Community attitudes

Treated with respect

In 2022, most (94%) people with disability said they were treated with respect when accessing key mainstream services.

Things explained clearly

In 2022, 1 in 4 (25%) people with disability said things were not explained clearly to them by justice and legal workers.

Treated better if did not have disability

In 2022, 1 in 6 (17%) people with disability thought they would have been treated better by service workers if they did not have disability.

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Introduction

Positive experiences of people with disability with workers in various sectors are essential in enabling full social and economic participation.

Data note

Data in this section are sourced from the 2022 Australia's Disability Strategy Survey – Share with us. This survey collects information about community attitudes and experiences of people with disability when interacting with services, employers, and the general community. It was commissioned by the Australian Government Department of Social Services for reporting on the Australia's Disability Strategy Outcomes Framework.

For more information about the survey, see ‘Data sources’, or visit the survey's webpage on Reporting on Australia's Disability Strategy 2021–2031 website.

Reporting on community attitudes towards people with disability for Australia’s Disability Strategy

Australia's Disability Strategy 2021–2031 (the Strategy) is Australia's national disability policy framework. It sets out a plan for continuing to improve the lives of people with disability in Australia over the 10 years to 2031. The Strategy's Outcomes Framework measures, tracks and reports the outcomes for people with disability across seven outcome areas.

One of the Strategy's outcome areas is Community attitudes. This outcome area is about positive attitudes towards people with disability so that they are respected, valued, and included in the communities they belong to. This outcome area includes 4 priorities with a total of 7 measures:

  • Employer attitudes to employing people with disability priority:
    • Employer attitudes: Employers value the contribution and benefits of employing people with disability (77% in 2022).
  • Key sector attitudes to people with disability priority:
  • People with disability in leadership roles priority:
  • Value and respect for people with disability priority:
    • Feel valued and respected: Proportion of people with disability who report feeling valued and respected in their community (54% in 2022).

Further detailed results can be found on the Community attitudes pages of Reporting on Australia's Disability Strategy 2021–2031 website.

Experiences of people with disability when accessing key mainstream services

People with disability were asked about their experiences with workers in the sector that they had most recently interacted with in the last 12 months. In 2022, over 2 in 3 (67%) people with disability strongly agreed and a further 27% somewhat agreed that they were treated with respect when accessing key mainstream services. This varied between mainstream services:

  • 69% of people with disability strongly agreed that they were treated with respect by health workers
  • 62% by education workers
  • 61% by personal and community support workers
  • 55% by justice and legal workers (Figure COMMUNITY.1, DSS 2023).

In terms of having things explained clearly when accessing mainstream services, over 1 in 2 (54%) people with disability strongly agreed that things were explained clearly to them, and a further 36% somewhat agreed that this was the case.

Around 1 in 11 (9.4%) people with disability said that things were not explained clearly to them. This proportion was similar across health, education, and personal and community services (8.6%, 12% and 9.6%, respectively), but was greater for justice and legal services (25%) (Figure COMMUNITY.1) (DSS 2023).

In accessing key mainstream services, over 4 in 5 (83%) people with disability strongly or somewhat disagreed that they would have been treated better if they did not have disability. About 17% had thought they would have been treated better if they did not have disability. This proportion varied by key mainstream service:

  • over 1 in 4 (26%) for people with disability who accessed personal and community support services
  • 26% of those who accessed justice and legal services
  • 22% for education services
  • 16% for health services (Figure COMMUNITY.1) (DSS 2023).

Figure COMMUNITY.1: Experiences of people with disability when accessing key mainstream services, 2022

The chart shows that people with disability thought they were treated with respect by workers in key services, such as health (94%) and legal (86%).

Notes:
* Relative standard error of 25–50% and should be used with caution.

  1. Data are for people with disability aged 18 and over, who interacted with any of the 4 mainstream services over the past 12 months. For respondents who interacted with more than one type of mainstream services, data was collected only about the type of service the person interacted with most recently.

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