People with disability

A disability is any condition that restricts a person's mental, sensory, or mobility functions. It could be caused by accident, trauma, genetics or disease. A disability may be temporary or permanent, total or partial, lifelong or acquired, visible or invisible.

Actions in the inclusion and diversity strategy specifically relating to people with disability:

• promote resources available to support people with disability at work
• coordinate and reporting on aggregated public sector workforce outcomes arising from agency disability service plans.

All Queensland Government departments have Disability Service Plans in place to improve access and provide appropriate government services for people with a disability and their families.

National Disability Insurance Scheme

To improve workforce participation and employment outcomes for people with disability, the Australian Government — in partnership with state governments — is introducing the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). The scheme aims to support the independence, social and economic participation of people with disability and the scheme will commence in Queensland from July 2016.

See our NDIS workforce strategy.

Statistics

• 1 in 5 Australians have a disability
• almost 90% of disabilities are not visible
• 78% of people acquire their disability at the age of 16 years or older
• 90% of employees with disability are equally or more productive than other employees
• Australia ranks 27 out of 27 OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries for people with disability living in or near poverty (45% compared to 22% average)
• Australia ranks 21 out of 27 OECD countries for workforce participation of people with disability
• 3.21% of Queensland public sector employees identified as having a disability.

Sources:

• Australian Network on Disability
• Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 
• Australian Bureau of Statistics, Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers 2012
• Sickness, Disability and Work: Breaking the Barriers - A Synthesis of Findings across OECD Countries. OECD. (2010) (PDF, 4MB).
• Sickness, Disability and Work: Keeping on track in the economic downturn – Background paper. OECD. (2009) (PDF, 1.62MB)
• Graffam J, Shinkfield A, Smith K, & Polzin U 2002, Employer benefits and costs of employing people with disability, Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation (17) 251.