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Preliminary Summary of National Survey Findings

These are preliminary findings only and provide a snapshot of the national survey results. This summary does not include every part of the survey and does not include data from text-based responses in the survey (e.g. where people selected ‘other’ or where we asked for explanations of their responses). This summary also does not yet capture the views of people with disability and communities for whom surveys are difficult to access – those perspectives are being gathered through other parts of our consultation.

Easy read, full survey report and consultation report coming soon!

Total respondents

The Research Agenda survey ran between 19 April 2021 and 15 May 2021 and was advertised via social media and email. 1112 participants completed the survey.

This shows that there was less than expected representation from Western Australia, Tasmania, and the Northern Territory as a percentage of the whole population. Where people were not in Australia and did not identify as Australians they were automatically exited from the survey.

Stakeholder group

We asked people to indicate whether they were a person with disability, family members, worked in services, were policy makers, academics and so forth. People were able to indicate that they were in multiple groups.

The graph below shows the different groups that people
were in:

We asked people to indicate whether they were a person with disability, family members, worked in services, were policy makers, academics and so forth. People were able to indicate that they were in multiple groups.

Policy
Of those participants working in policy, most (44%) were in state and territory government and 37% in federal government.

The graph below shows the different groups that people
were in:

Of those participants working in policy, most (44%) were in state and territory government and 37% in federal government.

Current use of Disability Research


We asked participants about their current use of disability research. 61.4% of respondents currently use research and 34% don’t. 4.7% were unsure whether or not they used disability research.


Research focus
 

Participants were asked to pick up to 7 areas that they would like highlighted in Australian disability research. We provided a list of 46 areas and participants were also able to choose their own (these are yet to be analysed). Options to response were randomised so that people did not just pick the first few responses. Below is listed the top 25 areas prioritised in order of popularity. Areas highlighted in bold were also highlighted as key gaps in the research mapping report.

We asked participants why they had chosen the areas that they identified. The highest number of participants wanted research to impact on policy, service design and advocacy.

We asked participants why they had chosen the areas that they identified. The highest number of participants wanted research to impact on policy, service design and advocacy.
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