Ethnic Communities & Disability

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Australia is a culturally diverse community, with about 25% of the population being born in a non-English speaking country or to parents who were born in a non- English speaking country. 20% of the total population has a disability. MDAA estimates that people from non-English speaking backgrounds with a disability make up 4.94% of the NSW population (328,402 people) based on Australian Bureau of Statistics data for 2001 and 2003.

MDAA solely focuses on people from non-English speaking background with disability and their carers - a substantial number of the community. Despite our number, the knowledge about our issues and needs amongst the general community, community workers, bureaucracies and governments is at best limited.

The questions many people ask are

• How to provide information in a culturally diverse community?
• How to communicate with a person from a certain culture with a particular disability?
• How to understand and make sense of disability within a cultural context, or how to make sense of culture within a particular disability context?

The aim of this part of the web-page is to assist with those questions by providing some directions and some guidance. However, in this ever-changing environment with cultures constantly shifting and changing, what we cannot do is give definitive answers.

What we see as the first, and most important, step is to come to an understanding of the intersection of culture and disability.

Secondly, we would encourage everyone to increase their cultural competence skills and knowledge and their knowledge and skills about disability issues.

Finally, below are links to different cultural communities, which provide some information about those communities. For more details click here Ethnicity and Disability Factbook

This section will continue to grow as information is added.(So keep checking in and look for updates - or join our NESB and Disability Newsletter mailing list)

Culture, Religion and Disability - An Introduction

Opening Doors Booklets Index

Information about SPECIFIC ETHNIC COMMUNITIES