Legislation has been important for people with disabilities in achieving services and integration into the community. This was particularly so in the halcyon days of reform in the 70s and 80s. However, legislation played a role even in colonial times.

South Australia was the first State to legislate for associations to be able to incorporate, as early as 1858. This enabled parents, friends and supporters of different groups to form legal entities for fundraising and providing services.  In this way members were able to avoid personal liability for debts of the association. This early start helps to explain why so many NGOs have played such a crucial role in South Australia’s disability history and still provide services today.

South Australia’s first Mental Health Act was less commendable. The Lunatics Act of 1864 breezily dismisses distinctions between mental illness and intellectual disability in its key definition: “ lunatic” “shall mean and include every person of unsound mind and every person being an idiot .”
Things could only improve from this, although until the late 1970s, the emphasis in our mental health legislation was clearly on control, rather than individual rights. At the stroke of a pen, the superintendent of a mental health institution could place a person’s finances under the Public Trustee, or detain someone indefinitely. Appeals lay only to the Supreme Court.

It was the South Australian Mental Health Act 1977-79 that led Australia in its reforms, with the creation of the Guardianship Board among other things to ensure longterm restrictions on a person’s liberty and management of finances were subject to scrutiny and approval by a special multidisciplinary body.

As a lawyer in the Crown Solicitor’ Office and then as the first Chairman of the Guardianship Board, I was heavily involved in the implementation of this legislation. However, the architect of this farsighted legislation was the then Director of Mental Health, Dr Bill Dibden, who should not be forgotten for his contribution.

However, it was the Committee on Rights of Persons with Handicaps which was a turning point for persons with disabilities in terms of law reform. In 1976, the then Attorney-General Peter Duncan noticed a short article in The Bulletin on the UN Declarations of Rights of Disabled Persons and Mentally Retarded Persons. It gave him the idea of a review of  South Australian law and policy having regard to these Declarations. He asked Charles Bright, a Supreme Court judge and me to work together to set up the review.

Over the next 5 years, (life was so leisurely then) the Committee produced 2 major reports on physical and intellectual disability respectively, which led to many changes of benefit to people with disabilities, including:
•    Anti discrimination laws
•    Improved access laws
•    The parking permit scheme
•    Employment initiatives

One can see its influence in the Principles of Disability Services Acts and national standards for disability services.

Perhaps, its crucial contribution was its rights perspective – that people with disabilities should be part of the community as a right; they should be able to enter public buildings without access problems; they should not be discriminated against in employment when their disability does not affect their ability to do the job.

Until then, advocates for access improvements had always met arguments based on need and cost. How many people in wheelchairs will actually want to enter this building was a frequently asked question which proved an obstacle for change. Arguments based on right were much more difficult to dismiss.

Just as the Bright Committee was ending its work, it was 1981 and IYDP [the Year of Disabled Persons ] which continued the focus on disability issues. The responsible Minister was again the Attorney-General because of the rights focus, and now Trevor Griffin, who brought considerable commitment to the task.

The momentum continued with a review of services for people with intellectual disability, chaired by Dr Bill McCoy, supported by others, including a young psychologist, Peter Millier.

The same slipstream saw the creation of Link magazine by Jeff Heath, who along with others including Neil Lillecrapp collaborated to obtain Government support to establish DIRC. Jeff played a significant role in publicizing the need for change in a light, very effective way, not dissimilar to Nick Xenophon.

The other significant force for change was Richard Llewellyn, who through commitment and personality became the Disability Adviser to the Premier, and enhanced the impetus for change.

This was a most creative and enjoyable time for me, as the principal writer of the Bright Reports and in the implementation of the legislative changes which followed. In this, I had the support and friendship of many people who were seeking the same changes, including;
Sir Charles Bright
Janet Belchamber
Jeff Heath
Richard Llewelyn
Peter Millier
Neville Kennedy
Maurice Corcoran
Ian Shepherd
Barbara Garrett
Neil Lillecrapp
Rosemary Martin
Peter Duncan
Trevor Griffin

They were heady days . There was a great sense of being involved in something worthwhile together.

Ian Bidmeade AM
June 2009

Ian Bidmeade is a lawyer with expertise in the areas of disability and mental health. He was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 2008 for service to public health and to people with disabilities through contributions to administrative and legislation reforms, and to the community through a range of social welfare organisations. Ian is a Board Member of Disability Information and Resource Centre (DIRC).

Townsend House and Minda Home
In the latter part of the nineteenth century two schools were established in South Australia for children with specific disabilities. These schools were operated by charitable institutions.

The earliest South Australian school for children with disabilities was established in 1874 for children who were deaf or blind. The South Australian Institution for the Blind, Deaf and Dumb (Townsend House) provided education which was described as ‘of an ordinary school type’.

In 1961 a deputation from the Board of Townsend House went to the Minister of Education and requested that the government take over the responsibility of educating the children due to its deteriorating financial position. The government assumed responsibility and the Education Department took over control of the School. There were major changes in the approach towards educating the Deaf between 1963 and 1976 with an emphasis toward mainstream education.

In 1898 the first school for children with an intellectual disability was established at Minda Home. The home had accommodation for 22 pupils. It opened with 10 children but soon filled to capacity. The children were cared for by Matron Elizabeth Barker and educated by Miss Edna Fox. In 1962, at the request of Minda’s Board, the Education Department took over the school.

Dr. Constance Davey
The South Australian Education Department first established a service for children with special needs in 1924, when it appointed Constance Davey as a psychologist. She examined children who were considered ‘retarded’ educationally by testing them and observing their home conditions. She provided vocational and educational guidance and was often consulted by Minda and the Blind, Deaf and Dumb School, the Children’s Court, and the Children’s Welfare Department.

Dr. Davey worked hard to improve conditions for ‘retarded’ children and established Opportunity Classes in schools.

In 1925 the State’s first ‘opportunity class’ for problem cases and slow learners was established in which twenty children could learn at their own rate, based on Davey’s testing of their intelligence.
Australian Dictionary of Biography – Online Edition

At the end of 1926 there were four Opportunity Classes, one each in Alberton and Norwood and two in Port Adelaide. On 1st October 1935, The News praised Dr. Davey for the ‘wonderful’ work she was doing for ‘backward children’. At the time there were 21 Opportunity Classes in South Australian schools.

The first Opportunity Class teachers were volunteer teachers without any training in special education. As the number of Opportunity classes grew it became apparent that the teachers needed extra training. Dr. Davey devised a six week, full time course to train teachers to work with children with an intellectual disability. The Education Department offered the course in 1931 but it had been reduced to four weeks. It was called the ‘Training course for teachers of retarded and subnormal children’. The course was open to women with three years teaching experience. Nineteen teachers attended the first course. In 1947 the name of the course was changed to ‘the ‘Training course for teachers of backward and difficult children’. The course continued until 1973.

Dr. Davey believed many children in the Opportunity Classes were inappropriately placed. In an Annual Report of the Chief Psychologist in 1925 she stated:

In our Opportunity Class rolls at present there are 286 children…Of this number 158 are subnormal and need the training that can be given most effectively and economically in a Special School for such children. There are eight low grade uneducable children who will always need special care and supervision. These children are incapable of school work and the Opportunity Class is not the proper place for them.
Wicks 2000 p139

As Chief Psychologist Dr. Davey continued her campaign for the establishment of a Special School but the government was satisfied with the success of the Opportunity Classes and was unwilling to do any more.

Post-War Australia
After the end of World War II parents of children with disabilities in Australia wanted their children to get an adequate education in state schools.

[I]n the immediate post-war period, the major efforts of state education departments were concentrated upon children with mild intellectual disabilities. In consequence, voluntary organisations were formed to provide special schooling for children with moderate and severe levels of intellectual disability and for children with physical disabilities…It is clear…that the rise of…voluntary organisations represented a mobilisation of concerned citizens faced with enormous problems in the absence of any government effort.
Elkins 1985 p164-5

The Crippled Children’s Association of South Australia (Novita)
The Crippled Children’s Association of South Australia (Novita) was incorporated in 1939 and Somerton Home was established for children with poliomyelitis (polio), where they were cared for and received an education. By 1951 Somerton Home was providing services to children with disabilities other than polio.

In 1946 The Crippled Children’s Association started a school for children with cerebral palsy in a room in the Outpatient’s department of the Adelaide Children’s Hospital. They employed Daphne Gum, a trained primary school teacher to be the director of the Spastic Centre at the Adelaide Children’s Hospital and later at Ashford House.

In 1952 they purchased Ashford House on Anzac Highway and used it as a school and therapy centre for children with cerebral palsy. In 1976 the children were transferred from Somerton Home and Ashford House School to the newly built Regency Park Centre for Physically Handicapped Children.

Today, Regency Park School and Ashford Special School are operated by the Department of Education and Children’s Services (DECS) and support students with physical (Regency) and intellectual (Ashford) disabilities.

South Australian Oral School
In the mid 1940’s a group of parents with children who were deaf or hard of hearing formed the South Australian Oral School. The school taught lip reading and speech skills providing an oral education rather than sign language which was the only form of education for the deaf in Adelaide at that time. Mrs Cora Barclay became the Principal in 1950, a position she held until her retirement in 1989. The school closed in 1989 and became a therapy centre training parents to teach their children to listen and speak using the auditory approach. The school was re-named The Cora Barclay Centre.

South Australian Spastic Paralysis Welfare Association Inc.
In 1948 a group of parents and friends established the SA Spastic Paralysis Welfare Association Inc. to provide care for spastic children. The Miss Australia Wing was built in 1959 for treatment and education and by 1971 was used solely as a special school. A new complex, including the James A Nelson School was opened in 1978. The organisation changed its name to the Spastic Centres of South Australia (SCOSA) in 1983. The James A Nelson school was closed in 1993 and the children were transferred to other schools.

Changes in Education
Changes in attitudes towards education for children with disabilities began around the 1960s. In 1964, the Australian Council for Rehabilitation of Disabled (ACROD) recommended that children with disabilities should be integrated into regular schools rather than attend special schools.

The South Australian government introduced the Education Act 1972 making it compulsory for all children between the ages of six and fifteen, including those with a disability – even a severe disability to attend school to get an education. Peter Duncan was the Minister of Education at the time and was responsible for the legislation. As a consequence of the Act the Education Department had to take on responsibility for educating all children.

By 1974 there were eight Junior Special Schools and one Senior Special in the metropolitan area, as well as Special Schools within the institutions of Minda and Strathmont [Centre]. The Education Department employed approximately 150 special education teachers, who taught approximately 1,400 children.
Wicks 2000 p166

Justice C Bright
During the 1970’s the State government set up the Committee on Rights of Persons with Handicaps and Justice C Bright was the Chairperson. The Committee produced a report called The Law and Persons with Handicaps in 1978. It made a number of recommendations in a number of areas including education. They acknowledged that education for disabled children in South Australia occurred in various settings ranging from residential institutions at one extreme to the ordinary classroom in the local school at the other extreme. The report believed,

It is preferable that whenever possible, handicapped children should be placed in the least restrictive environment, i.e. the ordinary classroom…if a special class is necessary, it seems desirable that it should be conducted within the walls of normal school
The Law and Persons with Handicaps 1978 p125

Schools for all project
In 1989 the Ministerial Advisory Committee: Students with Disabilities (formerly the Special Education Consultative Committee) was established to develop policy advice for the Minister for Education in the area of children and students with disabilities. In 1992, the Federal Minister of Employment, Education and Training, Kim Beazley provided funding to the Committee with the challenge to put into practice the policy of integrating children with a disability into neighbourhood schools. The result was the Schools for all project.

This project presented a unique opportunity for research to be undertaken in neighbourhood schools to identify practical solutions to the implementation of the policy in ways that have value and meaning for students, service providers, parents and educators
Schools for all Winter, P 1993 (i)

Education Today
In South Australia, children and students with a disability have a range of educational options. These include:
• mainstream care sites, preschools and schools
• special education classes and special units in mainstream schools
• special educational settings for preschool children
• special schools

There are three education sectors i.e. State, Catholic and Independent. All have developed policies and guidelines regarding the enrolment and education of children and students with a disability. This ensures they are provided with appropriate services and support.

References
Australian Dictionary of biography – Online Edition. 2006. [online]. [Accessed 15 June 2007]. Available from World Wide Web: http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A080239b.htm

Australian Women Biographical Entry. 2005. [online].
[Accessed 16 July 2007]. Available from World Wide Web:
http://www.womenaustralia.info/biogs/IMP0206b.htm

Can do 4 kids: Townsend House. 2006. [online]. [Accessed 12 April 2007]. Available from World Wide Web: <http://www.townsendhouse.com.au/AboutUs/History/tabid/99/Default.aspx>

Committee on rights of persons with handicaps. 1978. The law and person’s with handicaps. Adelaide: Committee on rights of persons with handicaps

Cora Barclay Centre. 2007. [online]. [Accessed 17 July 2007].
Available from World Wide Web:
http://www.corabarclay.com.au/about.html

Elkins, John. 1985. ‘Disability and disadvantage: Special education in Australia, Past, present and future’ in Melbourne studies in education. ed. Palmer, Imelda. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, pp164-5.

Find your way home: with SA Link-up. 2005. [online].[Accessed on 30th April 2007]. Available from the World Wide Web: <http://salinkup.com.au/media/pdf/9_miscellaneous.pdf>

Life to live. 2007. [online]. [Accessed 15th May 2007]. Available from World Wide Web: http://www.dsa.org.au/life_site/text/education/index.html

Linn, Rob 1994. Perserverance: the story of Spastic Centres of South Australia. Woodville, South Australia: Spastic Centres of South Australia

Novita Children’s Services. 2007. [online]. [Accessed 12 June 2007]. Available from World Wide Web: http://www.novita.org.au/Content.aspx?p=29

Special Education Consultative Committee 1993. Schools for all project. Adelaide: Department of Employment, Education and Training

Support for children and students with a disability in South Australia. 2006 [online]. [Accessed 21 June 2007]. Available from World Wide Web:
http://www.decs.sa.gov.au/docs/files/communities/docman/1/RESOURCE_TEXT_final.pdf

Turnbull, T. 1998. A social history of disability services in South Australia and a review of previous, current and future policy directions. Adelaide: University of Adelaide

Wicks, Keren. 2000. Teaching the art of living: the development of special education services in South Australia, 1915 – 1975. Adelaide: University of Adelaide