Developing Deakin's Disability Action Plan
People with disability at Deakin
The Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission estimates that around one in five Victorians has a disability.
Numbers of enrolled undergraduate students disclosing a disability at Deakin University have increased from 2.4 per cent in 2006 to 5.2 per cent in 2011.
In the 2011 Staff Equity and Diversity Survey, 12.4 per cent of respondents indicated that they had a disability, an increase of around 2 per cent from 2009. Health conditions (e.g. diabetes and asthma) were most common, followed by mental health conditions, physical impairment, mobility issues, neurological conditions and vision impairment.
Review and consultation process
Recognising the need to comprehensively review Deakin's 2000 Disability Discrimination Act Action Plan led to an audit of existing policies and procedures relating to people with disability and an extensive consultation process.
To guide the review and consultation process, a Working Group was formed in 2010 comprising representatives from across the University and a project team from the Equity and Diversity Unit. The Working Group met regularly throughout 2010 and 2011.
The Equity and Diversity Unit project team obtained information from a range of sources, including:
- a desktop review of policies, procedures and disability action plans of other organisations
- focus groups with students and staff at all campuses
- telephone interviews with students registered with the Disability Resource Centre
- a staff disability confidence survey conducted in September 2010
- meetings with management teams in all areas.
Data and feedback were summarised by the project team and discussed with the Working Group and the Equity and Diversity Advisory Committee.
The consultation process revealed the following strengths:
- Deakin has a strategic focus on access and equity, which is reflected in its policy framework, mission and core commitments.
- Deakin staff have a strong commitment to being welcoming, inclusive and supportive; they value diversity; and many have a high-level understanding of supporting a diverse student and staff population, including their legal responsibilities.
The consultation process also highlighted key challenges:
- More direction, support, information and training is needed about how to include people with disability in all aspects of University life.
- Access issues in the built environment and in the online and teaching environments need to be systematically and creatively addressed.
- Mental health awareness and management training is needed to provide staff with the capacity and confidence to understand and respond appropriately to the needs of students and staff with mental health issues.
- Improved sharing of relevant research across the University and with community organisations is needed.
The project team met with the Vice-Chancellor to discuss feedback from the consultation process, a draft Disability Action Plan and implementation and monitoring processes.
A final round of consultations with all members of the Executive was conducted prior to commencing the University's formal approval process. Relevant feedback was shared with members of the Executive and they were invited to comment on the feedback, proposed actions for their area, and the Disability Action Plan as a whole. This consultation process was valuable in developing the final version of the Plan.
