Mapping public thinking to shift culture on disability in Australia

Reframing an issue can change both how people think and act. Reframing messages and advancing new narratives is a vital part of creating a more inclusive society for people with disability.

The purpose of this project is to conduct research and implement new framing and communication strategies across Australia through workplaces and local communities to, over time, create a deep and sustained shift in Australian culture.

Together we are committed to close consultation with the disability community and have engaged leaders and change makers in this sector to partner and work alongside us in this endeavour.

This project has three phases. In the first phase, we have pulled together the key ideas that those in the disability community want to see change and have deeply examined the cultural mindsets that shape how Australians think about disability and inclusion. These can be thought of as point A (where we are today) and point B (our goal).

The findings from this first phase will be used to develop a suite of framing and communication strategies that can be used to bring about more inclusive mindsets towards disability in the community.

Findings from the first phase

This summary article presents themes that emerged from in-depth interviews undertaken with a diverse group of Australians. This included people with disability, and members of the public across a broad range of demographics.

The core findings from these interviews were tested and substantiated by disability experts and leaders in Australia.

Findings show clearly that harmful ways of thinking about disability persist among Australian communities and block efforts to create a more inclusive society.

This brings into sharp focus the need to shift these patterns of thinking and begins to suggest specific strategies that can be used to do so.

Leaders and change makers in the disability community

The Achieve Foundation upholds that people with disability must be at the forefront of all work that relates to disability. It has been of critical importance to us to engage people with disability as partners and we have built this project together.

We firmly endorse the expertise of leaders and change makers throughout the Australian disability community. As such, members of this community have been involved in the design and review of the research through at-length conversations, consultations, and participation in an advisory panel.

The expertise and knowledge these individuals bring to the table has been instrumental to our methodology in developing this project and will continue to be central as we move forward.

How are we going about our work? 

The project has three distinct phases. This summary article presents findings from phase one (Discovery) and analyses Australians’ current thinking about disability to reveal ways that we can begin to shift it.  

Having established a foundational understanding of mindsets about disability, the themes presented here will inform phase two of the project (Development and Testing), which involves developing and testing a toolkit of framing and narrative strategies that can be used by a wide range of messengers to shift public thinking about disability. During phase three (Implementation and Evaluation), we will implement these strategies through a range of tools and evaluate their impact on how Australians think and act on disability issues.  

We are aiming to complete phase two by late 2024.

Phase 1

Discovery

The discovery phase comprised of two parts:

Stage 1. Where are we going?

We worked in close consultation with disability experts and the literature from the sector to determine the core ideas that we want to shift thinking towards.

Stage 2. Where are we now?

We conducted in-depth interviews with the Australian public to determine what mindsets underpin how people think about disability in Australia today. We designed these interviews and reviewed findings with disability leaders in Australia.

Phase 2

Framing and communication strategies - development and testing

Phase 1 findings will form the basis of development and testing of framing and communication strategies. These will be tested through a range of methods (such as experimental surveys and on-the-street interviews) to determine their effectiveness in shifting people’s thinking about disability.

Phase 3

Implementation and evaluation

After development and testing, the suite of tools and communication strategies will be rolled out to the Australian public through various channels including public and private sector partnerships. We will monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the communication strategies in changing attitudes and behaviours at scale.

Project methodology: How we conducted our research

We conducted interviews

We collected 600 hours of discourse through thirty in-depth interviews with members of the Australian public. This helped us understand not just what Australians think about disability, but how they think. These interviews used a flexible script and open-ended questions, designed to draw out open dialogue with the participants.