Accessible Consent Education

What is Included in Consent?: Accessible Consent Education for Young People with Disability (12-16 Years)

Australia’s consent education aims to prevent gender-based violence, but often fails to be inclusive and accessible – particularly for young people with disability. The absence of comprehensive, high-quality teaching resources leaves people with disability without the necessary tools to navigate consent safely and confidently.

This presentation introduces the early stages of a PhD project aiming to create accessible consent resource for young people with disability aged 12-16.

In an attempt to move beyond a simplistic “yes” or “no” framework, this research explores the deeper skills and understandings essential for meaningful best practice consent education.

Engaging with an expert stakeholder advisory group allowed for discussion centred on two key questions:

1. What constitutes best practice standard consent education?
2. What skills are necessary to effectively teach best practice standard consent education?

This presentation will share insights from this discussion with sector professionals and experts on contextualising consent and defining standards and skills for best practice. By expanding the conceptualisation of consent, it is hoped we can foster a more inclusive, accessible, and practical approach to designing and developing relevant, accessible educational resources that empower young people with disability and support those with low literacy, English as an additional language, or from diverse cultural backgrounds.