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Penny McCulloch and Sheena Cranwell, TAFE Queensland

This presentation is intended to provide an insight into innovative practices developed by TAFE Queensland AccessAbility Officers [TQ ASOs] to ensure accessible delivery for students within the vocational training environment. With the shift to the online delivery of courses, one obvious challenge is how can students build practical skills without a purpose-built environment, reflective of industry standards. Presenters will share insight into various approaches to working in the online space. The goal to continue Good Practice in Access Ability Support was and is achievable despite evolving changes when equitable practices are key in service delivery.

David Pech, Centre for Disability Studies, and Tahli Hind, uni 2 beyond alumna

Should a person’s IQ determine their opportunities in life? uni 2 beyond (an initiative of the Centre for Disability Studies) has been developed and successfully implemented at the University of Sydney to empower people with intellectual disability to engage in university life and to progress from there to meaningful employment. The presentation will include perspectives of current students and alumni. The presenters will reflect on successes to date and the gaps that still exist so that more opportunities for inclusion can become available across Australia.

The honorary life membership is reserved as an honour to be bestowed by ATEND in recognition of an individual’s outstanding contribution to the objects of ATEND.

This years ATEND honorary life membership recipients are Kay Dean and Darlene McLennan, with Cathy Easte presenting their awards. Both nominations were unanimously endorsed by the ATEND National Committee.

Jen Cousins, TAFE SA and Meredith Jackson, TAFE Queensland

This presentation explores the key challenges equity practitioners experience in working with educators in responding effectively and appropriately to access plans, the challenge of building educator capability in facilitating conversations, exploring inherent requirements and reasonable adjustments, and documenting these negotiations and agreements. We will showcase the new professional learning framework and resource, developed by our COP, encompassing the purpose of the access plan; educator and equity practitioner roles and responsibilities and strategies to optimise a positive learning experience for students with disability.

Brandon Taylor, TAFE Queensland

In 2018 Student Support Disability Officers and Counsellors at TAFE Queensland Brisbane region met to discuss their observations regarding the increasing prevalence of mental ill health in the student population and the effects on individual students’ participation. Critically, observations also identified impacts within the wider classroom, affecting the training environment, teaching & delivery and the subsequent influences on educators and their personal mental health and wellbeing. The presentation will give an overview of this journey, the challenges, solutions, content and delivery of the workshop including statistics highlighting the feedback to date 2019-20.

Amelia Dowe, Doug McGinn, Debbie Hindle, Carol Devereaux and Alexis Smith, University of Tasmania

This presentation will share our progress towards a model of integrated student support between the Disability and Student Learning areas at the University of Tasmania over the past two years. Our starting point was an ad hoc approach in response to immediate problems. Over time, we have worked towards improving our service through a proactive approach to common issues, knowledge sharing and capacity building within and between teams. In these times of constrained resourcing, we aim to do so by tapping into existing resources and skillsets within the university to meet student needs.

Edward Osano and Rebecca Riley, GradWISE

GradWISE is a revolutionary service developed by WISE Employment and Swinburne University to assist tertiary students and graduates living with disability to gain meaningful and commensurate employment. In response to Covid-19, GradWISE has implemented online learning and networking services to assist participant’s progress on their employment journey and address the pandemics impacts. These include GradWISE online masterclasses, GradWISE Live, a safe online space and community, and Peer Support, connecting participants with former GradWISE members who are now employed.

Kate Halpin, Specialisterne Australia

Specialisterne Australia is a non-for-profit dedicated to helping employers understand, value, and include in their workforce the unique capabilities of people on the autism spectrum. In our presentation we will explore how our patient, innovative recruitment method removes barriers, the steps we take to train and match candidates into meaningful roles and the success we have had working with employers to integrate neurodiversity into the workplace.

Jen Cousins, TAFE South Australia

In July 2020 TAFE SA introduced a new educational leadership role, a Teaching and Learning Specialist in Accessibility and Inclusive Education. This specialist will be responsible for providing leadership, authoritative advice and strategic guidance on best practice in access and inclusive education across the educational programs. This presentation will share some of the learning that has occurred since this role was created, highlighting conceptual frameworks, critical thinking, and challenges in the initial development of this role.

Debbie Hindle, University of Tasmania

An easy way for creating wellbeing habits that stick. Most of us find making positive changes in our lives to be harder than it looks. The Behaviour Design approach by BJ Fogg (from Stanford University) gives an evidence-based and simple process to make change easy. Tiny habits can help us be more successful and feel good along the way.