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Disability Royal Commission
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Everyone has a right to feel safe.

Disabled people are more likely to experience violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation than people who do not have disabilities.
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That’s why the Australian Government called a Disability Royal Commission.
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About the Royal Commission

7 Commissioners were chosen to lead the Disability Royal Commission and officially look into how disabled people are treated in Australia.

Some of the Commissioners identify as being Deaf or disabled.

The Disability Royal Commission has collected information through research, public hearings and the personal experiences people share.
Through people sharing their stories, the Disability Royal Commission got a better understanding of what is going wrong and how these things can be fixed.

The findings of the Disability Royal Commission will be shared in a report published by 29 September 2023.

In this report, the Disability Royal Commission will recommend how to improve laws and policies so that all disabled Australians feel safe and included.

View the final report

What is the focus of the Disability Royal Commission?

The Disability Royal Commission aims to find out how and why disabled people experience violence, abuse, neglect, and exploitation.
Violence means that someone is hurting you physically.

  • Abuse means that someone is treating you badly.
  • Neglect means that you are not being supported or taken care of the way you should be.
  • Exploitation means that someone is using you or taking advantage of you.

Our submission

In 2019 YDAS started working with a group of 5 disabled young people who became members of our Disability Royal Commission Working Group.

They gave us advice and ideas to help our team write a submission to be shared with the Disability Royal Commission.

Our submission has:

  • Stories about the experiences of disabled young people
  •  Disabled young people’s recommendations for making things better. 

YDAS also used de-identified case studies in the submission to show problems that disabled young people face. 

The Working Group told YDAS about the issues that were most important to them as disabled young people living in Victoria.  

These issues included:

  • Education
  • Intersectional experiences
  • Transport 
  • NDIS 
  • Justice and policing 
  • Employment and economic security
  • Housing 
  • Health and medical mistreatment
  • Mental wellbeing 

The Working Group also facilitated focus groups with other disabled young people.

What disabled young people told us

Disabled young people in our focus groups talked about ideas for how the Government can make sure all disabled young people are safe and don’t experience violence, abuse, neglect, and exploitation.

Ideas disabled young people talked about include: 

  • How the Government and services can use co-design with disabled young people to re-design systems.
  • Having more disabled people working in healthcare and support roles.
  • Making sure everyone understands the social and human rights models of disability soableism doesn’t happen.
  • Giving young people control of their medical treatment and supports.
  • Ending restrictive practices.
  • Organisations working together more, so there is not gaps in support for disabled young people.
  • Disability awareness training for all organisations that work with disabled young people.
  • Better accessibility in all services.
  • More funding for healthcare, mental healthcare systems, and the NDIS.
  • More awareness about invisible disabilities and more support for people with invisible disabilities. 

The Working Group supported YDAS to make 60 recommendations in our submission. These recommendations will help the Government find solutions to problems experienced by disabled young people.  

This will help everyone make a more fair, accessible, and inclusive Australia. 

Read our submission to the Disability Royal Commission

Download a copy of our full Disability Royal Commission submission below.

YDAS DRC Submission Word Version YDAS DRC Submission PDF
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