ADCET Talking Tertiary with Graeme Innes

ADCET

The Talking Tertiary (TT) podcast series invites leading disability advocates from the community to share their expertise in supporting people with disability in tertiary education. We ask our guests to reflect on the changes they have seen in the sector and what the future of disability inclusion looks like.
In this episode of the podcast, we speak to Graeme Innes, Chancellor at Central Queensland University, about the importance of having people with disability in senior leadership roles in tertiary education. We discuss how senior leaders and education providers can better meet the needs of their students with disability, drawing from Graemes' personal experiences while he pursued his Bachelor of Law.

We explore whether the experiences of students with disability in tertiary education have improved over time and what advice he would give to embarking students or current students in today's university context. Graeme shares the thing that made the most difference to his completion of tertiary education and offers one or two things tertiary providers can do to ensure success for students with disability.

We delve into the adoption of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in tertiary contexts and discuss whether there is a risk that specific expertise relating to disability in tertiary education beyond UDL will be lost. We also explore whether it is time for a review and reform of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) and the Disability Standards for Education (DSE) to give greater protection of the rights of people with disability.

Graeme shares his thoughts on how well matched our domestic legal responses to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities are relating to education, and what we as a sector can do together to advocate for improvements. We discuss the need to help leaders understand how important it is to invest in tertiary education for people with disability and how to ensure that people with disability leaving school have meaningful access to career advice and supports post-school that focus on the value and impact of tertiary education.

Overall, this episode provides valuable insights into the experiences of students with disability in tertiary education and what can be done to better support their needs. The conversation between Darlene and Graeme is engaging and informative, offering practical advice and thought-provoking ideas for educators and leaders in the tertiary education sector.

Chapters

1. ADCET Talking Tertiary with Graeme Innes (00:00:00)

2. So how important is it that people with disability are seen in leadership roles? (00:00:53)

3. Talk a little bit about your experience from when you were a student within the tertiary sector. (00:02:35)

4. If you're a student that's about to embark on studying, or you're a current student with disability, any suggestions or advice that you would give those students today in a university context while studying? (00:06:52)

5. In relation to tertiary providers, is there one or two things that you could, you know, advise tertiary providers, the university sector and the VET sector around what things that they could do to ensure success of students with disability. (00:09:25)

6. Do you think there is a risk that specific expertise relating to disability in the tertiary education, beyond Universal Design for Learning, could get lost in this? (00:14:08)

7. Have you had time to consider the impacts of Sklavos versus… which was on The rights of a future students with disability in tertiary education and what might be able to do about reforming the Disability Discrimination Act and Disability Standards in Educ (00:17:28)

8. With the obligations that we have around the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability, how well do you think the Act currently represents that? And is that some focus that you'll be looking at that convention when you're actually (00:19:21)

9. So what's your thought, or how do you think, we can help politicians and leaders to put tertiary education fairly and squarely, you know, at the forefront of the lives of people with disability? (00:20:31)

10. Is there any final words that you would like to say on finishing? (00:23:37)

11. Will you be looking at disability and how that university supports students and what are the issues that are kind of existing there at the moment? (00:24:39)