Why share your story with the Disability Royal Commission?

This article was written by Michelle Bowler (pictured), Lawyer at Your Story Disability Legal Support

The Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability wants to hear autistic people’s experiences and ideas to help promote a more inclusive and fair society. The Royal Commission was set up in response to reports of mistreatment of people with disability. It will make recommendations to government to improve laws, policies, structures and practices to protect people with disability, including autistic people.

If you have experienced problems because you are autistic, such as unfair treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic, discrimination, or trouble accessing education, employment or the NDIS you can share your story and/or your ideas for change with the Royal Commission.

Sharing your story/ideas can feel overwhelming but free and confidential support is available. Lawyers, disability advocates and counsellors are all working together to support people when they are deciding when and how to share their story.

I’m one of the lawyers from Your Story Disability Legal Support (‘Your Story’) and we empower people with disability to safely share their story and ideas with the Royal Commission (which will release its final report in September 2023). We are a national legal service and we are independent of the Royal Commission. Our team includes people with lived experience of disability. And if you’re an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person, we can provide you with a community-controlled legal service.

I’m also a parent and one of my young children is autistic. We have had a mostly positive experience so far with accessing services and support, including at school, but I know this is not the case for everyone. It is important that the Royal Commission hears a range of stories and ideas directly from autistic people and their supporters.

I’ve given advice to parents so they can safely share stories and ideas about their autistic children’s experience of schooling. And I’ve spoken to people about how to share their stories about service providers despite concerns about ‘payback’.

Often people say that they don’t want what happened to them to happen to anyone else. If you choose to share your story, and your ideas and recommendations for change, you will be listened to and treated with respect.

If you’re thinking about sharing a story with the Royal Commission, it can be a good idea to get legal advice. Some of the reasons you may need legal advice to safely share your story include:

• you worry about your safety, access to services or employment
• you want to keep your story private.
• you want to name a person or organisation that hurt or mistreated you
• you signed a document that said you can’t talk about what happened
• you have ongoing legal proceedings.

Two Your Story staff, Fiona and Hiran, talk more about the Royal Commission, sharing your story and how we can support you in an episode of the Autistic Self-Advocast podcast, you can listen here.

Autistic people and their families or supporters who want to share their stories/ideas can access free legal support from Your Story through our national Infoline 1800 771 800 (free call, Monday to Friday) or via the Your Story website.