'Not acceptable': Calls for disability act reform after report reveals discrimination still rife

An overhaul of the country's disability discrimination act could help reverse increasingly high levels of disability-based discrimination, a leading rights group says.

Yenn Purkis was diagnosed with Autism in 1994. Source: SBS

Yenn Purkis was diagnosed with autism and atypical schizophrenia more than two decades ago and faced years of bullying as a child, as well as discrimination in adulthood.

“I went through school and I was bullied the whole way through as an autistic person and that is still common for autistic kids, which is not acceptable,” Purkis said.

Purkis' experience is not isolated with a new report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) revealing the Australian Human Rights Commission received more complaints in 2017-18 about disability discrimination than about any other form of discrimination, including race and sex.

Read the full article in English here.