Building better: neighbourhoods to benefit children with disability

Expected outcomes of the project include new, co-created insights for how urban neighbourhoods can enable children with disability to thrive and a suite of end-user indicator tools to monitor their progress. Expected benefits include improved policy options and tools for government and advocates to plan and deliver more equitable neighbourhoods, and ultimately better participation, inclusion, and wellbeing for children with disability. 

Australian children with disability experience inferior health and wellbeing to their non-disabled peers and are more likely to be raised in poorer families living in disadvantaged neighbourhoods, which compounds the challenges they face. These poor outcomes are not fundamentally associated with the disability, but rather relate to persistent experiences of social exclusion and material hardship when raised in poorer and more disadvantaged neighbourhoods. We know that improved access and inclusion of people with disability can reduce wellbeing disparities and improve health outcomes for these vulnerable people. What we do not know is how and which neighbourhood features optimise wellbeing for children with disability. This fellowship will overcome this scarcity of information by addressing the important question - what types of neighbourhoods support wellbeing for Australian children with disability? Once known, policy can be shaped to support delivery of effective interventions in disadvantaged neighbourhoods as important strategies for setting optimal wellbeing, social, and economic trajectories of children with disability.

Identifying which neighbourhood features best support participation and inclusion, leading to optimal health and wellbeing, for children with disability has the potential to make a real difference at the population-level. In 2018, 11.4% of boys and 6.4% of girls aged 5-9 years in Australia were identified as having a disability and 16.3% of children at school entry had special needs in 2021. Measuring access to, participation in, and opportunities for independence, such as those afforded through the neighbourhood, are core to the United Nations’ Conventions’ on the Rights of the Child and the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, both ratified by Australia. Australia has committed to progressing and reporting on fulfilment of the rights specified in each Convention. Yet, weaving together neighbourhood built environment and child disability research strands that draws on lived experience to better understand ‘place-based systems’ has had little attention globally, and those most marginalised continue to be excluded from planning processes and outcomes.

Building better responds to these knowledge gaps by asking the fundamental and multi-faceted research question: What types of neighbourhoods support wellbeing for Australian children with disability?

• Hannah Badland

2024 - 2028

ARC Future Fellowship