Our commitment to supporting people with disability

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) is an overarching agreement to which Australia is a signatory. It requires governments to consult and actively involve people with disability, including children, through their representative organisations. Read about the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on the United Nations website.

Australia’s Disability Strategy 2021-2031 (the Strategy) underpins the principles adopted in the CRPD. The principles ensure people with disability and their representatives are included in developing, designing and implementing policies, programs and services.

The main purpose of the Strategy is to promote the equal and active participation of people with disability. This ensures your needs, as well as those of your families and carers, are taken into account when designing and delivering products. It also assists when considering employing staff who in turn deliver services.

Read about Australia's Disability Strategy 2021-2031 on the Department of Social Services website.

We are a member of the National Disability Strategy Interdepartmental Committee (NDSIDC) which is responsible for carrying out Australia’s Disability Strategy at the national level. Members of the NDSIDC formally agreed to develop agency specific protocols to engage people with disability.

The Strategy in action

We’ll consider how our service delivery can improve to help people with disability as well as their families or carers. We’ll also support our staff with disability as part of our responsibilities as an employer.

We’ll ensure all of the following:

Stakeholder and customer engagement strategies consider the individual and complex needs of people with disability.
The principles of universal access and inclusion for people with disability are considered in the physical and digital environments.
Staff are familiar with the principles and objectives of the Strategy.
We listen and understand the individual needs of people with disability.
Service Officers understand how to provide services for people with disability.
The disability community and stakeholders are involved in the design of our services.
We increase our representation of people with disability in the workforce.
We employ and foster an accessible and inclusive workplace. We review our progress against the objectives of the Strategy.

We already apply the principles of the Strategy to improve business outcomes through our:

Co-design approach to service delivery

Co-designing is about early and ongoing engagement with the community by providing opportunities for richer customer insight and participation in the design of the services they use. We use a co-design approach that includes customers, staff and stakeholders to design better services and outcomes for customers and government.

The agency uses a range of customer and community engagement methods including face to face forums and interviews, online discussion groups, and telephone satisfaction surveys to ensure people with disability have a voice in service delivery design.

Workplace accessibility and inclusion

We aim to be an employer of choice for people with disability.

We have implemented workplace diversity and accessibility plans and strategies that underpin our commitment to providing equal opportunity for our staff including those with disability.

Our approach was developed following discussion with staff, and partnerships with the Australian Disability Network and other government departments. It focuses on ensuring all aspects of the workplace are accessible and inclusive to employees. You can read more on the Australian Disability Network website.

We also have a range of practices and strategies designed to improve workplace accessibility, including:

employment support for people with disability
National Disability Access Coordinator - provides information and advice about the recruitment, employment, career development and retention of people with temporary or permanent disability in the agency
the Employee Network on Disability - open to all staff with disability, staff that care for a person with disability and staff with an interest in disability inclusion and participation
the Accessibility Support Unit - provides support and training to staff with accessibility needs, including those who use assistive technology and telecommunication products
reasonable adjustment policy and processes - removes barriers for staff with disability, providing equal access to learning and career advancement opportunities
corporate memberships and Senior Executive Disability Champions.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with disability

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with disability are among the most disadvantaged of Australians. They often face barriers within their own communities including barriers to accessing disability support services.

We have a network of Indigenous Specialist Officers (ISOs) who work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities. They act as a connection point for promoting our programs and services. ISOs also help to identify service gaps and trends for customers and the community including the disability service sector.

ISOs aim to increase the level of understanding, awareness and service uptake by Indigenous Australians and their communities. Appropriate messages are conveyed through established relationships, service delivery experiences and capacity building activities as well as internal and external information management.

As advocates, ISOs help vulnerable Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people achieve outcomes that improve the level of opportunity for individuals with disability and the community.

Multicultural services for people with disability

Our Multicultural Servicing Strategy 2023 to 2025 ensures our services are responsive to the needs of multicultural customers. This includes providing free interpreting and translation services so customers may do their business with us in their language.

We have Multicultural Service Officers (MSOs) who assist migrant and refugee communities to connect with Australian Government services. MSOs also consult with communities about the impact of government initiatives on their communities.

Auslan interpreters

We can provide Auslan interpreters to assist customers who are deaf or have hearing loss. Customers can also use their own interpreter:

in person
via video chat on their own device.

If customers use their own interpreter over the phone, the interpreter must be accredited.

Nominee arrangements

Customers can, for some payments and services, make arrangements to authorise a person, such as a family member or friend, or an organisation to make limited enquiries on their behalf.

Arrangements can include authorising someone to do any of the following:

receive copies of mail
act and make changes on a customer’s behalf
get payments on a customer’s behalf.

People with disability can take up these arrangements in any of these ways:

on an ongoing basis
if they are not confident to manage their business with us
if they need help for a period of time, such as during hospitalisation.

Social work services

Social workers maintain strong connections with key disability community organisations and act as a referral point for our staff. Social workers provide assessment, short term counselling and support for customers claiming assistance from us.

Social workers are available in many of our service centres around Australia or you can speak to one over the phone. They also provide outreach services for vulnerable customers in the community.

Through their work with vulnerable and marginalised members of the community, social workers often identify disability or barriers to access and inclusion which may not have been identified earlier. They also assist customers to access suitable payments and other services.

Staff education

We provide a range of self-paced and facilitated training programs which are designed to increase knowledge and awareness of disability.

Current training programs include:

workplace diversity and inclusion
reasonable adjustment
disability awareness
disability confidence
social inclusion mental health awareness.

We also maintain an Employee Network on Disability, which connects employees with disability, carers and employers with an interest in disability employment. It is an information exchange network where people can also share experiences. It is used as a key resource for developing our disability employment strategy and programs.

Intervention process for vulnerable customers

We have implemented an intervention process to review the circumstances of vulnerable customers when their payment is suspended or cancelled for a minimum of 6 weeks as a result of an automatic suspension or cancellation activity.

The process helps proactively identify and make contact with those at risk ensuring the customer is connected to appropriate local support. The intervention is based on the customer’s record and any indication of a history of mental illness, homelessness, or being frail, aged or disconnected from support and community.

Ensuring accessible communication for customers

A shift to provide more information through digital media has helped significantly to provide accessible communication and engagement for people with disability including those with visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive and neurological disabilities. Improved online accessibility includes:

transcripts and captions for videos - every video, audio and other multimedia on the website includes an accessible transcript and a live captioning option
text to speech options - website content can be read by an integrated screen reading application
improved quality of reading order - users with screen readers can access the information
alternative file formats - including Portable Document Format (PDF) and Word Document (DOCX).

We support the Web Accessibility National Transition Strategy, which is a mandated strategy to ensure all Australian Government websites and associated web applications meet internationally recognised benchmarks for web accessibility, and that they implement the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0.

The WCAG guidelines aim to provide a single shared standard for web content accessibility that meets the needs of individuals, organisations and governments internationally. The WCAG identifies techniques to create and manage the web in ways that are more accessible to people with disability such as assistive technologies like screen readers.

More information

The National Ethnic Disability Alliance is the national peak organisation representing the rights and interests of people from non-English speaking backgrounds with disability, their families and carers throughout Australia. Read more on the National Ethnic Disability Alliance website.

Workplace Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 2019-23 is our formal commitment to a workplace culture that builds respect, fosters inclusiveness, promotes diversity and embraces the unique skills and qualities of all our staff.

The Australian Human Rights Commission is an independent statutory organisation that reports to the Australian Parliament through the Attorney-General. Read more on the Australian Human Rights Commission website.

Our agency has legal obligations with these pieces of legislation: