Disability Employment Policy in Australia: Barriers and Facilitators to Workforce Participation

Abstract

Australians with disability experience an unemployment rate twice that of people without disability, with little positive change in 20 years. Policy interventions during this time have made little progress in closing this gap. Aiming to identify possible evidence-based opportunities to improve this pressing policy issue, our research found that deficit-based attitudes and low community awareness of disability act as discriminatory barriers across the employment process. The Australian Government's disability employment policies are yet to deliver widely impactful disability awareness-raising or attitudinal-change activities. Failing to address disability discrimination, combined with ineffective discrimination legislation, means long-term employment remains out of reach for many people with disability. Policy improvements that remove the individual problematisation of people with disabilities while investing in cultural and attitudinal change and inclusive service provision are suggested as the first steps in ameliorating the enduring employment disparity between people with and without disability.