Inclusion of adults with disability in Australia: outcomes, legislation and issues

Abstract

This paper focuses on adults with disability and their inclusion in Australian society by examining various outcomes: community living, community participation and inclusive social roles such as open (competitive) employment, participation in university education, as well as use of generic community services like public transport. Australian disability services legislation provides clear support for inclusion, but implementation is inconsistent and segregated services remain common. Available outcomes data indicate that Australian disability service users are more to likely experience greater inclusion if they live in more normalised and less segregated settings. Australia has a history of segregated disability services and inaccessible community services that it is working to overcome. There is a growing but still a limited inclusion for adults in key adult roles such as open employment and university education. Significant progress has been made in areas as diverse as deinstitutionalisation and increased accessibility to public transport, but much remains to be done.

Keywords:

• inclusion
• disability
• intellectual disability
• Australia
• community living
• employment

Notes on contributor

Roger Stancliffe is Professor of Intellectual Disability at The University of Sydney, Faculty of Health Sciences. He was Editor of the Journal of Intellectual & Developmental Disability from 2003 to 2008 and is a Consulting Editor to six international research journals on intellectual disability. He is a Fellow of the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD) and the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual Disability (IASSID), and is the recipient of the 2011 AAIDD Research Award.