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Disability Cultural Awareness Training: From Access to Belonging

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This course will equip you with knowledge and skills that create real, lasting change. Rather than surface-level awareness that stops at disability definitions, you'll develop a deep, nuanced understanding that transforms how you design systems, interact with people, and advocate for belonging.

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Learn:

1. Disability as Identity & Culture

Move beyond seeing disability as merely a medical diagnosis or deficit. Understand disability pride, cultural identity, and why language choices matter deeply to different communities.

2. Identify Systemic Barriers

Recognise the attitudinal, sensory, communication, policy, and environmental barriers that stack up to exclude disabled people from full participation in community life.

3. Respectful Interaction Skills

Learn practical communication approaches that honour consent, autonomy, and processing differences, including supporting people who use AAC or communicate differently.

4. Make Reasonable Adjustments

Go beyond minimum compliance to create genuinely flexible, responsive environments in everyday settings like classrooms, workplaces, and community spaces.

5. Understand Family Experience

Gain insight into the coordination burden, emotional load, stigma, and access friction that disability families navigate constantlyā€”and how you can reduce it.

6. Build Practical Belonging

Shift from performative inclusion activities to systemic changes that create environments where disabled people are welcomed, valued, and able to participate fully.

Disability Cultural Awareness Training: From Access to Belonging

  1. Module 1: Understanding Disability Culture

    5 lessons
    1. Disability as Culture: Why "Awareness" Isn't Enough
    2. Three Lenses: Medical, Social, and Human Rights Models
    3. Nothing About Us Without Us
    4. Disability Pride, Identity, and Language
    5. Activity: Spot the Deficit Story

  2. Module 2: The Invisible Labour of Living with Disability

    7 lessons
    1. The Invisible Labour of Living with Disability
    2. The Daily Hidden Admin
    3. The Emotional Load
    4. Case Study: The School Pick up
    5. Case Study: Community Sports Club
    6. Case Study: Medical Appointment
    7. Reflection Activity: Where does my system make it harder?

  3. Module 3: Barriers in the Real World: How They Stack

    7 lessons
    1. Barriers in the Real world
    2. Environmental Access: Physical and Sensory
    3. From Inclusion to Belonging
    4. Communication Access
    5. Attitudinal Barriers
    6. Policy Barriers: When Rules Create Exclusion
    7. Activity - Barrier Mapping your Context

  4. Module 4: How to Engage Respectfully: Interaction Skills That Matter

    5 lessons
    1. How to Engage Respectfully: Interaction Skills That Matter
    2. Consent, Autonomy, and Dignity of Risk
    3. Speaking TO the Person, Not About Them
    4. When Someone Communicates Differently: Foundations
    5. Activity: Quick Wins Checklist: 10 Behaviour Changes

  5. Module 5: Families: What Support Actually Looks Like

    6 lessons
    1. Families: What Support Actually Looks Like
    2. Family Systems: The Full Picture
    3. Why Families "Push": What They're Up Against
    4. Practical Support Behaviours for Families
    5. School and Community Interface
    6. What We Wish You Knew: Lived Experience Voices

  6. Module 6: From Inclusion Theatre to Belonging

    7 lessons
    1. From Inclusion Theatre to Belonging
    2. The Progression: Access ā†’ Inclusion ā†’ Participation ā†’ Belonging
    3. Policies That Harm vs Policies That Help
    4. Universal Design for Learning in Practice
    5. Designing for Variability: Event Planning
    6. From Individual Accommodations to Systemic Design
    7. Three-Level Action Planning Framework

  7. Module 7: Scenarios and Responses: Applying Your Learning

    6 lessons
    1. Scenarios and Responses: Applying Your Learning
    2. Education Stream
    3. Sport & Community Stream
    4. Customer Service Stream
    5. Health & Community Services Stream
    6. Activity: Your Own Scenario Practice

  8. Module 8: Accountability and Next Steps

    7 lessons
    1. Accountability and Next Steps
    2. Self-Check: Do I Default to Assumptions?
    3. Keeping Learning: Disability-Led Sources
    4. Organisational Implementation Pathway
    5. Creating a Disability Advisory Group
    6. Course Feedback: Help Us Improve
    7. From Access to Belonging: Your Impact Begins Now