Education and disability

Education page

Page last updated: 20 August 2012

Standards and guidelines| Brief guide and FAQs | >Action plans | Decisions in complaint cases| Exemption decisions | Access to course materials | Other Commission resources | Other resources

The Disability Discrimination Act makes discrimination in education unlawful. We have established this page to provide a convenient entry point for Commission resources on equal access to and opportunity in education  which exist in various parts of this site, and to provide access to resources from other organisations where these are available electronically.

We hope this page will develop further. If you would like to see other resources included here, please let us know.

Standards and guidelines

• Disability Standards for education
• 2020 Review of the Disability Standards for Education 2005 
• See also the The Australian Government Disability Standards for Education 2005 

Brief guide

• Brief guide to DDA and education

Action Plans

• Registered Action Plans by education providers

Decisions in complaint cases

• Hurst and Devlin v Education Queensland (Federal Court 15 April 2005)
  Discrimination found in one case and not another where education provided to deaf child other than through Auslan interpreting; but see now Full Court decision finding discrimination in second case also (28 July 2006).
• Hinchcliffe v University of Sydney : Discrimination claim rejected: information formats provided inconvenient but not inaccessible; most requirements which were communicated to university were met.
• Clarke v Catholic Education Office (Federal Court, 8 October 2003): Education discrimination found in failure to provide Auslan interpreting: see now Full Court decision upholding finding of discrimination
• High Court decision in Purvis v NSW (appeal dismissed); see also See also Purvis v NSW (Full Federal Court 24 April 2002): Federal Court decision finding no unlawful discrimination confirmed; State of NSW v HREOC and Purvis (Federal Court, 29 August 2001): Commission finding of unlawful discrimination reversed.
• Travers v State of NSW (Federal Court, 3 November 2000)
  Court refuses application by education authority to have complaint summarily dismissed
• Hills Grammar School v HREOC (18 May 2000)
  Federal Court decision upholding Commission decision finding discrimination in education
• Commission decisions on education complaints
• Decline decisions on education complaints
• Conciliated outcomes in education complaints

Exemption decisions

• Lutheran Schools 

Other Commission resources

• Access to tertiary education materials - papers from 2002 Commission forum
• Main Commission pages for students and teachers
• Teaching resources - youth challenge 
• "Advancing equality in education and beyond" September 2005, Dr Sev Ozdowski OAM, Acting Disability Discrimination Commissioner
• "The DDA and education seven years on" Graeme Innes , Pathways Conference, Canberra December 2000
• "Equality by degrees: a place on the platform" : Graeme Innes, Deputy Disability Discrimination Commissioner, 13 April 2000
• "Assumption, Expectation And Discrimination: Gender Issues For Girls With Disabilities" : 1997 speech by Elizabeth Hastings, Disability Discrimination Commissioner 1993-97
• Letter from Susan Halliday to Canberra Times in response to article calling for discrimination against students with psychiatric disabilities
• Summary of barriers reported from 1996 consultations by Elizabeth Hastings

Other resources

• Australian Disability Clearinghouse on Education and Training
• CATS: Creating Accessible Teaching and Support
• The UK Disability Rights Commission Education page
• AVCC Guidelines relating to students with disabilities (PDF) 
• QUT disability links and resources
• United States Department of Justice FAQ on child care centres
• Advice on disclosure of disability NDCO Program, University of Western Sydney
• Education to employment transition package: NDCO Program, University of Western Sydney

Access to course materials

• Copyright council guidelines: Copyright FAQ 
• Notice of Commission forum 
• Perspective papers from forum participants 
• Recommendations 
• Steering committee first meeting and terms of reference 
• Steering committee second meeting 
• November 2004 update on forum
• Copyright forum : first meeting and second meeting 
• U.S. Bill for Instructional Materials Accessibility Act 2003
• Making educational software and websites accessible guidelines
• Speech: Roundtable on Information Access for People with Print Disabilities 22 May 2006, Graeme Innes
• Speech: Copyright v Human Rights: Balancing the rights of authors and the interests of people with print disabilities, 3 October 2003
• Briefing to UNSW, December 2005, Bruce Maguire