The Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability wants to know what can be done to change attitudes towards people with disability so that they are better included in society. UNSW and Flinders University researchers examined effective policies to change attitudes, using an evidence review and national interviews.

Most interventions focused on one aspect of disability or on disability and one other aspect of diversity, such as culture, gender or sexuality. Some structural interventions in other policy areas, such as women’s safety, considered diversity associated with disability.

The interventions were aimed at different levels where change may occur: people’s personal perceptions, their interactions with other people, their roles in organisations or the structures in their community and government. Interventions to change attitudes were often aimed at more than one of these levels.

Strategies to change attitudes were often a combination of complementary policy types, intervention types and multiple levels of intervention. Types of policy included communication/ marketing, guidelines, fiscal, regulation, legislation, environmental/ social planning and services. Types of intervention were information and contact, structural interventions and requirements.