Submissions

Down Syndrome Australia writes submissions to the government and to other people.

The submissions are papers that explain how government plans and other issues affect people with Down syndrome.

Here are some of the different submissions we have written.

Down Syndrome Australia writes letters to the media. This includes TV, radio, newspapers and online media.

We write to the media to tell them they need to be fair and respectful when they talk about people with Down syndrome.

These are open letters. That means anyone can read them on our website.

Here are some of the open letters we have sent to the media.

Down Syndrome Australia wrote to Kaz Cooke who wrote a book called ‘Up the Duff’.

The letter tells Kaz Cooke that the things she writes about Down syndrome and prenatal testing are wrong and don’t respect people with Down syndrome.

Down Syndrome Australia wrote to the ABC about an article on the ABC News website.

The article is called ‘It’s like she’s a three year old; What life’s like when your children never grow up’.

We were worried that the women in the article were being treated like children and did not have their right to be private.

Down Syndrome Australia wrote to mamamia.com.au about an article they put on their website.

The article was from a woman who decided not to have her baby with Down syndrome because she would would always have lots of pain. We said this information is wrong.

Down Syndrome Australia also writes letters and submissions to government and other organisations about education for children with Down syndrome.

We wrote to the Members of the Education Council and to ACARA. These are people who do research and make big decisions about education.

Our letter said they needed to make sure their information was used to help schoolchildren with disability be included in schools with other children.

Down Syndrome Australia wrote a submission to the Senate Inquiry. This is people in Parliament looking into things that people are concerned about.

The submission said that school students with disability have lots of problems with school systems.

The problems include trouble getting into schools, and not getting the support they need to learn.

We explained how to make education better for students with Down syndrome.

Down Syndrome Australia wrote to the main political parties.

We said they need to write their election information in Easy Read, so that people can understand it better.

Down Syndrome Australia also wrote to Senator Linda Reynolds.

We said that there are problems with the Commonwealth Electoral Act. This is the law about elections and voting.

Down Syndrome Australia wrote to the Electoral Commissioner.

We told him about the problems people with Down syndrome can have if they are taken off the electoral roll. This is a list of people who can vote.

Down Syndrome Australia wrote to the United Nations Human Rights Council.

We wrote the letter to tell them what we think about prenatal testing for Down syndrome.

Down Syndrome Australia made a submission to the Medical Advisory Committee. This is a group of people who help to decide which medical services Medicare will pay for.

We told them our view on NIPT, a kind of prenatal test to see if a woman is expecting a baby with Down syndrome.

Another submission was our position about women and girls with disability being sterilised – having an operation so they can’t have babies.

Down Syndrome Australia wrote to the Department of Social Services about employment for people with disability.

We said that people with disability should get the support they need to be able to work in regular jobs, like anyone else.

Down Syndrome Australia wrote a submission to the Disability Discrimination Commissioner.

The letter told him what were the most important problems for people with Down syndrome.

Down Syndrome Australia also wrote a submission to the government about problems people can have with the Disability Support Pension.

We also wrote a letter to the Department of Social Services.

We told them how to make the National Disability Advocacy Program better so that people could get good support to speak up and get their problems fixed.

Down Syndrome Australia has written submissions to the NDIS since it was just starting up.

We want to make sure the NDIS works well for people with Down syndrome.

We wrote to them about how much the NDIS costs.

We also wrote a submission about what is reasonable and necessary for people with Down syndrome to have in their NDIS plan.

These are things that people need to have in their plans so they can reach their goals.

We also wrote a submission about what the NDIS needs to know when they are working out what support a person with Down syndrome needs.