Following extensive community consultation a Draft Disability Inclusion Action Plan (DIAP) was developed and placed on exhibition.
The Draft Plan sets out what Council will do over the next four years to make the Central Coast more accessible and inclusive. This Plan will assist in ensuring that people with a disability can access the same services and supports that the rest of the community can access.
The vision for the Plan is “An accessible and inclusive place to live, visit, work and play” and it has 4 focus areas:
- Increasing positive attitudes and behaviours towards people with disability
- Making the Coast more accessible, liveable and inclusive
- Increasing meaningful employment for people with disability
- Improving access to Council services through better systems and processes
The draft Plan is based on what people with disabilities, their families and carers told us, as well as people who work in the disability sector and Council’s Access and Inclusion Reference Group. It is still important to ensure that we have got in right.
Submissions were to be addressed to the Chief Executive Officer, Mr David Farmer between 16 August and 13 September 2021 via email, post or by completing the online submission form.
There were a number of ways you could view the draft DIAP including:
- Reading the full draft document available in the document library
- Viewing the easy read version
- Watching the Auslan video summary prepared for the draft DIAP:
The Disability Inclusion Action Plan was adopted at the meeting of Council on the 26 October 2021, visit Councils main website to view the adopted plan.
Something you need to know: Under the Government Information (Public Access) Act, 2009 (GIPA ACT), members of the public can seek access to the submissions and council cannot give assurance that the document will remain confidential.
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Why has Council prepared a new Disability Inclusion Action Plan?
Under the Disability Inclusion Act 2014, all Councils are required to have a plan in place to show what they will do to make sure that mainstream services are available to people with disability. Council’s current Disability Inclusion Action Plan 2017 – 2021 ends at 30 June 2021, so we need a new plan to replace it.
About 1 in 5 people have some form of disability and the likelihood of disability increases as we age. We want to make the Central Coast accessible and inclusive for everyone. The Draft Plan will help us to achieve that.
How many people with disability live on the Central Coast?
- 61,000 people with disability are living on the Central Coast (1 in 5 people).
- 22,000 people on the Central Coast need help with day to day living due to disability.
- 33,600 people provide unpaid care for someone due to disability, long term illness or old age.
What does ‘accessible’ and ‘inclusive’ mean?
‘Accessible’ means that something is easy to access for everyone. It can mean easy to get to or get around, or easy to use or understand.
‘Inclusive’ means that everyone can be involved, or everyone is included.
If a place or event is accessible and inclusive, then it is made to be easy for everyone to use and everyone is invited to get involved.
Were people with lived experience of disability involved in the plan?
Yes! Council invited people with disability, family members and carers to fill in a survey or join an online forum. We also had targeted discussions with people with disability to make sure we heard from a range of groups, as well as people working in the disability sector.
Council’s Access and Inclusion Reference Group is made up of people with lived experience of disability and sector workers. This group helped Council by reviewing the surveys, advising on accessibility, assisting to develop the actions and reviewing the draft plan.
We are now asking people with disability, people working in the disability sector and the rest of the community to give us feedback on the draft plan.
How can I get involved?
Between 16 August and 13 September the community were invited to fill in the online submission form which is now closed. If an alternative solution for providing a submission was required, the community could contact us to discuss an option that was best suited.