Law | Health | Justice transforming disability justice through inclusive law and policy.
The Disability and the Law theme at Law | Health | Justice advances inclusive legal frameworks for people with disabilities. Key projects include redressing violence and neglect against people with dementia in aged care, expanding understandings of abuse against women and girls with disabilities for the Disability Royal Commission, and analysing the legal regulation of behavioural disabilities to promote social inclusion. Each project is guided by human rights principles and partnerships with advocacy groups, building a foundation for reforms that support dignity, equality, and empowerment. This research informs evidence-based policies to protect and promote justice for people with disabilities in Australia.
Reseachers
Recent Work
The Legal Regulation of Behaviour as a Disability
Led by Dr Karen O'Connell and Distinguished Professor Isabel Karpin, this research aims to develop a comprehensive analysis of the legal issues raised by the expansion of the category of behavioural disability. The research is funded by an Australia Research Council Discovery Grant (DP150102935): “The Legal Regulation of Behaviour as a Disability”. It will ensure that laws which seek to regulate people with challenging behaviour maximise social and economic participation by taking full account of the goals of equality and social inclusion.
Truth Justice Repair
Dr Linda Steele is currently leading a program of research 'Truth Justice Repair', exploring approaches to reckoning with, redressing and repairing the impacts of violence, institutionalisation and segregation of disabled people. Dr Steele is particularly interested in truth-telling, reparations, sites of conscience, and reparative pedagogy.
Reparative Urban Planning and Heritage
Dr Linda Steele collaborates with Dr. Phillippa Carnemolla from UTS’s Faculty of Design, Architecture, and Building on research concerning former disability institutions. Their work includes partnerships with the Council for Intellectual Disability, People with Disability Australia, and Emeritus Professor Leanne Dowse of UNSW to understand the perspectives of individuals with intellectual disabilities on public education and remembrance of such institutions. They have supported the Council for Intellectual Disability’s advocacy against the proposed tourist rezoning of Peat Island in New South Wales, a site that operated as a state-run disability institution for 99 years. Additionally, Drs. Steele and Carnemolla are collaborating with Speak Out Advocacy and Willow Court Heritage Site Inc. to develop a disability-inclusive heritage approach for the former Willow Court institution in New Norfolk, Tasmania.
Past Projects
Women with Disability and the Disability Royal Commission
Led by Dr Linda Steele, this project aims to expand understanding of the violence, abuse, neglect, and exploitation faced by women and girls with disabilities, contributing to the findings of the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect, and Exploitation. Funded by Women with Disabilities Australia, the research will inform law and policy to prevent and redress violence, with a focus on sexual and reproductive abuse. It also seeks to challenge the prevailing notion that such violence is justified or necessary, promoting a framework of dignity and rights for women and girls with disabilities.