Summary
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The Outcomes Framework is a key part of Australia's Disability Strategy 2021–2031 (the Strategy), designed to measure, track, and report on the progress for people with disability. The annual reports on the Outcomes Framework will highlight the advancements made each year.
This summary is for the 4th annual report on the Strategy's Outcomes Framework, showcasing the key changes in 2025. For a detailed overview of the updates in 2025, please refer to the full 4th annual report and the Australia's Disability Strategy Outcomes Framework dashboard.
Highlights from 2025
The Strategy tracks information on issues important to people with disability. These measures include information about employment, financial security, homes and community, safety and justice, support services, education and learning, health and wellbeing, and community attitudes. Data are used to monitor these areas to see if the Strategy is making a difference. New data are added to measures over time. The progress status of a measure is decided by comparing the original data collected under the Strategy to the most recent data available for the measure. The status shows if the measure has changed over time, and the direction of the change.
In 2025, 32 measures were updated:
- 12 showed improvement,
- 10 showed no change, and
- 10 showed regress.
Ten of these measures received a status update for the first time. There were also 12 measures that were listed in the Outcomes Framework dashboard for the first time, establishing a baseline to track future progress.
Key findings from measures that were updated in 2025
Improvements were reported for 12 measures updated in 2025, including:
Community attitudes
The proportion of people with disability who feel represented in leadership roles has increased from 19% in 2022 to 23% in 2024.
Health and wellbeing
The number of involuntary hospital admissions per 100,000 people with disability decreased from 2,013 hospital admissions in 2020–21 to 1,841 in 2021–22.
Education and learning
The proportion of undergraduate higher education students with disability increased from 10% in 2021 to 13% in 2023.
Employment and financial security
The proportion of NDIS participants aged 15–64 in the labour force who are in open employment at full award wage increased from 20% in 2021–22 Q2 to 24% in 2024–25 Q3.
There were 10 measures updated in 2025 which showed no change, including:
Education and learning
The proportion of students with disability who complete a higher education qualification has changed little. For cohort 2018–2023, 55% of students with disability completed a higher education qualification, compared with 59% for cohort 2005–2010.
Community attitudes
5 of the 7 Community Attitude measures showed little or no change. Shifting community attitudes is a long-term process and it’s likely that any substantive change may take several years to show results.
Health and wellbeing
The number of potentially avoidable deaths in hospital for people with disability, compared with people without disability per 100,000 people changed little. In 2021–22, there were 238 potentially avoidable deaths per 100,000 people with disability during hospital admission or emergency department presentation, compared with 33 deaths per 100,000 people without disability.
There were 10 measures updated in 2025 which had regressed since baseline. Among these were:
Inclusive homes and communities
The average waiting time for social housing has increased since baseline. In 2023−24, households with people with disability were waiting an average of 547−811 days for newly allocated social housing through available government housing schemes.
Safety, rights and justice
The proportion of complaints related to disability discrimination lodged with the Australian Human Rights Commission that were successfully resolved by conciliation decreased from 72% in 2020–21 to 61% in 2023–24.
Employment and financial security
In 2024–25 Q3, 63% of NDIS participants reported they get the support they need to do their job, compared with 66% in 2021–22 Q2.
Further details on these measures and other measures which were updated in 2025 can be found on the Outcomes Framework dashboard | all measures.
Insights from measures that were introduced in 2025
In 2025, several new measures were reported for the first time on the Strategy's Outcomes Framework. These measures covered various outcome areas, including health and wellbeing, safety, rights and justice, and personal and community support. These measures indicated that:
- accessing preventive and early intervention health care services in the last 12 months was easier for people without disability (82%) than for people with disability (66%)
- 68% of people with disability were supported when dealing with police and/or judicial officers
- 80% of people with disability could access mainstream support services when needed compared with 89% of people without disability.
Spotlight: Living in remote areas
As part of the commitment to provide better information for people with disability, measures are reported by different priority groups where data allow. This annual report highlights similarities and differences based on remoteness.
Location can impact access to supports and services and community inclusion. Distance can multiple the difficulties for people with disability, creating barriers to effective participation and inclusion. Key findings from Outcomes Framework 2025 data included:
- NDIS participants in remote areas are less likely to get the support they need to do their job (58%, compared with 63% of participants in major cities), be in open employment at full award wage (21% vs 25%), receive assistive technology supports (28% vs 37%), or feel that the NDIS had helped them have more choice and control over their life (74% vs 80%).
- Students with disability in remote areas are less likely to complete their higher education qualification than those in major cities: the completion rates were 34% (remote) and 43% (major cities) for VET students and 50% (remote) and 57% (major cities) for higher education students with disability.
- However, VET graduates with disability in remote areas are more likely to be employed on completion of training (68%, compared with 57% in major cities).
Further details about people with disability living in remote areas compared to major cities are provided in the full report.
Activities supporting the Outcomes Framework
Development of disability flags within the National Disability Data Asset (NDDA)
Disability flags are types of information about disability. For example, how many people have disability and what disability they have. These flags provide consistent data to research and develop insights that can benefit the disability community, though they do not capture all people with disability in Australia.
The first set of flags focus on individuals who receive or are eligible for disability-related government payments and services, such as NDIS participants or recipients of the Disability Support Pension. Developed through the NDDA, these flags were used to examine 3 measures through data extracted from the National Health Data Hub (NHDH).
Use of linked data
In 2025, 3 measures using linked data (potentially avoidable deaths, GP-type emergency presentations and involuntary hospital admissions) were reported on the Outcomes Framework dashboard for the first time. The data were extracted from the NHDH using the disability flags developed through the NDDA. These measures can be explored in more detail under the Health and wellbeing outcome area on the dashboard.
Future plans
Data updates will continue to be released quarterly on the Australia’s Disability Strategy Outcomes Framework webpages, with the next release scheduled for April 2026.
Developing future measures for the ADS Outcome Framework continues. For further details on which measures are under development, see the Strategy’s Data Improvement Plan.
Work continues with the disability community, their representatives and experts in disability data to develop more disability flags in national and state data collections. This will improve the availability of data for people with disability, providing greater insights into the issues that impact them.
The next annual report will be released in early 2027.
Australia's Disability Strategy 2021–2031
Outcomes Framework
Our fourth annual report
Download PDF version of the Easy Read Summary
How to use this report
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We are the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). We wrote this report. |
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We wrote some words in bold. We explain what these bold words mean. There is also a word list of these explanations. |
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You can ask someone you trust for support to:
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This is an Easy Read summary of the 4th Outcomes Framework annual report. |
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You can read the full report on our website. www.aihw.gov.au/australia's-disability-strategy/publications |
What is in this report?
About the outcomes in Australia's Disability Strategy
How we learn about the outcomes
What we learned in 2025 – New data
What we learned in 2025 – People in areas far away from cities and towns
About the outcomes in Australia's Disability Strategy
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Australia's Disability Strategy 2021–2031 is a plan to support people with disability in all areas of their life. In this report, we call it the Strategy. |
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The Strategy includes outcomes. These outcomes are important results governments want to get for people with disability. |
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This report examines what governments have done to read the outcomes in the Strategy in 2025. |
How we learn about the outcomes
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We learn about the outcomes we want for people with disability by collecting data. |
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Data includes information and facts to help us learn about something. |
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We do this by measuring data about a certain outcome. |
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Then we measure data about that outcome again in the future. |
When we compare both sets of data, we can find out if an outcome: |
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For example, we can find out if the number of people with disability who have a job: |
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We are working to collect more data. That will help us understand how well we are reaching the outcomes in the Strategy. |
What we learned in 2025
What has improved |
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People with disability saw more leaders with disability. |
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Less people with disability were kept in hospital without their consent. |
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Consent is when you say it is ok for someone to do something. |
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More people with disability were studying at university. |
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We also learned more about participants. |
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Participants are people with disability who take part in the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). |
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The NDIS provides services and support to people with disability. |
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More NDIS participants who had a job:
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What has stayed the same |
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The number of students with disability who finished university stayed about the same. |
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People's attitudes about disability stayed about the same. |
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Your attitude is what you think, feel and believe. |
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Some people with disability passed away in hospital when they could have gotten the care they needed. This number of people stayed about the same. |
What needs to be better |
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People with disability had to wait longer to get social housing. |
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Social housing is housing the government provides to people who need help paying for a place to live. |
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A complaint is when you tell someone that something:
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We learned about complaints made to the Australian Human Rights Commission. |
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The Australian Human Rights Commission makes sure people treat others:
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The complaints were about people being treated unfairly because of their disability. |
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Less of these complaints could be fixed without going to court. |
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Less NDIS participants got the support they needed to do their job. |
What we learned in 2025
New data
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In 2025, we included new data to measure outcomes for people with disability. |
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We got data about healthcare for people with disability in the last 12 months. |
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We compared this data to healthcare for people without disability in the last 12 months. |
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We found out it was harder for people with disability to get healthcare services that help stop diseases. |
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68% of people with disability got help to talk with:
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80% of people with disability got the support services they needed. |
What we learned in 2025
People in areas far away from cities and towns
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We collected data about people living in areas far away from cities and towns. |
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We compared this data to people who live in cities and towns. |
We found out that participants who live in places far away from cities and towns were less likely to: |
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Participants who live in places far away from cities and towns were also less likely to get the assistive technology they needed. |
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Assistive technology is equipment or a device that can help people do things more easily. For example, a wheelchair or a hearing aid. |
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Students with disability in places far away from cities and towns were less likely to finish university or vocational education and training (VET). |
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VET teaches people how to do certain jobs when they leave school. VET includes:
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But the students who finished VET were more likely to get a job. |
Using linked data
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Linked data is data that is connected to other data because it shares the same topic or idea. |
We used linked data to find out information about people with disability who: |
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The emergency department is where you go if you need healthcare quickly. For example, if you are injured or unwell. |
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We also used linked data to find out information about people who were kept in hospital without their consent. |
What will happen next
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We will share our next report about what governments did to reach the outcomes in the Strategy in 2027. |
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We will also share updates about how the outcomes are going every 3 months. |
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We will share the next update in April 2026. |
Word list
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Assistive technology Assistive technology is equipment or a device that can help people do things more easily. For example, a wheelchair or a hearing aid. |
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Attitude Your attitude is what you think, feel and believe. |
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Australian Human Rights Commission The Australian Human Rights Commission makes sure people treat others:
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Complaint A complaint is when you tell someone that something:
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Consent Consent is when you say it is ok for someone to do something. |
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Data Data includes information and facts to help us learn about something. |
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Emergency department The emergency department is where you go if you need healthcare quickly. For example, if you are injured or unwell. |
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Linked data Linked data is data that is connected to other data because it shares the same topic or idea. |
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National Disability Insurance Scheme The NDIS provides services and support to people with disability. |
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Outcomes Outcomes are important results governments want to get for people with disability. |
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Participants Participants are people with disability who take part in the NDIS. |
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Social housing Social housing is housing the government provides to people who need help paying for a place to live. |
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Vocational education and training (VET) VET teaches people how to do certain jobs when they leave school. VET includes:
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Contact us
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You can visit our website for more information, |
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You can send us an email. |
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You can write to us. GPO Box 570 |
Support to contact us
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If you speak a language other than English, you can call Translating and Interpreting Services (TIS). 1800 131 450 |
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This Easy Read document was created by the Information Access Group using stock photography and custom images. The images may not be reused without permission. For any enquiries about the images, please visit www.informationaccessgroup.com. Quote job number 6513. |
