Law relating to employing people with disabilities
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Q: I'm a university student and am conducting a literature review on spinal cord injury and return to work. I am particularly interested in legislation on this issue. Can you provide me with any information on this topic?A: The recent introduction of the Federal Government's Welfare to Work initiative which incorporates changes to the Disability Support Pension and Newstart Allowance is relevant to your inquiry.
You can read about the impact of the changes on the internet and in these extracts from the Winter 2005 and Autumn 2006 issues of our Accord magazine.
There is also the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) and FAQs about the DDA and employment, both available from the Australian Human Rights Commission's website www.hreoc.gov.au under 'Disability rights'.
Most spinal cord injury manuals/handbooks contain a section on return to work (eg www.health.qld.gov.au/qscis/info_handbook.asp 'Chapter 4 Returning to the Community') and we have the following two articles in our library which may be of interest:
Return to work after spinal cord injury Crisp, Ross Journal of Rehabilitation January/February/March, 1990
Work, non‑work and consequent satisfaction after spinal cord injury Ville, I.; Ravaud, J‑F. International Journal of Rehabilitation Research vol. 19 no. 3, September 1996
