International Day of Persons with Disability 2019

This year’s theme is The Future is Accessible and will focus on global citizens working together to overcome barriers in order to create a future where people are not excluded based on medical conditions or health impediments.

International Day of Persons with Disability Australia

Approximately 104 countries celebrate International Day for Persons with Disability annually including Australia. Schools, communities and workplaces across the country will be celebrating in various ways.

This year’s patron is none other than Kurt Fearnley, a Paralympic and Commonwealth Games gold medallist. As the 2019 patron, Kurt hopes to encourage Australians to take action and to help change the lives of people with disability: “What I most want to achieve as this years’ patron is for people to use International Day of People with Disability as a launching pad for further action… People with disability are entitled to the same respect, independence and choice as others. We need to talk honestly about the barriers in society that prevent this and work together to break them down” (IDPWD, 2018).

Some Stats

Around the World

• It has been estimated that around 15% of the world’s population lives with a permanent disability – that’s over 1 billion people!

• According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the most common disability in people under the age of 60 is depression, followed by hearing and visual problems (2011).

• People with disabilities are more likely to be disadvantaged economically, and have fewer opportunities for education and employment. They are also more likely to have poorer health outcomes and higher poverty rates (World Bank, 2019).

Australia

• In Australia, over 4 million people have some form of disability.
• 6% of females and 18% of males have disability (AND, 2019).
• People aged between 15 and 64 years with disability have both lower participation (53%) and higher unemployment rates (9.4%) than people without disability (83% and 4.9% respectively) [Ibid.].
• Over 3 million people in this country live with depression or anxiety and 45% of Australians aged 16–85 years experience a mental health condition during their lifetime (ABS, 2008).
• 1 in 6 Australians are affected by hearing loss. There are approximately 30,000 deaf Auslan users with total hearing loss (Access Economics, 2019).
• Vision Australia (2016) estimates that there are currently 357,000 people in Australia who are blind or have low vision. They project that the number of Australians who are blind or have low vision will grow to 564,000 by 2030.