mainstream schools, where teachers are not trained to teach children with disabilities.
Others argue that if schools were adequately resourced to teach disabled children they could all be taught in the one setting. They say while an alternative exists, students will always be told they are “better off” going to a special school.
The split in the commission’s recommendations has dismayed Down Syndrome Australia, which says the government must act to end segregation if it wants to end discrimination.
The division could also allow the Commonwealth and states to cherry-pick which recommendations they choose to adopt. They could justify ignoring those that were contentious because there was not consensus among the commissioners.
There will likely be delays in implementation as the government considers its options. This was acknowledged by Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth, who said the government would have to work through the different perspectives.
The lack of unity over how to end segregation – and even what constitutes segregation – shows there is much work to be done over how to include people with intellectual disabilities in the community.
The Commonwealth and states, which are responsible for education and still run hundreds of group homes, will now need to agree on a national reform agenda.
It would be a travesty if the disability royal commission did not lead to lasting change when it comes to our shameful history of excluding and segregating people with disability.
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