Five areas training can support services to be more responsive to people with disability

by Ryan Winn, ACOLA Chief Executive Officer

How does your sector rate when it comes to interacting with clients, customers and staff with disabilities? Could it do better?

The Australian Council of Learned Academies (ACOLA) has put four professional sectors under the microscope in an Australian Government-supported study, focusing on education, healthcare, justice and social services.

We found most sectors can respond better, and with 18 per cent of Australians living with disability, ACOLA is challenging businesses and services to foster increased disability responsiveness.

Our researchers, in partnership with people with disability, have developed a good practice guide for enhancing training for disability responsiveness. It includes key principles and areas for action.

We acknowledge there is no single solution or action to improve disability responsiveness and ongoing effort is needed.

Changes to processes, culture, resources and leadership are also needed, along with training. It will be important that the next steps be taken in collaboration with people with disability.

The study, completed under the Australia’s Disability Strategy 2021-2031, outlines five key areas for action.

We’ve also identified specific actions including training of university and VET staff, mandatory refresher training for workers, improved training standards, increased co-design and delivery of courses with people with disability, and sector-specific action plans.

ACOLA’s report, Ensuring Occupations are Responsive to People with Disability, was released by ACOLA and the Minister for Social Services, Amanda Rishworth MP on 29 October, but ACOLA isn’t stopping there.

We are pleased ACOLA and its members, Australia’s five Learned Academies, have agreed to implement own response?to the report, to improve their own disability responsiveness. This was also released on 29 October.

Applying our findings to our own interactions with clients, staff and members of the Learned Academies is one of the key ways we can do our bit to improve disability responsiveness.

ACOLA has committed to:

• Increasing the diversity of the Fellows, including people with disability, and exploring ways ACOLA and the Academies can be preferred and inclusive employers.
• Engaging with people with disability during policy development to reinforce the principle of ‘nothing about us without us’.
• Empowering and supporting staff to identify and report any negative behaviours seen within the organisations and to undertake relevant training to support needs.
• Advocating that Fellows consider how the Good Practice Guide can be implemented in education and training within their professional environment.
• Encouraging ACOLA and Academy staff to undertake disability responsiveness training, including understanding the intersection of disability with other personal attributes, such as, but not limited to, gender, race and sexuality.
• Encouraging the development of industry-specific resources, knowledge and tools.
• Promoting the project findings and suggesting ways governments can continue to increase knowledge of and progress toward a disability-responsive society.
• Improving the accessibility of work outputs for people with disability.
• Increasing awareness of human rights by design in products, services and technologies, and assisting governments, industry and society in understanding and “safeguarding” technology.
• Engaging with all governments on ways to support action, both as leaders and major employers of workers in the health, justice, education and social service sectors.

ACOLA encourages all stakeholders, including governments and industry, especially in the education and training sector, to consider the report’s findings and develop their own response and action plan.

?Access the Project’s full report, including the Good Practice Guide for Training and Action Plan, a summary report, easy read summary and Auslan translation.

?Note: ACOLA is the convening organisation for the Academies of Social Sciences, Health and Medical Sciences, Humanities, Science, and Technology and Engineering. It brings together great minds, broad perspectives and knowledge for cutting-edge independent and interdisciplinary thinking to solve key issues for the benefit of Australia.

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Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia Australian Academy of Technological Sciences & Engineering Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences The Australian Academy of Science Australian Academy of the Humanities Amanda Rishworth