Disability organisation have been around for more than a century. Organisations with such outdated names like the “rxxxd” children’s and, “spxxxtic children association, deaf and dxxx schools” have long since been replaced thanks to the advocacy of people with disabilities and the ‘taking back of our space’.
The names of these historic organisations I will not write in full as they are outdated as well as abusive and discriminatory in today’s world. Doing so only serves to retraumatise many of us who had to live through these historic eras: times of paternalism and the charity model of good works to the poor suffering people (the then perception of PWD). These organisations were overseen by people of good works doing service for the poor unfortunates.
Fast forward to now and our bright future that we have had to fight for. Most disability organisations have a full board of directors who are people with disabilities. As organisations are we no longer ‘overseen’ by the good works model. We have taken back our space and now in most instances manage our own organisations. We are skilled professionals in our own right with expertise in governance, administration and leadership.
Although this paints a rosy picture of the current environment of disability organisations there is still work to do.
We may be seen as able to populate our leadership boards but there still is the elephant in the room. The boardroom elephant has been replaced by the staff room elephant: where are all the disabled employees?
We still have the majority of employees of these organisations in not-for-profit and companies who do not employ people with disabilities to the do the actual work. We are not given opportunities to do the paid work.
The reason could be either unconscious bias towards PWD harking back to the historic belief that PWD are to be ‘looked after and are not capable” or that organisations still discriminate against people with disabilities and don’t see our value as employees in our own organisations.
How is this even legal under the Anti-Discrimination Act of 1992?
Note: “It is unlawful for an employer or a person acting or purporting to act on behalf of an employer to discriminate against a person on the ground of the other person’s disability.”
.. but compare it to:
“People aged 15–64 with disability are more likely to be unemployed than those without disability.” – Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2025
Governments have long grappled with the unemployment of PWD with dedicated employment services set up over the years to try to raise the rate of employment. The problem is cultural and attitudinal. If we cannot even populate our own spaces and be employed, Australia has a long way to go.
On a positive note, I am proud to be a member of a small, state-based disability organisation that mandates that all the board and employees must have a disability.
This is similar to the Aboriginal positions where only mob are able to apply and given preference to non-Aboriginal people.
Where my one small organisation is a beacon of hope for the disability community of equity, fairness and responsible employment strategies to service the needs of the disability community, this is not the norm.
With an ageing workforce and succession planning for the future there is an opportunity when retirement happens to those aged ables, new recruits going into these jobs are people disabilities.
Long gone are the excuses that people with disabilites just don’t have the expertise.
People with disabilities who are university graduates take three years longer to find work than their able bodies contemporaries according to International Journal of Disability, Development and Education research published in 2021.
Skilled and educated PWD are out there, it’s just the will of the market and bias towards able-bodied employees over disabled.
17% of all PWD have university degrees (ADCET 2025) so the skills are there but unemployment is still a big problem.
An organisation I am personally involved in who received significant grant money has five employees, of these only one has a disability. That means that four of this group are making decisions for PWD without having any lived experience.
Should there be legislation around grant funding that stipulated that disability organisation must have more that 75% if employees who are disabled?
Would this help the unemployment rate of PWD? Would this lift discrimination off our shoulders when it comes to employment?
Food for thought: we need to do better!
If we cannot even get jobs in disability organisations as people with disabilities, what hope is there to show and to teach the wider community that we have valuable skills and are an under tapped work force.
Maybe next time you are interacting with a disability organisation, you might like to ask that organisation what their employment statics are for PWD. Do they talk the talk: ‘nothing about us without us’?
Tammy Milne is a deaf interpreter, a community activist in various fields and a person living with Arthrogrophosis Multipex Congenita.
