Students with disability

The legislative requirements

Students with disability have a range of abilities and needs. Schools must make reasonable adjustments to teaching, learning, and assessment activities so students with disability can access and participate in education.

The Disability Standards for Education 2005 describe what’s required of schools to support students. The adjustments a school makes depend on how the disability affects a student’s learning. They are not based on a diagnosis. Schools work together with parents, carers and the students to decide on the right adjustments. This process is called collaborative curriculum planning.

Definition of disability 

In the legislation, ‘disability’ includes a range of health and learning conditions.

The Disability Discrimination Act 1992 defines disability as:

• total or partial loss of the person's bodily or mental functions
• total or partial loss of a part of the body
• the presence in the body of organisms causing disease or illness
• the presence in the body of organisms capable of causing disease or illness
• the malfunction, malformation or disfigurement of a part of the person's body
• a disorder or malfunction that results in the person learning differently from a person without the disorder or malfunction
• a disorder, illness or disease that:
  • affects a person's thought processes, perception of reality, emotions, judgment
  • results in disturbed behaviour.

It includes a disability that:

• presently exists
• previously existed but no longer exists
• may exist in the future, for example because of a genetic predisposition to that disability
• is imputed to a person.

To impute a disability, the school must have reasonable evidence that a student’s learning is impacted by disability. 

Examples of disability

Examples of disability include:

• difficulties learning and developing literacy skills
• difficulties learning and developing numeracy skills
• learning difficulties or disabilities such as dyslexia, dysgraphia, and dyscalculia
• intellectual disabilities
• mental illness
• emotional and behavioural disturbances
• Autism Spectrum Disorder
• sensory impairment
• physical disabilities such as cerebral palsy
• speech and language disorders
• chronic illness such as chronic fatigue syndrome.

Other factors may affect a student’s learning that are not considered as disability. They include school attendance, English language skills, and gaps in schooling.