Disability Inclusion: Practice & Plans
This project's final report and evaluation was completed in April 2021.
Project summary
Through relationship building, strengths-based coaching approach, and using a strong Community of Practice platform, this project has been highly successful in supporting councils to develop meaningful, achievable, realistic Disability Access and Inclusion Plans (DAIPs).
The councils who engaged with the LGA supports available deepened their knowledge of access and inclusion best practice, connected to peers, and benefited from the resources supplied by experienced practitioners from the sector. Because of the project, council staff said they felt confident, supported, and ‘knew what to do’.
During the project, the LGA successfully advocated for a change in the 2018 Disability Inclusion Act regulations so that councils were no longer required to publish their full DAIP in the Gazette. The cost-saving for the sector is estimated at between $850,000 – $1,000,000.
Not only did the project have a positive effect on the local government sector, but it also had an effect on the strategic partnerships with key stakeholders in state and federal government and the not for the profit disability sector in support of DAIP development.
In 2021 the project will continue with the creation of the inaugural Local Government Disability Inclusion Advisory Group. This group will be made up of people with lived experience of disability who will provide councils with best-practice access and inclusion resources to inform the implementation of council DAIPs.