People with disability from culturally and linguistically diverse communities

This page has information about Disability Royal Commission public hearings to do with people with disability who come from culturally and linguistically diverse (CaLD) communities. This includes members of the Deaf community who use sign language and consider themselves CaLD.

If you’re not sure about some of the language being used, see if it’s in our Jargon Buster, particularly under Royal Commission terms, human rights terms, employment terms and NDIS terms.

Public hearings

Public hearing 29 of the Disability Royal Commission looked into the specific and intersectional experience of people with disability who come from culturally and linguistically diverse communities, from 24 to 28 October 2022. PWDA Senior Policy Manager Giancarlo de Vera was on a panel with representatives of NEDA and FECCA on Wednesday 26 October. See our joint media release for more details, and listen to Giancarlo and NEDA’s Dominic Golding on SBS radio.

You can find transcripts at the DRC website, and check out our live commentary on Twitter: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday (featuring PWDA Senior Policy Manager Giancarlo de Vera), Thursday, Friday.

The DRC has also published a commissioned research report on best-practice access to services for culturally and linguistically diverse people with a disability, conducted by UNSW with NEDA.

Where we stand on CaLD issues

PWDA made a joint submission to the Disability Royal Commission with National Ethnic Disabilities Alliance (NEDA) and Federation of Ethnic Communities’ Councils of Australia (FECCA) about the experiences and perspectives of people with disability who come from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

We highlighted various issues and problems of systemic or societal abuse, neglect and exploitation of people with disability who come from CALD backgrounds, as well as sharing personal stories and testimonies.

CALD people with disability experience intersectional discrimination in institutional and residential settings, domestic and community settings, and mainstream workplaces and recreational settings.

Intersectional discrimination means discrimination related to more than one part of our identity. For example, being a migrant from a non-English speaking background who also has disability. Intersectional discrimination often has aggravating or compounding effects, but may not be recognised or adequately addressed in legislation and policy frameworks that aim to prevent violence and advance human rights.

You can read more on this topic and download the full submission via our position statement.

Find out more

National Ethnic Disability Alliance (NEDA) is a national Disabled People’s Organisation (DPO) that advocates federally for the human rights of people with disability, and their families, from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) and non-English speaking backgrounds (NESB). Find out more about some of their key advocacy issues.

Speak My Language is a series of podcasts featuring hundreds of people from culturally diverse communities talking about living well with a disability.

The Welcoming Disability Campaign calls for changes to Australia’s migration law, which discriminates against people with disability in the visa health requirements. For more information, see the 2010 Joint Standing Committee on Migration report Enabling Australia: Inquiry into the Migration Treatment of Disability.

You can download the Disability Royal Commission’s issues paper on the experiences of culturally and linguistically diverse people with disability, and a summary of responses from the community, from their website.

Other Disability Royal Commission reports and issues papers also provide useful context:

• Rights and attitudes issues paper and overview of responses
• The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: an assessment of Australia’s level of compliance
• The experience of First Nations people with disability in Australia