Disability Law: International Frameworks and the NDIS in Australia

This report provides a comprehensive overview of disability law, exploring the rights of disabled people within both international and Australian legal frameworks. It examines the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) Act of 2013, highlighting its role in funding support for individuals with disabilities and promoting their independence. The report discusses the historical context of discrimination against disabled people, emphasizing the importance of comprehensive legislation to ensure their civil, political, cultural, social, and economic rights. It delves into the ethical considerations related to disability, including the value of life, research practices, and the well-being of participants. Furthermore, the report reviews the international human rights conventions and their influence on domestic legislation. The NDIS's impact on the lives of disabled people in Australia is analyzed, considering the ambition to provide necessary support and empower individuals to make choices about their care. The report references key publications to support its arguments, providing a thorough understanding of the current state of disability law and its evolution.

Running Head: DISABILITY LAW
Disability Law
Name of the Student
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The declaration on the Rights of disabled people was a declaration of the General
Assembly of the United Nations which is made on 9th of December 1975. As the resolution of the
assembly, it forms such a framework that can be drawn on for the domestic and the international
law. It includes a lengthy preamble along with thirteen proclamations which promote the rights
of disabled people broadly. Also, in the year 2007, the world had adopted the Conventions on the
Rights of Persons with Disabilities (Foster et al., 2016). One such law is the National Disability
Insurance Scheme Act of 2013. The National Disability Scheme is the single and national
scheme which funds the reasonable support in order to help people having the disability reach all
of their goals (Douglas & Bigby, 2020). It further supports the careers of the disabled people.
Notably, the NDIS works with many people and has identified that there are different people
having different needs. It further provides people the choice of supporting their need in order to
live the life wanted by them. This paper will discuss this particular law in regard with the
disabled people giving special focus on Australia.
People having disabilities are sometimes excluded from the mainstream society and then
denied of their basic human rights. This discrimination against people with disabilities usually
takes different forms that range from the invidious discrimination as the denial of the
opportunities related to education, isolation, segregation due to the imposition of the social and
the physical barriers. The impacts of the discrimination founded on disability have been quite
severe in the fields as employment, education, transport, housing, the cultural life along with the
access to the public places and the services (Goggin et al., 2019). This might produce distinction,
restriction, exclusion, denial of reasonable accommodation based on disability which nullifies
and then impairs effectively the enjoyment, the recognition and the exercise of people’ rights
with the disabilities.

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In spite of this progress regarding the legislation over the past years, there have been
many violations of the human rights of disabled people that have not been addressed
systematically in the whole society. Most of the disability policies and legislation are founded on
the assumption that people having disability are not able to exercise the rights of non-disabled
people. As a consequence, the situations of people having disability are often addressed
regarding the social services and the rehabilitation (Lea et al., 2018). There is a need existing for
the comprehensive legislation in order to ensure that the rights of the disabled people in terms of
the civil, the political, the cultural, the social and the economic. There are some appropriate
measures which are required in order to address the discrimination that is existing, and
promotion of the scopes for people having disabilities in order to participate based on equality in
the social development and social life.
Notably, there are some cultural and social barriers serving to deter the full participation
of people having disability. There are some discriminatory practices which are against people
with disability resulting in cultural laws being institutionalized by the law. Also, the change in
the disability concepts and perception will consist of change in the values along with the
enhanced understanding at all of the levels of the society focusing on the cultural and the social
norms. This can perpetuate an inappropriate and erroneous myths regarding disability. There is
one of the most dominant features about legal thinking in the recent century which has been the
identification of the law in the form of a tool being the social change. The legislation is not the
way of social progress but it represents the most powerful vehicles of the progress, the change
and the social development. Also, the legislation of the country is basic in terms of promoting all
of the people’ rights with disabilities. The importance and then increasing roles of the global law
in the promotion of the rights of people with disabilities is identified by the domestic legislation,

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the international community staying as the most effective way of facilitation of the social change
with the improvement of the status of disabled people. The international norms that concern the
disability are extremely useful to set the common standards of the legislation related to disability.
These are the standards which require to become reflected appropriately in the programs and the
policies reaching people having disabilities which can generate some positive changes in all of
their lives.
The NDIS funds the reasonable support helping a disabled child in certain range of areas.
Taken for example, these are the goals which might consist of the community or the social
activities taking care of the wellbeing and health. The support has to be related with the disability
of the child, value for the money, benefitting the child and founded on the evidence. The
National Disability Insurance Scheme usually provides a once in a generation scope for
transforming the way people with disability are served. It is similar to the enactment of the
Disability Service Act 1986 that has challenged segregation and has supported integration of the
people having disability. The National Disability Scheme Act of 2013 is expected to have
disrupted the traditional service fundamentally for improving the lives of disabled people.
It is also required to mention about the international legal frameworks in terms of the
disability laws and regulations. The international human rights are more or less same and
applicable to all of the countries and the people. There are the regional and the international
human rights conventions protecting the people’ rights having provisions that concern people
with disabilities. The international instruments as the resolutions, the declaration, the principles ,
the rules and the guidelines are not that legally binding technically. These also can be used as
the guidelines for the States in terms of enacting the legislation and then formulating all the
policies having concerned the persons with the disabilities. The entire general instruments of

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policy as the document outcomes of world summits, the conferences are applicable to the
disabled people. The instruments consist of the Millenium Declaration and the Millenium
Deveopment Goals that are adopted at the United Nations Millenium Summit in the year 2020,
the Copenhegen Declaration and Programme of Action adopted at the World Summit for Social
Development. It is also noted that the translation from one international convention, the standard
or the norm of the national law along with the local implementation is quite complex and slow
but basic too (Goggin et al., 2019). The States are also quite responsible for the transformation
of the administrative, the judicial practices in order to empower people having disabilities who
are exercising all their rights.
The NDIS helps in bringing a positive and enduring reform for the people having
disability. In the context of Australia, the NDIS has offered people a considerable disability
being a measure of the entitlement to greater choice, support and the control in the support
delivery, the more personalized service delivery along with the portability of the funding across
the whole country. The NDIS that is established by the NDIS Act is the first great legislative
reform in the whole disability service provisions in the entire Australia. By the year 2019, the
NDIS has been expected to provide the package of funding to almost 460,000 people having a
long term substantial disability under the age of 65 years. The NDIS also has a significant
number of the ambitious ideals where the first one is the entitlement for the people having long
term disability to the necessary and reasonable support (Foster et al., 2016). The next one is
people having families can potentially implement whatever has been planned. The NDIS has
considered the wellbeing of the people having disability which will be improved through having
control and choice over all of their supports.

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The ethical consideration and the professional practice standards of people with
disabilities can be reviewed in this regard. People who are suffering from the physical or the
mental disability face many problems. They might be suffering from the paralysis, impairment,
psychiatric disorder, blindness reducing the ability of doing various activities done by the
nondisabled people and can also interfere with the fulfillment of the roles that are socially
valued. The disabled people are further subjected to different degrees of the exclusion from the
economic and social life of the communities. The ethical considerations of the people with
disability are connected with the ethical issues such as the value of the lives of the disabled
people (Lea et al., 2018). When the people having disabilities are isolated and stigmatized too,
they are likely to be viewed as less humans. Hence, then regulations which guide the research
practices can become overlooked by the administrators. As a response of the problem, a
significant paper has been published by the National Disability Authority entitled as “Ethics in
Disability Research” founded on the standards of United Nations on the Equalization of
Opportunities for the Persons with Disabilities.
As per this report, while dealing with people with disability, respect for the dignity , the
human rights, diversity and equality should be maintained along with the advancement of the
social justice for the people having disabilities in the wider community. The well-being of all of
the participants should be done involving people around them. The conduction of any harm
should be avoided in dealing with the people who have disability in the wider community
(McSherry & Waddington, 2017). Also, the facilitation of people with disabilities in the research
discrimination consisting of those people for whom the obstacles might make their participation
difficult should be maintained too. It should maintain the legal, the professional, the
competencies and the ethical standards too. The fulfillment and the comprehension of the related

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relevant responsibilities should be managed and then maintained. These are the guidelines which
are translated into the research practices ensuring the ethical research (West, Ramcharan &
Basser, 2017). According to these research practices, the well-being of the patients has to be
maintained along with avoiding any such harm. The collaboration with the people having
disabilities in conducting research also has to be maintained. The consent of the clients should be
taken both voluntary and informed. The participants should be given proper respect, their privacy
and anonymity has to be maintained as per the requirements.

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Reference
Douglas, J., & Bigby, C. (2020). Development of an evidence-based practice framework to guide
decision making support for people with cognitive impairment due to acquired brain
injury or intellectual disability. Disability and rehabilitation, 42(3), 434-441.
Foster, M., Henman, P., Tilse, C., Fleming, J., Allen, S., & Harrington, R. (2016). ‘Reasonable
and necessary’care: the challenge of operationalising the NDIS policy principle in
allocating disability care in Australia. Australian Journal of Social Issues, 51(1), 27-46.
Goggin, G., Yu, H., Fisher, K. R., & Li, B. (2019). Disability, technology innovation and social
development in China and Australia. Journal of Asian Public Policy, 12(1), 34-50.
Lea, M., Beaupert, F., Bevan, N., Celermajer, D., Gooding, P., Minty, R., ... & Weller, P. J.
(2018). A disability aware approach to torture prevention? Australian OPCAT ratification
and improved protections for people with disability. Australian Journal of Human Rights,
24(1), 70-96.
McSherry, B., & Waddington, L. (2017). Treat with care: the right to informed consent for
medical treatment of persons with mental impairments in Australia. Australian Journal of
Human Rights, 23(1), 109-129.
West, R., Ramcharan, P., & Basser, L. A. (2017). Apparently we have human rights to health?
Health and human rights frameworks of people with disabilities in Victoria. Australian
Journal of Human Rights, 23(1), 24-41.

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