Creating Accessible Teaching and Support

Disability is a normal part of the human experience, and some form of disability affects almost 4 million people or 20% of the population.  This number is increasing, partly as a result of an ageing population.

Statistics on participation and success rates are integral to research, policy design and program evaluation in this area.

• Numbers of university students with disability have more than doubled in the past 10 years, from 11,656 in 1995 to 27,661 in 2005. However, they are still under-represented
  
  
• Participation in the VET sector increased by 30% from 47,300 in 1996 to 62,100 in 2000. However,  proportionally, this represented a drop of 0.6 per cent during this period.
  
  
• The 2003 ABS survey indicates that while around 20% of people without disability have a degree, only 13% of people with a disability have this level of qualification.
  
  
• Approximately 80% of people without disability are in the labour force, compared with only 53% of people with a disability.

There is a range of sources of information on disability and participation and success of people with disability in education and training:

• ABS Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers
• The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare  has publications and statistics available on a range of disability related topics
• The DEST Higher Education Report
• The NCVER VocEd database has an extensive range of information and statistics about vocational education and training.  The People with a disability in vocational education and training: A statistical compendium is particularly useful
  
• The Higher Education Statistics Agency provides comparable data for the UK indicating that people with disability are under-represented in employment and are twice as likely to have no qualifications.
• United Nations Facts about Disability
  

Detailed and accurate statistics about the number of people with specific impairments are not easy to obtain, but here are some estimates:

Mental illness / psychiatric disabilities: Around one in every five Australians, or over three million people, experience mental health problems of some kind, with 170,000 experiencing at least one schizophrenic episode, and up to ten per cent experiencing depressive disorders (HREOC’s “National Inquiry into the Human Rights of People with Mental Illness” report, 1993). This includes ten per cent of mothers experiencing postnatal depression (W.A. Disability Services Commission’s “Disability Counts” report, 1997).

Physical disabilities: 2.6 million or 14 percent of Australians have a physical disability of some kind (ABS). This includes, for example, people with respiratory disorders such as asthma, people with neurological disorders such as multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy and epilepsy, people with musculoskeletal disorders such as arthritis and spinal injuries and people with immunological disorders such as HIV/AIDS, as well as people with other disorders such as diabetes, kidney disease or cancer.

Sensory disabilities: Over one million Australians have a significant hearing impairment, and around 30,000 are totally deaf. Around 300,000 have substantial vision impairment (not correctable by glasses), and around 20,000 are totally blind (Commonwealth Disability Strategy).

Intellectual disabilities: Approximately two per cent of the Australian population, or 400,000 people, have an intellectual impairment (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 1997).