Australia’s disability strategy data reveals incremental gains, offset by ongoing health and social inequities.
Australia’s efforts to drive inclusion and improve outcomes for people with disability have yielded some notable gains, but the latest summary of the Disability Strategy 2021–2031 Outcomes Framework shows continuing gaps and emerging inequalities.
The 4th Annual Report Summary 2025, published by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, provides a comprehensive snapshot of how 32 key indicators have changed over time to show what is working and where progress has stalled or reversed.
The strategy is a national 10-year plan to “measure, track and report on the progress for people with disability,” and uses a suite of indicators across seven outcome areas including employment, education, health, community attitudes and safety.
In 2025, 12 measures showed improvement, pointing to areas where systemic changes appear to be making a difference. Among the most visible shifts was an increase in the proportion of people with disability who feel represented in leadership roles, rising from 19% in 2022 to 23% in 2024, reflecting slow but positive movement toward inclusion in decision-making spaces.
Health outcomes showed mixed results. There was an encouraging decline in involuntary hospital admissions among people with disability – from 2013 to 1841 per 100,000 people over the course of recent reporting periods.
Education participation also rose in key areas, with the share of undergraduate higher education students with disability increasing from 10% in 2021 to 13% in 2023, a sign that access to tertiary study may be improving, though completion rates for students with disability have changed little.
The labour market showed modest positive momentum, with the proportion of National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) participants aged 15–64 years in the labour force in open employment at full award wages rose from 20% to 24% over recent quarters, an important marker of economic participation and financial independence for people with disability.
Despite these improvements, the report underscored entrenched challenges and areas of concern where outcomes have either stagnated or deteriorated. Ten measures showed little or no change, particularly in community attitudes: five of seven related indicators indicated that societal perceptions and inclusivity remain largely static, a trend researchers say reflects the slow pace at which deep-rooted behaviour and cultural norms evolve.
Regressions were observed across another 10 indicators, with one of the starkest examples being housing.
“The average waiting time for social housing has increased since baseline,” the report said.
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“In 2023−24, households with people with disability were waiting an average of 547−811 days for newly allocated social housing through available government housing schemes.”
In health, potentially avoidable deaths in hospital for people with disability remained significantly higher than for those without disability, with 238 per 100,000 compared with 33 per 100,000.
This disparity pointed to systemic issues in healthcare equity, the report said.
Another measure of concern was the proportion of disability discrimination complaints successfully resolved by conciliation, which decreased from 72% to 61%, signalling potential challenges in access to justice and effective redress.
The 2025 summary also introduced several new measures reported for the first time, broadening understanding of lived experiences.
These inaugural indicators showed that while 80% of people with disability could access mainstream support services when needed, they were less likely than those without disability to access preventive and early intervention health care (66% versus 82%), reflecting ongoing gaps in preventive health access.
The data highlighted geographic disparities too.
“Location can impact access to supports and services and community inclusion. Distance can multiply the difficulties for people with disability, creating barriers to effective participation and inclusion,” the report said.
NDIS participants living in remote areas were less likely to secure needed workplace support, be employed at full award wages, or feel the NDIS had improved their choice and control, compared with peers in major cities.
Students with disability in remote regions also experienced lower completion rates for vocational education and higher education qualifications compared to metropolitan counterparts.
Read the full report here.