Disability Pride Month 2026
Image ID: Group of VU staff members gathered around Disability Pride Month stall. There is a large Disabiliiy Pride Flag behind the group. On display in front of the group is a banner with text ' Happy Disability Pride Month' with the wheelchair disability logo, the Sunflower Hidden disability logo and text 'Accessibility and Inclusion are Human Rights'.
Each year in July, the world celebrates Disability Pride Month to bring important awareness and celebrate all people with disability, neurodivergence and d/Deaf communities. It is an important opportunity to recognise how inclusion, accessibility and anti-ableism is crucial to making VU and our society a better place.
Disability Pride Month is a time to uplift some of our most marginalised community members and recognise the diverse contributions and achievements of all disabled people. This includes staff and students with disability, while still recognising all the numerous barriers that still exist every day.
There are approximately 5.5 million Australians – 21.4% of the population (1 in 4) – who live with disability. Disability Pride Month is celebrated every July to honour disabled identity, break down ableism and demand full inclusion and equal rights for all Australians with disability.
When people with disability are genuinely included, in a non-tokenistic way – in workplaces, schools, communities and public life – the whole community benefits.
For example: curb cuts, captioning, voice to text, text to voice and audiobooks were all designed for disability. Yet, nowadays, they are used by everyone and benefit everyone. Genuine, dignified accessibility benefits everyone and disadvantages no one. Read more about 'The curb cut effect'.
Check out all the activities we have planned for Disability Pride Month 2026 below.
New accessible versions of our Strategic Plan
By 8 July 2026, VU will have three new additional versions of our Strategic Plan (2022–2030) to help people better understand accessible documentation.
We will have an:
- Easy English version
- Plain English
- PDF tagged Strategic Plan.
These accessible documents have been created by a grassroots proudly disabled accessible communications professional, Laura (she/her) from All for Access.
Our aim is to have all the crucial VU strategy documents to be fully accessible in the coming months.
New streamlined Student Access Plan Pathways
Individual student Access Plans outline recommendations and general guidelines to help academics, educators and support teams implement reasonable adjustments and access needs for students with disability.
We’ve simplified the way Access Plans are written, and Access Plans are now available via the online Access Plan Faculty Portal. Relevant staff will now have immediate and on-demand access to targeted information on what they need to take action to support their students.
VU Collaborate spaces will show which students enrolled in the space have an active Access Plan.
Higher Education unit convenors and timetabled teaching staff can view student Access Plans within the Faculty Portal for each unit during the teaching period.
TAFECourse Managerscan view student Access Plans for their courses within the Faculty Portal and will need to download and share these plans with TAFE teaching staff to enable timely implementation of student access need adjustments.
Our new Access Plan Portal is great progress towards improving the VU staff and student experience. Contact or check out Disability & Accessibility Services for more information.
Staff training to reduce violence against women, girls and gender diverse people with disability
We will be offering training for VU staff in collaboration with and by Women with Disabilities Victoria (WDV) and Our Watch (the national peak body for gender-based violence) to deliver training to staff regarding gender-based violence that impact women, girls and gender diverse people disproportionately. This specific gender-based violence prevention program is ‘Changing the Landscape’.
