Current strategies to address the housing needs of nearly 20 percent of the New South Wales (NSW) population cannot meet demand and are not fit for purpose, disability groups say.
Seven groups representing the 1.4 million NSW people with disabilities on Wednesday issued a blueprint for action they want the next NSW government to take.
As well as covering education, employment, transport and communication spaces, the blueprint calls for NSW to sign up to minimum accessibility changes in the National Construction Code by October and the building of 5000 accessible social homes every year.
“If you’re going to choose to run a state where the population is growing and you’ve promised to look after everyone ... then 20 percent of us need to be looked after on a very basic level,” wheelchair user Susan Wood told AAP.
“In particular, housing, we need places to live.”
Before the rental crisis, Wood spent four months looking through dozens of houses and apartments trying to find a suitable home.
Embedding accessibility in housing now would set the state up for generations, she said.
“Anyone can be disabled at any time or have a disability at any time,” she said.
“I can tell you stories of people who have had spinal cord injuries, who can’t leave their hospital for months at a time, and then they move into a hotel that isn’t accessible because where they live is not accessible for them.”
The minimum silver standard ensured wider doorways and bathroom walls capable of holding handrails, but only the gold and platinum standards mandated a bedroom to be on the ground level.
“We want gold, but if we can just get silver implemented, that would be a basis,” Physical Disability Council of NSW Serena Ovens told AAP.
“It also means that people can visit their friends, their family, they can get out in the community.
“If you’re a 16-year-old kid, you want to go to a party, and you’re a wheelchair user—90 percent of your friends’ homes are inaccessible.”
The blueprint, with signatories including the Council for Intellectual Disability and Spinal Cord Injuries Australia, seeks a coordinated all-of-government response to disability inclusion.
Labor said last week it would link with Dylan Alcott’s Get Skilled Access initiative which it said had a “proven track record” working with federal and state governments on healthcare, education, employment and tourism.
Meanwhile, the government’s NSW Disability Inclusion Plan 2021-25 sets out its goals to ensure children with disability in school have learning support, that new social housing is built to highly accessible standards, and that government websites are easy to access.
Polls for the state election open on March 18.
