Vision Australia is under pressure to appoint its first vision-impaired chief executive from the wider community, after the organisation announced it would limit its search to internal expressions of interest.
The national service provider’s founding chair, former disability discrimination commissioner Graeme Innes, launched a public petition on Monday after he and 33 other representatives of the blind and vision-impaired community wrote to Vision Australia’s board to urge it to prioritise the appointment of a blind chief executive.
Innes told Guardian Australia he and the signatories were concerned because Vision Australia had for a long time argued publicly for the employment of blind people, but there was a scarcity of opportunities to take leadership roles at the chief executive level.
The open letter referred to a 2019 survey by World Blind Union that found only 24% of blind Australians were in full-time employment.
“They’re not really walking the talk if they don’t give blind people the opportunity to apply for the key role,” Innes said. “It’s a fairly hypocritical position for the organisation to take.”
The signatories wrote that they were dismayed to learn Vision Australia was limiting its search to internal expressions of interest.
“As Australia’s largest provider of blindness services, Vision Australia has a responsibility to ensure its leadership reflects the lived experience of our community,” the coalition wrote. “We urge the board to reconsider this approach and commit to an external search, prioritising the appointment of the organisation’s first blind CEO.
“The final report of Australia’s Disability Royal Commission underscores the need for inclusive and representative leadership in organisations serving people with disability.”
While they acknowledged Vision Australia was committed to employing talented blind and vision-impaired staff, the signatories said they were concerned that those in current roles might be “lacking the executive experience required for the CEO position”.
Signatories to the open letter included Ron McCallum, the former chair of the UN committee on the rights of people with disability and senior adviser to the disability royal commission, and David Blyth, former Vision Australia director and founding president of Blind Citizens Australia. Mark Riccobono, president of the United States’ National Federation of the Blind, and Nadia Mattiazzo, former chief executive of Blind Citizens Australia, also signed the open letter.
At the time of writing, the petition had more than 400 signatures.
The vacancy at Vision Australia came after the resignation of Ron Hooton in early August, after more than 11 years in the role.
Guardian Australia understands a number of representatives of the blind and vision-impaired community had earlier written to the board arguing that it was important to the community to conduct a wide search for a representative candidate for a role that had not been vacant for more than a decade.
But Vision Australia advised staff and volunteers it would proceed instead with internal expressions of interest only.
Innes expressed concern that Vision Australia was attempting to suppress criticism of the recruitment process, including pausing new or renewed memberships ahead of its annual general meeting in October, and preventing information about the petition from reaching its board members.
An episode of Blind Citizens Australia’s podcast, New Horizons, in which Innes was interviewed about the recruitment matter, was due to air on Vision Australia’s national radio network on Wednesday but was cancelled and replaced with a repeat.
A spokesperson for Vision Australia said the organisation had not paused new memberships or membership renewals.
“Vision Australia remains wholly committed to our mission of supporting people who are blind or have low vision,” the spokesperson said.
“The Vision Australia board is currently undertaking a process to identify its next chief executive officer and is aware of public commentary seeking to influence the board’s decision. The Vision Australia board has extended an opportunity to a number of individuals to discuss this, however the board remains committed to the process it has begun.”
