3rd December - International Day of Persons with Disabilities

Published 13th November 2014

Mitch Fifield, Assistant Manager for Social Services, has announced the 2014 International Day of People with Disability Patron — Ms Jacqueline Freney,  one of Australia's most sucessful Paralympians having won eight gold medals at the 2012 London Paralympics. In 2014, Jacqueline was named Young Australian of the Year in recognition of her colossal achievements both in and out of the pool. Patrons are appointed on a voluntary basis and help promote activities to raise awareness of the issues faced by people with disability.

This year's International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPwD) is a great opportunity to raise awareness of disability issues to the forefront. The theme of this year is "Sustainable Development: The promis of tchnology" which marks the conclusion of the Millennium Development Goals in 2015 and it launches a new development framework of sustainable development goals. The 2014 commemoration of IDPwD will work to harness the power of technology to promote inclusion and accessibility to help realize the full and equal participation of persons with disabilities in society and shape the future of sustainable development. Today, technology is built in to almost every part of our daily lives. Information and communications technologies have dramatically increased connectivity between people and their access to information, raising living standards and changing the way most people work and play. Sadly, not all people benefit from the advances of technology and the higher standards of living as some people still cannot afford to have access to it.

There will be three sub-themes that will focus on the promise of technology in: Disability-Inclusive Sustainable Development Goals; Disaster Risk Reduction and Emergency Responses; and Creating Enabling Work Environments.

For more information about the event, please go to: https://www.idpwd.com.au/

Today, there are over 1 billion people living in the world with some form of disability. For a global approach and to find out about events at the United Nation Headquarters for IDPwD please go to: http://www.un.org/disabilities/default.asp?id=1620