Using the new disability human rights paradigm to create higher education leadership opportunities
| Published date | 01 June 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/13582291231169668 |
| Author | Paul Harpur,Brooke Szucs |
| Date | 01 June 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
International Journal of
Discrimination and the Law
2023, Vol. 23(1-2) 144–162
© The Author(s) 2023
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DOI: 10.1177/13582291231169668
journals.sagepub.com/home/jdi
Using the new disability human
rights paradigm to create
higher education leadership
opportunities
Paul Harpur, BBus (HRm), LLB (Hons) LLM, PhD
1
and
Brooke Szucs, BA (Hons)/DipLang
2
Abstract
Driven by anti-discrimination laws and a desire to promote human rights, universities
have made strategic efforts to support their students with disabilities and provided some
support to their staff with disabilities. However, persons with disabilities are not visible in
senior leadership positions in universities. It is time for change. The UN Convention on
pectations that require representation of persons with disabilities across all of society,
and at all levels, at percentages which reflect their proportion within the population. Even
though States are slow to introduce regulatory reforms to transform society and realize
ability equality, some in the higher education sector are seeking to go above compliance
and move their institutions, and the broader sector, to a more inclusive place. This paper
maps out the efforts led at one Australian institution to use existing structures in disability
discrimination laws to provide leadership opportunities for persons with disabilities as a
blueprint for further change.
Keywords
Higher education, convention on rights of persons with disabilities, disability, universities,
leadership, nothing about us without us
1
Associate Professor at the TC Beirne School of Law, The University of Queensland, Saint Lucia, Australia
2
Research Assistant at the TC Beirne School of Law, The University of Queensland, Saint Lucia, Australia
Corresponding author:
Paul Harpur, TC Beirne School of Law, The University of Queensland, Forgan Smith Building, West Wing,
University Dr, Saint Lucia 4072, Australia.
Email: p.harpur@law.uq.edu.au
Introduction
Persons with disabilities do not enjoy their rights to education and work on an equal basis
as the wider community. Currently, only 53% of Australians with a disability are in
employment, compared to 84% of their peers without a disability.
1
The statistics within
the higher education sector are unknown, although it is likely to reflect these numbers. As
only 17% of persons aged 20 and over with a disability have a bachelor’s degree or higher,
compared with 35% of the community who live without a disability,
2
it’s possible the lack
of staff with a disability impacts on student success as well. This lack of visibility of
leaders with a disability in education is concerning, especially when compared to the
successes of other diversity groups in recent years. This raises questions about how our
higher education institutions are fulfilling their obligations and expectations to realise
disability equality.
Legislative efforts to reduce discrimination in Australia have been largely influenced
by international human rights norms and changes in cultural attitudes towards diversity.
3
With the exception of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth)’s adverse action provisions,
4
anti-
discrimination frameworks provide direct and indirect provisions, as well as provisions
which enable compliance through registering action plans.
5
Such plans and compliance
activities are especially important to supporting persons with a disabilities’career success
in higher education.
This paper will explore how the higher education sector in Australia has been en-
couraged by the new disability human rights paradigm introduced by the Convention on
Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) to use these existing compliance models and
create new ways of realizing disability human rights. A key concept in this paper is that of
visibility, as it is common for people to hide their disabilities in order to advance their
careers.
6
The Australian context has been chosen as both authors work in an Australian
university, and the first author chairs both a university and sector-wide group focused on
improving disability inclusion,
7
as well as serves as a member on the Universities
Australia Ministerial Reference Group.
8
Firstly, an analysis of the extent of the normative shift created by the introduction of the
CRPD will provide the justification and context for reimagining leadership. Part 2 will
illustrate how the catchcry of “nothing about us unless it is led by us”is translated into
reality through an investigation of disability visibility in senior leadership positions within
the Australian higher education sector. Finally, this paper offers a case study to dem-
onstrate the effective use of these new disability policies at one Australian University, the
University of Queensland, as a potential blueprint to further the enactment of the CRPD
and realise true disability equality.
Part 1. A normative shift in ability equality, led by the CRPD.
The CRPD has created a raft of rights relevant to universities, which are motivated by
widespread normative acceptance of the disability human rights paradigm. This is vital to
compensate for the weakness of disability anti-discrimination laws that fall short of
requiring true equality.
Harpur and Szucs 145
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