In 2021, no one in Australia deserves to experience what Bill went through. Stories like this are not uncommon for people living with disabilities, in fact we have been inundated with numerous similar stories since launching our Accessible Australia website. Enough is enough! The time to make the change is now!
This tax time, we’re asking for your help as a key supporter of Spinal Life Australia to help make Australia more accessible.
We need staff in the service industry to gain the correct training to help them understand the requirements of people with accessibility limitations and the challenges that they face on a daily basis when accessing a service. With your help we will setup an online platform to educate, train and challenge some of the misconceptions that people have when providing a service to someone living with a disability.
With COVID-19 we are holidaying at home at unprecedented levels, for many of us rediscovering our great land has been a positive experience, but for some people living with disabilities and travelling around Australia it hasn’t been a positive one, in fact experiences of receiving bad service or experiencing accommodation issues is common.
After many conversations with hotel, restaurant and shop owners, we know the key to improving customer service, is for the service industry to gain the correct training to help them understand the requirements of people with accessibility limitations and the challenges that they face on a daily basis when accessing a service.
By establishing a series of online training modules, we have the potential to reach every business or service, be it small or large, in every corner of Australia.
We have the vision and commitment to make this happen, as change is needed, together we can be that change!
Who you’ll be helping
- Over 4.4 million people in Australia have some form of disability. That’s 1 in 5 of us
- People over 65 living with disability increases to 2 in 5 people
- 35.9% of Australia’s 8.9 million households include a person with disability
(source: Australian Network On Disability)
So by donating, you will be helping to improve the lives, of your family, friends, colleagues or even yourself.
Why have we focused on this an issue?
Spinal Life isn’t afraid to be an advocate, in fact it’s something we have been doing since 1960 when a group of people with paraplegia and quadriplegia met in Brisbane to talk about being advocates for change. People living with disabilities should be receiving the same level of service or goods as everyone else, and we are determined to make that happen through education.
Why should business owners or organisation train their staff?
- People with disability are three times as likely to avoid an organisation and twice as likely to dissuade others because of an organisation’s negative diversity reputation
- 36% of people with disability are often treated less favourably than customers without disability
- 28% of people with disability have experienced discrimination by one or more of the organisations they’ve recently interacted with
- 1 in 3 people with disability report that their customer needs are often unmet
- 62% of SME’s have not done anything in the past 12 months to make it easier for customers with disability. For almost half of these, there is a perception of not being asked to. “We have received no specific requests.”
- Of the Australians with disability aged 15 and over, almost one-third (33.1%) avoided situations because of their disability. One of the most common situations avoided were going to shops, banks etc. (34.3%)
The figures speak for themselves, by doing the right thing its good for the wider community and good for business!
