What are the Education Standards?

The DDA also gives the Federal Government the power to make Disability Standards in particular areas of life, like education. Disability Standards explain in more detail what rights are protected by the DDA. They also tell organisations, like schools, details about what their obligations are to assist people with disability under the DDA.

Disability Standards help us to understand disability discrimination law better.

In August 2005, the Federal Government made Disability Standards in the area of education, known as the Disability Standards on Education 2005 (the Education Standards). The Education Standards set out the rights of students with disability under the DDA in the area of education. They also set out the obligations of education providers, like schools and universities, under the DDA to assist students with disability in the area of education.

The main aim of the Education Standards is to give students with disability the right to participate in educational courses and programs on the same basis as students without disability. This means a person with disability should have access to the same opportunities and choices in their education that are available to a person without disability.

Sometimes to achieve this aim the Education Standards require an education provider to make adjustments to allow people with disability to take part in education. For example a hearing loop may need to be installed in a university lecture hall to allow people with hearing impairments to access the lecture. However, adjustments must be reasonable and they must not be too hard for the education provider to carry out. The Education Standards help to work out whether adjustments are reasonable and whether they would be too hard to carry out. Education providers and students can use Education Standards as a guide to talk about what adjustments are required and reasonable in their particular circumstances.

A person with disability can make a formal complaint to HREOC if an education provider does not carry out its obligations under the Education Standards.