Social Inclusion Is Not A Choice
In March and April 2019, the Department of Human Services of South Australia launched an online engagement initiative. This initiative takes the form of a consultation process, which aims to create a State Disability Inclusion Plan that will promote socio-economic inclusion of people with disability in our community.
While this initiative is still under development, I believe this is a great one for several reasons: first, because the Department is investing the time and money to improve the lives of people with disabilities; and, second, because it asks for input from the general community, so we are being given the opportunity to make a valuable contribution.
Schools should demand to be told about this policy to avoid procuring a website that does not adhere to the new accessibility policy.
I’m proud to say that I, on behalf of Edu Net Solutions, have provided a contribution. The Department is expected to release the final draft of the plan sometime in the second half of the year. You can check it out by going to YourSay
Meanwhile, on the 16 May, the Department of the Premier and Cabinet launched its Online Accessibility Policy and Toolkit
We also made a contribution to the consultation process. In our feedback, we discussed the introduction and creation of accessible websites for schools, both public and private. Why schools? Schools act as a social model. Through their educational processes, they impart our social values and knowledge to children, while they also model them to the broader community. If we are serious about social inclusion as a community, we need our schools to represent this. Social inclusion means that our schools need to have accessible websites.
At Edu Net Solutions, we believe in what we do and we have done it honestly by disclosing to all our schools the good news.
1 in 5 Australians live with a disability, and can’t access online resources properly, let’s remedy this!