The United Nations International Day of People with Disability has a long esteemed history, celebrating understanding and acceptance of people with a disability around the world for almost three decades. It’s a day to honour the benefits of an inclusive and accessible society for all. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is a key touchstone moment for disability rights, as it’s a historic and comprehensive legally binding international treaty that Australia was pivotal in developing. The CRPD as it’s become known, came into force in 2008.

Today on the Gender Card, our guests examine how far we have come, and how much more there is to achieve for disability rights in Australia. Lawyer and marathon runner Henry McPhillamy brings insights from his own lived experience as a person who is blind to the panel. Eloise Hummell is a Research Fellow at The Hopkins Centre, at the Menzies Health Institute of Queensland, who is researching disability and rehabilitation, particularly how the National Disability Insurance Scheme is moving away from the key principles of the CRPD. And we are also joined today by internationally renowned researcher and Senior Policy Officer for People with Disability Australia Frances Quan Farrant.