Introduction
The Disability Advocacy Resource Unit DARU provides many free online courses. DARU is unique in Australia as a dedicated resource unit working with disability advocacy organisations to promote and protect the rights of people with disability.
Their courses are targeted to disability advocates but everyone is welcome to give them a go. The main aim of their training is to provide skills, knowledge and resources that promote a human rights approach to working with people with disability.
Disability Advocacy Courses
An Introduction to Disability Advocacy
Disability advocacy is vital for empowering people with disability to exercise their human rights and avoid discrimination. Disability advocates work to ensure that the voice of the person with a disability is heard and is central to all decision making in all areas of life that affect them.
In this program you will learn:
- How disability advocacy fits into a Human Rights framework
- The basics of discrimination law
- How people with little or no decision making capacity are protected by law
- How advocates use the complaints bodies operating in Victoria to ensure the rights of people with disability are upheld
- What skills and knowledge an effective disability advocate uses
- How to identify and respond to incidents of abuse and neglect
- How to apply advocacy practice
Modules:
- Module 1: Types of Advocacy
- Module 2: To Stand Beside – Disability Advocates At Work
- Module 3: The Human Rights Framework
- Module 4: Tools of the Trade – Introducing Legal Instruments
- Module 5: Safeguards and Oversight
Best Practice in Disability Advocacy
This course is a foundation in how to provide best practice individual advocacy. You will learn how a person with disability works through advocacy issues with the assistance of advocates from a fictional disability advocacy organisation – All Areas Advocacy. Working through a series of real life scenarios you will get practical experience in applying the principles and skills of disability advocacy. This course is unaccredited and is available FREE of charge.
This course is a foundation in how to provide best practice individual advocacy. You will learn how a person with disability works through advocacy issues with the assistance of advocates from a fictional disability advocacy organisation – All Areas Advocacy.
Working through a series of real life scenarios you will get practical experience in applying the principles and skills of disability advocacy.
In this course you will learn:
- The mindset required to be an effective advocate
- The skills and advocacy principles advocates apply in their work
- How the intake process works
- Create an inclusive environment that makes your clients feel respected and heard
- Learn how to develop an advocacy plan
- How to apply decision making, judgement and negotiation skills in practical scenarios
- How to look after yourself as an advocate
Systemic Advocacy
Systemic advocacy is all about creating positive change for many people.
This course is all about ways that we can create this positive change for people with disability. Not just one on one individual change, but change to systems and processes that can have a profound and positive effect for many people.
On completing this course, learners will know:
- What is systemic advocacy and why do we do it.
- How to break down systemic problems, and developing tangible asks to solve that problem.
- Understanding who “targets” are, who are the people that influence them, and how to reach them.
- An understanding of parliamentary and government processes.
- How to develop effective advocacy activities and tactics that can create change.
Advocacy at the Intersections – Working along side LGBTIQA+ people with disabilities
In this course you will learn how to be inclusive for the LGBTIQA+ community and look at how to advocate for LGBTIQA+ people with a disability.
Disability advocacy and the family violence response system
Disability Advocates are highly likely to identify family violence or receive disclosures of experiences of violence in their work. Rates of violence against people with disabilities are around twice as high as across the general population. Yet the links between the disability advocacy sector and the family violence response system is not clear.
This short course provides an overview of family violence response system in Victoria. The content is based off Advocacy Sector Conversation forum session on Family violence response and people with disability in 2022.
Disability Advocacy and the NDIS
In this short course you will learn about how the role of Disability Advocacy intersects with a Participants NDIS journey, and how this role differs from those of Local Area Coordinators and Support Coordinators.
More Courses
Introduction to Disability Awareness
The promotion of disability awareness in our workplaces and communities is vital in establishing a society where people with disability are valued and included. For much of history, people with disability have experienced discrimination and stigma, often primarily associated with society’s misconceptions about their ability.
Ableism: What it is and what we can do about it
People with disability continue to experience significant barriers to social inclusion, equal opportunity in education and employment, discrimination in health and housing, and lack of financial security. This is despite reforms and legislation to protect against these unfair outcomes. It’s the attitudinal and systemic discrimination that legislation can’t protect against.
Human Rights model of disability
The concept that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights is not new. However, it has taken time for that concept to translate to how we treat and include people with disability in everyday life. This course explains the concept of human rights for people with disability.
How to be disability inclusive
This course is a guide to disability inclusion and how to ensure we can all live and work in an accessible world.
Accessible online meetings
This micro course is a quick guide to having accessible online meetings. Just like designing an accessible website or face to face meeting, a bit of planning and consideration is all it takes to make your meeting accessible.
Explore Further
- Self Advocacy Resources from Voices Together
- Learn about Self-Advocacy: Speaking Up by the Research and Training Center on Community Living at The University of Minnesota
- Advocating for work with Judy Heumann by Fable Pathways: Online courses for people with disabilities, by people with disabilities