Advocacy

The Association provides advocacy for individuals and groups on a wide range of issues through its Community Relations department.

Part of that role is to identify and address emerging issues that affect members of the Association and the clients of our services.

Another role is to have the needs and concerns of people with a spinal cord injury represented at all levels of decision making within government, business, the judiciary and the community.

The Association assists individuals and groups to deal with issues direct with respondents or through inquiry, conciliation or Commission and Tribunal processes. The Association also links with other advocacy groups or disability and community organisations in order to deal with issues at the state or national level.

A basic tenet of the service is to achieve outcomes that are equitable, professional, uniform and based in law.

As an advocate, the Association seeks to work cooperatively with all sections of the community to achieve equity, equal opportunity and non-discriminatory access to accommodation, transport, education, employment, recreation, information and services (retail, government and medical).

Many years in the field have led to recognition of the Association’s considerable expertise and experience around issues of equitable access to buildings, infrastructure, precincts, goods, services and information.

Access and An Accessible Australia

Accessibility is a human and civil right. An accessible built environment is a better and safer environment for all.

The Association works to support a change of culture to achieve equity, equal opportunity and non-discriminatory access for all to public housing and accommodation, transport, education, employment, recreation and services (eg. retail, medical and government). At the heart of that change is a fundamental tenet:

In order to maximise the community’s participation in anything, first you must maximise the community’s access to it.

Currently, we are not an accessible nation. Indeed, around 35% of the population struggle to access goods, services, information, buildings, infrastructure and precincts.

An Accessible Australia offers the benefits of raising the bar for social justice and the economy – the latter because Australia will have maximised the performance of its assets, services, information, markets, sales and profits.