Podcast: ADCET Talking Tertiary with Graeme Innes

The Talking Tertiary (TT) podcast series invites leading disability advocates from the community to share their expertise in supporting people with disability in tertiary education. We ask our guests to reflect on the changes they have seen in the sector and what the future of disability inclusion looks like.

In this episode of the podcast, we speak to Graeme Innes, Chancellor at Central Queensland University, about the importance of having people with disability in senior leadership roles in tertiary education. We discuss how senior leaders and education providers can better meet the needs of their students with disability, drawing from Graemes' personal experiences while he pursued his Bachelor of Law.

We explore whether the experiences of students with disability in tertiary education have improved over time and what advice he would give to embarking students or current students in today's university context. Graeme shares the thing that made the most difference to his completion of tertiary education and offers one or two things tertiary providers can do to ensure success for students with disability.

We delve into the adoption of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in tertiary contexts and discuss whether there is a risk that specific expertise relating to disability in tertiary education beyond UDL will be lost. We also explore whether it is time for a review and reform of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) and the Disability Standards for Education (DSE) to give greater protection of the rights of people with disability.

Graeme shares his thoughts on how well matched our domestic legal responses to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities are relating to education, and what we as a sector can do together to advocate for improvements. We discuss the need to help leaders understand how important it is to invest in tertiary education for people with disability and how to ensure that people with disability leaving school have meaningful access to career advice and supports post-school that focus on the value and impact of tertiary education.

Overall, this episode provides valuable insights into the experiences of students with disability in tertiary education and what can be done to better support their needs. The conversation between Darlene and Graeme is engaging and informative, offering practical advice and thought-provoking ideas for educators and leaders in the tertiary education sector.