Action plans and action plan guides
Access to action plans provided to the Commission
Registered Disability Discrimination Act action plans - including over 500 plans available for viewing on line or download, together with implementation reports in many cases.
Action Plans are made available on our online register so that organisations developing an action plan can benefit from other organisations' work and experience, and so that people with disabilities can see what an organisation has committed itself to achieving, and contribute their views on how action plans and their implementation could be improved.
If your organisation is submitting an action plan to the Commission, please submit it in electronic form, by emailing a link or a file of the document to disabdis@humanrights.gov.au , rather than on paper, if at all possible. If you are emailing the document for placement on the Commission's site please provide in HTML, text or wordprocessor format if at all possible rather than only in PDF, due to access issues with this format. Large file sizes of wordprocessor documents can be reduced by ensuring images such as logos and photos are saved in the minimum size and quality they need to be.
Resources on developing an action plan
Commission resources
- Developing an effective action plan
- Disability Discrimination Act action plans: A guide for Commonwealth government departments and authorities
- Disability Discrimination Act action plans: A guide for state and territory government departments and agencies
- Disability Discrimination Act action plans: A guide for business
- Disability Discrimination Act action plans: A guide for the tertiary education sector
- Disability Discrimination Act action plans: A guide for non-government organisations
Other resources
Western Australia Disability Services Commission action plan resources
Promoting independence: Disability Action Plans for South Australia (Policy Statement on the adoption of disability action plans by the Government of South Australia, October 2000, with updates and progress reports)
Disability Action Plans: Australian Local Government Association (PDF 4.6MB)
Municipal Association of Victoria
Access awareness booklets from Access Audits Australia
Action plan resources for community legal centres from Victorian Federation of CLCs
US Department of Justice Project Civic Access page
Why action plans?
An action plan is a way for an organisation to plan the elimination, as far as possible, of disability discrimination from the provision of its goods, services and facilities. Although the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) defines action plans in terms of service provision, it makes sense to include employment policies and practices. In so doing, an organisation can more adequately address responsibilities under the DDA.
Developing and implementing an action plan is a voluntary, proactive approach to DDA compliance. It has benefits both for organisations and for people with disabilities. For organisations, the development and implementation of action plans makes sense in terms of enhancing corporate image, delivering services more efficiently and accessing a wider market.
Organisations that have action plans are likely to have consulted with people with disabilities and/or their representative organisations; reviewed their policies and practices, identified barriers for people with disabilities in accessing services, and planned strategies to eliminate these barriers.
For people with disabilities, the implementation of action plans means that eliminating disability discrimination is not dependent on complaints being made against organisations. Discrimination will be less of a factor in everyone's lives.
Action plans and the Commission
Once developed, an action plan can be given to theAustralian Human Rights Commission. In the event of a complaint, the Commission is required by the DDA to consider the organisation's action plan.
The success of an action plan, in terms of eliminating disability discrimination and in being used as a defence against complaints, will largely depend on the effectiveness of the actions taken.
See also speeches by Commissioner Graeme Innes, and former Commissioners Sev Ozdowski, Susan Halliday and Chris Sidoti, and by Senior Policy officer Michael Small on action plans.