Overview
Every person with disability is unique. They have different types of impairments, and their disability will impact them in different ways depending on a range of factors.
Disability is one part of the diversity of human experience. It’s one way that people are different from each other, and just like everyone else, people with disability have other parts of their identity that overlap with their disability. This idea is called intersectionality.
For example, a person might:
- Have disability and be an Indigenous person
- Have disability and come from a Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) background
- Have disability and belong to the LGBTQIA+ community.
Different parts of a person’s identity combine to give them unique life experiences, and in some cases, they can contribute to the barriers they face. People with disability regularly experience discrimination and stigma because of their disability. Society also holds negative attitudes about a lot of different parts of people’s identities, such as culture, religion, gender and sexuality, so when these identities overlap, negative attitudes can multiply. This is called intersectional discrimination.
When we think about people’s identities, we also need to understand how they are linked to power and how it is shared in society. Every society has laws, attitudes and unwritten rules that means that some groups of people are favoured over others. This system gives more power and advantages to certain groups, and less power and fewer opportunities to people with less privileged identities.2
Key strategies for success
Intersectionality helps us to think about things that can make it hard for people with disability to get or keep a job. Employment services need to work with people at an individual level to understand each person’s lived experience of discrimination and marginalisation.
This means not just recognising that people have intersecting identities but also thinking about the systems and power imbalances that marginalise them.3
Understanding of and respect for intersectionality and diversity is one of the key principles of Australia’s National Disability Advocacy Framework 2023-2025.4
According to the framework this means:
- Understanding that people with disability are not a homogenous group – they are not all the same.
- Each person with disability is unique and their individual needs and circumstances must be properly explored, understood and met.
- Supports and services for people with disability need to address all of the different intersecting types of discrimination they face.