Do you support a person with disability who wants to share their story with the Disability Royal Commission?

About the Disability Royal Commission

The Disability Royal Commission is investigating the violence, abuse, neglect, and exploitation of people with disability. It is examining the experience of people with disability in all settings, including workplaces, schools, jails, group homes, boarding houses, family homes, hospitals and day programs. People can talk about what they have experience at any time in their lives.

Disability is defined to mean any kind of impairment. This definition includes people with mental health conditions, physical, cognitive, and psychosocial disability, whether they were born with the impairment or acquired it later in life.

The Disability Royal Commission is inviting people with disability, as well as their families, carers, supporters and advocates, to share their stories and their ideas and recommendations for change. These stories will help the Disability Royal Commission to better understand the problems and barriers that people with disability in Australia face and how to overcome them.

The Disability Royal Commission is running until September 2023. At its conclusion, it will recommend changes to benefit the lives of people with disability in Australia.

How can I help?

You can:

• Let people know about the Disability Royal Commission. We have resources and factsheets you can use and share.
• Start having conversations with the people you support and their families about whether they want to share their story with the Disability Royal Commission.
• If you know someone who is thinking about sharing their story with the Disability Royal Commission, you can refer them to Your Story Disability Legal Support.

About Your Story Disability Legal Support

Your Story Disability Legal Support is a free national service that provides legal support to people to help them to share their story with the Disability Royal Commission safely and confidently. We can give advice on a variety of topics, including:

• The different ways to share a story
• How to keep a story confidential
• Naming people and individuals
• What to do if you have signed a document
• Keeping yourself safe when you share a story

We can provide tailored advice and information to people with disability, as well as supporters, carers, friends and family who are interested in telling a story about what they have experienced, seen, or heard

We are independent and separate from the Disability Royal Commission and anything you tell us will be kept confidential.

For First Nations people, the service is delivered in partnership with community-controlled Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services.

How can I refer someone to Your Story Disability Legal Support?

You can call us on 1800 77 1800 or send us an email.

For people who are deaf, hard of hearing or have a hearing or speech impairment, you can go to the National Relay Service website and give 1800 77 1800 as the number you want to call.

For people who need an interpreter, you can call us on 1800 77 1800 and ask for an interpreter, or call the Translating and Interpreting Service on 131 450 and ask for Your Story Disability Legal Support on 1800 77 1800.

Publication date: 11/10/2022
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