The joint position statement and research report, titled Disability & Higher Education in Australia, leverages case studies, stakeholder consultations, and interdisciplinary research to scrutinise and investigate the extent of structural ableism within Australia’s higher education sector. 

The report was endorsed by over 30 bodies, including People with Disability Australia (PWDA), National Ethnic Disability Alliance (NEDA), Australian Federation of Disability Organisations (AFDO), and Grace Tame Foundation.

The report marks the first time in many years that the voice of disabled staff and students have been meaningfully heard within higher education.

“The report’s findings illuminate the urgency of the need for systemic reform,” the NUS, ALSA and AMSA said in a statement.

“Australia’s anti-discrimination laws are broken,” the associations submitted. “It has been noted that disability discrimination claims are ‘near on impossible to prove under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth) (DDA).”

Disabled staff and students lack access to reasonable adjustments and accommodations, and universities see little to no consequences for non-compliance with legislation, they noted. 

The 2017 decision in Sklavos v Australasian College of Dermatologists limited the positive obligation of duty holders in making reasonable adjustments and accommodations. The decision effectively raised the threshold for proving a breach of the DDA — disabled students and disabled academics must prove a “causal link” exists between their disability and the duty holder’s refusal to provide an adjustment. 

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This means disabled students and disabled academics continue to face onerous and difficult burdens of proof, curtailing their odds of legal redress and significantly limiting the effectiveness of the DDA.

Inaccessible classrooms and inconsistent policies on assistance animals, as well as heightened rates of sexual assault and harassment (SASH) and harassment and vilification against disabled people on campuses, have been reported. 

“The National Student Safety Survey showed disabled students were more than twice as likely to experience SASH on campus, consistent with the numbers seen through the Disability Royal Commission,” explained NUS disabilities officer Georgie McDaid. 

“This is a duty of care problem, and it’s simply not good enough,” she added. 

The report made a series of recommendations, including a request that the Albanese government should undertake urgent reform of Australia’s anti-discrimination laws – especially the DDA.

The DDA and state-based disability discrimination laws should be amended to include prohibition of vilification on the basis of disability, the report recommended.

Despite recommendations from the Disability Discrimination Legal Service, legislative prohibitions against disability vilification have not been implemented. This leaves disabled students without equitable action to legal redress, the report noted. 

The report also called for the re-establishment of a Disability Education Commissioner in order to actualise accountability for the implementation of the DDA and the Disability Standards for Education Act 2005 (Cth) within higher education. 

“The current legislation is negatively impacting student wellbeing,” stated ALSA president Annabel Biscotto (pictured). 

The research report is also calling upon government bodies, such as the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), to conduct investigations into structural ableism and SASH experienced by disabled students on university campuses.

“Our higher education system is physically locking out students barring them from opportunities,” commented NUS president Georgie Beatty. 

Theo Totsis, ALSA vice-president (external), stated: “Denying us such liberties causes us to spiral and suffocate. 

“Even I, being in my sixth year and diagnosed with autism and ADHD 18 years ago, have still not been made to feel otherwise.”