Students and staff with disabilities won’t get equal access to higher education until a far-reaching, enduring new inclusion framework is established, according to a new paper.
“Australia’s higher education system stands at a pivotal moment; the policy decisions made now will either advance or leave behind disability rights and inclusion,” according to the authors, UQ’s Paul Harpur, Griffith’s Lisa Stafford and Curtin’s Katie Ellis.
The paper introduces a new framework for inclusion informed by a survey of 222 students and staff, 76% of whom have a disability and calls out the Accord for effectively excluding people with profound disabilities from participation targets. Just three of the Accord’s final 47 recommendations explicitly related to people with a disability.
“The failure of the Accord Review to set a pathway towards disability equity and inclusion in higher education, is in steep opposition to the vision and need for equality presented in the Disability Royal Commission and UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities,” the authors state.
The UN Convention recognises the rights of people with disabilities to work and study in higher education, but systematic change is required to turn this into a reality – hence the development of a framework informed and created by people including those with disabilities.
The survey conducted by the researchers found that universities were considered unsafe and exclusionary to many people with disability – a theme in 95% of responses. Inequality was accepted as institutional norms – with inaccessible bathrooms and inoperable lifts too frequently unaddressed.
With participants citing the ‘Nothing about us without us’ mantra, the paper calls for co-designed inclusion frameworks to ensure universities are effective in addressing inequitable approaches towards people with disabilities.
The paper notes that while the sector has taken significant strides in recognising Indigenous leadership and inclusion, there has been little progress in recognising leading voices to improve representation of staff and students with disabilities.
The paper pulled no punches in critiquing the contribution of the Accord as a blueprint an equitable future.
“When compared against other marginalised minorities, the Universities Accord Panel has struggled to advance an agenda to shift entrenched ableism in the Australian higher education sector and failed to promote a pathway which will realise equality in education for people with a disability,” the authors wrote.
“Unfortunately, the Universities Accord Panel’s approach to disability went from a visionary call for change, in the Terms of Reference and Discussion Paper, to excluding persons with profound disabilities, no increased targets for students with disability, and three unhelpful recommendations in the Final Report.”
