Context and audience for these guidelines

This section outlines the context behind, purpose of, and audience for the Good Practice Guidelines for Engaging with People with Disability.

Context behind these guidelines

Many people in Australia identify as people with disability. However, people with disability are often excluded from or have poor experiences when taking part in activities and processes that develop products, services, and policies. Their participation would benefit everyone.

Improving the ways in which these activities are designed, planned, and delivered allows more people with disability to have their say on topics that impact them. This will result in people with disability having better, more accessible, and more inclusive experiences.

These guidelines are a commitment under Australia’s Disability Strategy 2021-2031, and their development has been funded by the Australian government. The aim is that people with disability will play a central and active role in the strategy over its life.

People with disability who provided advice on developing the strategy told the Australian government that a good practice engagement guide would be a valuable resource. These guidelines will help remove barriers to participation for people with disability and uphold the rights of people with disability to access the same opportunities in the community as everyone else.

The guidelines are informed by:

The Disability Gateway has more information on the strategy and supporting documents.

Purpose of these guidelines

These guidelines are intended to inform the development of inclusive, accessible, and meaningful consultation and engagement processes for government, business and not-for-profit organisations.

The guidelines aim to:

  • Support the inclusion of people with disability in engagement processes.
  • Provide good practice recommendations for practitioners to encourage accessible and inclusive participation in public activities.
  • Suggest standard practice across the public engagement sector when engaging with people with disability.
  • Promote principles that contribute to and encourage meaningful engagement with people with disability.

Audience for these guidelines

The primary audience for these guidelines is people working in the government, private and not-for-profit sectors. In particular, these guidelines are for people from those sectors who need practical guidance for engaging with people with disability during discovery, research, testing, policy development and decision-making processes that affect people living in Australia.

Thank you!

These guidelines are driven by the insight and expertise of people with disability.

They were developed by speaking with people with disability and the disability sector, including peak and representative bodies, and disability service providers across the country.

The frameworks and good engagement principles outlined were used to research, develop, test, and improve the guidelines.

These guidelines would not have been possible without the expertise of representatives from the following organisations:

  • Australian Network on Disability
  • Autism Asperger’s Advocacy Australia
  • Blind Citizens Australia
  • Children and Young People with Disability Australia
  • Deaf Australia
  • Diversity Council Australia
  • Down Syndrome Australia
  • First Peoples Disability Network Australia
  • Inclusion Australia
  • National Ethnic Disability Alliance
  • People with Disability Australia
  • Physical Disability Australia
  • Self-Advocacy Resource Unit
  • University of New South Wales Disability Innovation Institute
  • University of Technology Sydney Disability Research Network.

User research and usability testing were carried out with people who design, plan, and deliver activities with people with disability.

As well as this extensive engagement with people with disability, these guidelines were also written by a team that included people with disability .

Structure of the guidelines

The Good Practice Guidelines for Engaging with People with Disability are organised in the following sections:

  • Context: purpose, audience, principles, and models of disability.
  • Design: engagement types, partnerships, ethics, and participant experiences.
  • Plan: logistics and recruitment of participants.
  • Deliver: inclusive delivery of engagements.
  • Follow up: assessment of information from participants, best practice follow up.
  • Tools: templates.

There are many ways and scenarios in which we need to engage with people with disability.

To use these guidelines, either move through the material sequentially or pick an area that is most relevant to you at a given time.