People with disability in Australia

Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers

Data in this section are largely sourced from the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ (ABS) 2018 Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers (SDAC). The SDAC is the most detailed and comprehensive source of disability prevalence in Australia.

The SDAC considers that a person has disability if they have at least 1 of a list of limitations, restrictions or impairments, which has lasted, or is likely to last, for at least 6 months and restricts everyday activities.

The limitations are grouped into 10 activities associated with daily living—self-care, mobility, communication, cognitive or emotional tasks, health care, reading or writing tasks, transport, household chores, property maintenance, and meal preparation. The SDAC also identifies 2 other life areas in which people may experience restriction or difficulty as a result of disability—schooling and employment.

The severity of disability is defined by if a person needs help, has difficulty, or uses aids or equipment with 3 core activities—self-care, mobility, and communication—and is grouped for mild, moderate, severe, and profound limitation. People who ‘always’ or ‘sometimes’ need help with 1 or more core activities are referred to in this section as ‘people with severe or profound disability’.

What is meant by school, school-age and school student?

On this page:

• School refers to primary and secondary school. Children in Australia aged 16 and 17 must be enrolled in school or a training organisation, be employed or be in a combination of school/training/employment.
• School-age refers to people aged 5–18 living in households.
• School student refers to people aged 5–18 living in households who attend primary or secondary school.

Interpreting changes in school attendance

Changing patterns in the type of school people with disability attend might reflect a mix of positive and negative experiences at student level.

Attendance at a special school might, for example, provide the most appropriate support for some students, but might also result in, or be the result of, increased segregation.

Likewise, attendance at mainstream schools could indicate that the education system has become better at integrating students with disability, fostering inclusion and providing additional, tailored supports. Or it could be that resources are directing the placement of students into mainstream schools even if an appropriate level of support is not provided.

In addition, the increased number of students attending school with additional supports—such as through part-time attendance—might be a positive change if this reflects the most appropriate support (rather than lack of support), or if it enables attendance for someone who previously did not attend school.

Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability

Another source of information on school students with disability is the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD).

Both government and non-government schools provide information annually to the Australian Government’s Department of Education, Skills and Employment for collation into the NCCD.

The NCCD is primarily designed to collect information on the supports received by students with disability to help them participate in education. As such, it produces a ‘support-based estimate’ of students with disability and is not intended to provide estimates of prevalence.

According to the 2019 NCCD:

• around 787,000 students receive educational adjustments because of disability, or almost 1 in 5 (20%) students
• most students who required adjustments have cognitive disability (55% of students with disability who receive adjustments), followed by social-emotional disability (29%), physical disability (13%) and sensory disability (3.4%)
• students with disability who receive educational adjustments required
  • adjustments of support within quality differentiated teaching practice (34%)—made infrequently or as low-level action. These may include minor adjustments to teaching and monitoring to meet safety requirements through usual school processes
  • supplementary adjustments (42%)—for particular activities at specific times throughout the week. These may include adjustments to teaching, the provision of course materials in accessible forms, and programs to address the student’s social/emotional needs
  • substantial adjustments (16%)—made at most times on most days. These may include individualised instruction for most activities, and closely monitored playground supervision
  • extensive adjustments (8.0%)—made at all times. These may include intensive instruction in a highly specialised manner for all activities, highly modified classroom environments, and extensive support from specialist staff
• 21% of students attending government schools, 20% attending independent schools, and 18% attending Catholic schools receive adjustments because of disability
• government schools have a higher proportion of students who receive ‘extensive’ or ‘substantial’ levels of adjustment than Catholic or independent schools—27% of students with disability at government schools who receive adjustments, compared with 19% at Catholic schools and 16% at independent schools (ACARA 2020).

The NCCD was progressively implemented in Australian schools from 2013, with 2015 being the first year that almost all schools participated. As more years of data are compiled, this collection has the potential to provide more information about trends.

For more information on the NCCD.

Another source of data on school students

In 2019 Mission Australia conducted a survey of young people (aged 15–19 years) including a cluster of questions focused on disability. The 18th annual survey of young people received 25,100 responses. In Mission Australia’s Youth Survey 2019, 6.5% (or 1,600) of young people reported having disability and 91.3% (or 23,100) reported no disability. It should be noted that this study reflects the views of survey participants who self-reported disability. Due to the survey design, it is not considered a representative sample of young people with disability or of the Australian population more generally (Hall et al. 2020).

Young people who reported having disability are:

• mostly studying full-time (85%) while 6.0% are studying part-time and 9.4% are not studying. This is different to those without disability (94% studying full-time, 2.4% studying part-time, and 3.6% not studying)
• less likely to be very satisfied or satisfied (57%) with their studies than respondents without disability (68%), and more likely to be dissatisfied or very dissatisfied (16% compared with 6.9%)
• less likely (92%) to intend to complete Year 12 (of those who are still at school) than those without disability (96%).

When asked about post-school plans, young people with disability intend to:

• go to university (48% compared with 66% of those without disability)
• get a job (40% compared with 33%)
• travel/gap year (24% compared with 28%)
• go to TAFE or college (20% compared with 11%)
• get an apprenticeship (15% compared with 11%).

Note that respondents were able to choose more than 1 option.

When asked how confident they are about achieving their study/work goals after school, young people with disability (40%) were less likely to be extremely confident or very confident than those without disability (47%).

Young people with disability are more likely (64%) to face barriers to achieving their study/work goals after school than those without disability (48%). Of those who face barriers, the most common barriers are:

• mental health (28% compared with 16% of those without disability)
• academic ability (25% compared with 20%)
• financial difficulty (13% compared with 12%)
• physical health (12% compared with 4.0%).

Note that respondents were able to choose more than 1 option (Hall et al. 2020).

What is non-school education?

Non-school refers to education other than pre-primary, primary or secondary education. It includes studying for qualifications at postgraduate degree level, master’s degree level, graduate diploma and graduate certificate level, bachelor’s degree level, advanced diploma and diploma level, and certificates I, II, III and IV levels. A student may study for a non-school qualification at the same time as a school qualification.

Non-school student refers to people aged 15–64 living in households who are studying for a non-school qualification.

Other sources of data on non-school students

Other sources of data about students with disability studying for a non-school qualification include the National Centre for Vocational Education Research’s (NCVER) Total Vocational Education and Training (VET) Students and Courses Collection; and the Department of Education, Skills and Employment’s (DESE) Higher Education Student Data Collection, Student Experience Survey and Graduate Outcomes Survey.

These sources define disability differently from each other and from the ABS SDAC. They also rely on self-disclosure of disability. Because of this, figures vary between sources.

Total VET Students and Courses Collection

In this collection, disability refers to ‘whether the student self-identifies as having a disability, impairment or long-term condition’.

The 2019 collection indicates that 4.1% (or 172,000) of VET students self-identified as having ‘a disability, impairment or long-term health condition’, 84% (or 3.5 million) identified as not having disability and for 12% (or 499,000) disability status is recorded as not known (NCVER 2020).

Private training providers were the most common provider type for VET students with and without disability. However, in 2019, VET students with disability were:

• less likely to attend a private training provider (54% or 93,000) than those without disability (74% or 2.6 million)
• more likely to attend TAFE (34% compared with 18%).

VET students with disability were also:

• more likely to be full-time students (14% or 24,100) than those without disability (11% or 383,000)
• more likely to be aged 15–19 years (20% or 34,800) than those without disability (14% or 498,000) (NCVER 2020).

Higher Education Student Data Collection

In this collection, students with disability ‘have indicated that they have a disability, impairment or long-term medical condition which may affect their studies’. In 2018, 6.8% (or 72,200) of domestic higher education students had a disability or long-term health condition that may affect their studies (DESE 2019).

Student Experience Survey

DESE’s Student Experience Survey (SES) contains information on current undergraduate and postgraduate level students of Australian higher education institutions. The questionnaire asks students about their study experiences.

In 2019, 6.2% (or 11,200) of the undergraduate students who completed the SES have reported disability and 3.1% (or 2,590) of the postgraduate coursework students.

Data from the 2019 SES show that current students in:

• undergraduate courses who reported they had disability were less likely (76%) than those without disability (79%) to give a positive rating to the quality of their entire educational experience
• postgraduate coursework courses who reported disability were also less likely (73%) than those without disability (76%) to give a positive rating to the quality of their entire educational experience
• undergraduate courses who reported disability were more likely (27%) than those without disability (19%) to consider early departure from their course
• postgraduate coursework courses who reported disability were also more likely (30%) than those without disability (17%) to consider early departure from their course (QILT 2019a).

Graduate Outcomes Survey

Graduate Outcomes Survey (GOS) contains information on satisfaction for undergraduate and postgraduate level graduates. It is completed by graduates of Australian higher education institutions approximately 4 months after course completion.

The questionnaire asks graduates to what extent they agree with statements about their study experiences. Data from the 2019 GOS show that graduates from:

• undergraduate courses who reported they had disability (77%) were less likely than those without disability (80%) to be satisfied with their course and with specific aspects such as teaching (63% compared with 64%) and development of generic skills (80% compared with 83%)
• postgraduate coursework courses who reported disability expressed lower satisfaction than those without disability with their course overall (79% compared with 82%), and with specific aspects such as teaching (67% compared with 70%) and development of generic skills (77% compared with 80%)
• postgraduate research courses who reported disability were generally less satisfied than those without disability with their course overall (84% compared with 86%), and with specific aspects such as supervision (81% compared with 83%), intellectual climate (59% compared with 63%), infrastructure (71% compared with 76%), thesis examination (76% compared with 81%), goals and expectations (90% compared with 92%), and industry engagement (50% compared with 57%) (QILT 2019b).

Non-disclosure of disability

Not all students with disability choose to disclose their disability.

One survey of 1,100 students (including 253 students with disability) on non-disclosure of equity group status in Australian universities estimated that 11% did not disclose their equity status to their university. Of students who did not disclose their equity status, 11% of students with disability did not disclose their disability to their university (Clark et al. 2018).

Students with disability may trust in the university and believe that disclosure is of benefit to them. Students with disability may also fear prejudice at the university, such as being labelled as less competent or deserving of their academic success. Students with disability also may not believe the university needs the information or do not know why they should disclose.

The survey also found that students with disability are more likely to disclose to a support service than to an admissions centre or on enrolment. The survey suggested that students are motivated to disclose if they feel they need to access supports, and may not know if they need such support until after they have started studying.