About the Disability Royal Commission

Disabled people are more likely to experience Someone is hurting you physically.violenceSomeone is treating you badly.abuseYou are not being supported or taken care of the way you should be.neglect and Someone is using you or taking advantage of you.exploitation than people who do not have disabilities. 

That’s why the A group of people with the power to run Australia.Australian Government called a Disability Royal Commission.

Click here to learn more about the Disability Royal Commission

The Disability Royal Commission has collected information through research, A formal meeting where people agree to tell the truth. They give evidence about issues that the Disability Royal Commission wants to know more about.public hearings and ideas and experiences shared through A document or recording that explains your experiences or ideas you have.submissions

This information helps the Disability Royal Commission understand what is going wrong and how these things can be fixed.

Illustration of group of young people sitting in a circle talking.

Our submission

In 2019 YDAS started working with a group of 5 disabled young people who became members of our Disability Royal Commission Working Group.

They gave us advice and ideas to help our team write a A document or recording that explains your experiences or ideas you have.submission to be shared with the Disability Royal Commission.

Our submission has:

  • Stories about the experiences of disabled young people
  •  Disabled young people’s The best ideas.recommendations for making things better. 

YDAS also used Stories about the experiences of young people. Their names have been changed so you don't know who they are.de-identified case studies in the submission to show problems that disabled young people face. 

The Working Group told YDAS about the issues that were most important to them as disabled young people living in Victoria.  

These issues included:

  • Education
  • Things that happen to you because you are part of more than one group. Example: Trans and disabled.Intersectional experiences
  • Transport 
  • NDIS 
  • Justice and policing 
  • Employment and Having enough money.economic security
  • Housing 
  • Health and When a healthcare professional hurts you or doesn't take care of you.medical mistreatment
  • Mental wellbeing 

The Working Group also facilitated focus groups with other disabled young people.

Young person sitting at a laptop and writing notes

What disabled young people told us

Disabled young people in our focus groups talked about ideas for how the Government can make sure all disabled young people are safe and don’t experience violence, abuse, neglect, and exploitation. 

Ideas disabled young people talked about include: 

  • How the Government and services can use When a program or service is made by the people who will use it.co-design with disabled young people to re-design systems.
  • Having more disabled people working in healthcare and support roles.
  • Making sure everyone understands the social and human rights Ways of thinking about disability. The human rights model says that differences are part of life and people with disability should be able to do the same things as everyone else.models of disability soWhen people treat you differently or think you cannot do something because you have a disability.ableism doesn’t happen.
  • Giving young people control of their medical treatment and supports.
  • Ending When people stop you from doing what you want. For example, locking doors so you cannot leave.restrictive practices.
  • Organisations working together more, so there is not gaps in support for disabled young people.
  • Disability awareness training for all organisations that work with disabled young people.
  • Better accessibility in all services.
  • More funding for healthcare, mental healthcare systems, and the NDIS.
  • More awareness about invisible disabilities and more support for people with invisible disabilities. 

The Working Group supported YDAS to make 60 recommendations in our submission. These recommendations will help the Government find solutions t0 problems experienced by disabled young people.  

This will help everyone make a more fair, accessible, and inclusive Australia. 

Illustration of young person taking public transport

Read our submission to the Disability Royal Commission

Download a copy of our full Disability Royal Commission submission below.

Download a Microsoft Word version of our submission

Download a PDF of our submission