Disability Practitioners

Disability Practitioners are known variously as Disability Liaison Officer, Disability Advisor, Access Officer, Integration Coordinator, Teacher Consultant or Disability Officer.

Disability Practitioners have complex roles and this can include performing a range of functions to support students or staff with disability and contribute to disability inclusion. Although position descriptions vary, primary functions are likely to include:

• assisting students to identify the implications of their disability for study and assessment
• documenting adjustments and services required in the form of a Learning Access Plan (or similar)
• providing information to students and staff about available support services, assistive technology, learning strategies accommodations or adjustments
• managing interpreting and notetaking services
• providing disability education, training and awareness for staff
• assisting teaching and support staff to problem-solve issues
• assisting the institution in the development and implementation of action plans, policies and procedures to ensure disability services are main-streamed
• assisting in balancing the rights of individual students and the interests of the institution.

In this section, we cover a range of key topics including:

• primary functions and breadth of your role
• legislation and standards
• reasonable adjustments
• student access and support
• course design and implementation
• professional development
• data and evaluation
• and more.

Stay up-to-date!

Disability Practitioners can subscribe to the AustEd email list. AustEd is an initiative of the Australian Tertiary Education Network on Disability (ATEND) and is a closed list, its aim is to facilitate discussion and information-sharing among disability practitioners and teachers within the post-secondary education sector.   Discussions focus on inclusive teaching, learning and support for people with disability in this sector. For more information, including how to subscribe, go to austed-list online form - this is also where subscribed members need to go to to access archived emails,