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8 February 2013

20 days until the 20th Anniversary of the Disability Discrimination Act Twenty years ago, life for millions of Australians got easier. The then Deputy Prime Minister in the Keating government, Brian Howe, introduced an Act that would, for the first time at a national level, make it unlawful for people with disability to be discriminated against. The genesis of change was the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth) which commenced operation on 1 March 1993. Twenty Years: Twenty Stories marks the Disability Discrimination Act's twentieth birthday with twenty inspiring stories on film. This partnership project between the Australian Human Rights Commission and the Sydney Community Foundation, will herald the progress of disability rights in Australia and aims to encourage greater participation in disability issues. At its introduction, Deputy Prime Minister Brian Howe described the vision of the Disability Discrimination Act as "…a fairer Australia, where people with disabilities can participate in the life of the community in which they live, to the degree that they wish…". We all know that the Australia we and Brian Howe, sought has not yet come to pass. But in some areas, real progress has been made and we need to celebrate those areas as we plan to continue our work in areas where more work needs to be done. Here is a sneak peek of our website for the Twenty Years: Twenty Stories project: http://www.humanrights.gov.au/twentystories/ Up to the minute information on human rights is now available on twitter at twitter.com/AusHumanRights.