The Australian Government is committed to creating spaces that reflect the diversity of our communities.
This commitment is key to the APS Disability Employment Strategy 2020-2025, which aims to increase the employment of people with disability to 7% by 2025.
This means designing buildings and workplaces to support people with a wide range of physical, sensory and cognitive needs. An effective APS needs a diverse workforce that is reflective of the community it serves.
The Final Report on Action 10, led by the Department of Finance, identified common accessibility barriers across APS properties. It made 3 recommendations that included the development of tools and resources to help agencies reduce barriers in buildings and workplaces. Read more about the report.
Tools and resources
To help entities reduce property barriers, the following tools and resources have been developed:
- Property Assessment Accessibility Tool
- Building Accessibility Guide
- guidance
- fact sheets.
Property Accessibility Assessment Tool
The Property Accessibility Assessment Tool (PAAT) is a checklist that helps entities identify and address property barriers in the workplace to support inclusivity. It was developed in collaboration with Autism Queensland's Community Inclusion team.
Read more about the PAAT.
Building Accessibility Guide
The Building Accessibility Guide helps entities create a guide that shares key information about building access and navigation with staff and visitors.
Find out how to create a Building Accessibility Guide.
Guidance
Guidance has been developed to help entities understand benchmark requirements and inclusive design considerations that support them.
The following guidance was developed in collaboration with Autism Queensland’s Community Inclusion team:
Fact sheets
The following fact sheets aim to build knowledge on property accessibility and inclusion. They were developed in collaboration with Autism Queensland's Community Inclusion team:
- Universal design principles - to create environments that are usable by a wide range of people.
- Understanding neurodiversity - to help entities better understand and support diverse cognitive needs in the workplace.
