Dr Ben Gauntlett: Shaping the disability landscape Labelling The Disabling

In this episode Carol and Ed meet with the Australian Disability Discrimination Commissioner, Dr Ben Gauntlett. Ben talks about his life journey having experienced a spinal cord injury as a teenager and how that shaped who he is and informed his life choices and decisions (including his decision to swim 22km from Perth to Rottnest Island!). Ben has had a huge impact on human rights for people with disability in Australia and in his current role has a strong focus on housing and employment. Ben stresses the importance of a culture that supports an appetite for inclusion and articulates the benefit of good inclusive employment practices creating workplaces are dynamic where employees thrive and do their best work. Ben explains how “Employment [for people with disability] is the by-product of a disability policy system that works well” and as a result needs to be a strong focus for any successful disability policy. The benefits of policy settings such as a mandated accessibility requirement for the national construction code in Australia are discussed combined with the need for a more sophisticated approach to measuring the benefits of investing in good disability policy.

· Link to the AHRC IncludeAbility website: https://includeability.gov.au/