Who designs for all? Exploring disability in the engineering workforce

Lead: Associate Professor Sue Olney, School of Social and Political Sciences, Faculty of Arts

Engineering shapes virtually every aspect of daily life, yet people with disability remain significantly underrepresented in the engineering workforce and disability receives minimal attention in workforce policy, research, or diversity initiatives.

With 22% of Australians living with disability, and over $213 billion earmarked for public infrastructure investment in 2027–28, there is both a human rights and economic imperative to understand whether and how the composition of the engineering workforce affects the inclusivity of its outputs. The Disability Royal Commission highlighted the costs of people with disability being marginalised by design, yet the relationship between lived experience of disability in the workforce and more inclusive engineering practice remains largely unexplored.

Drawing on academic and grey literature alongside facilitated online focus groups with engineers with disability and allied professionals, including through Engineers Australia's newly established Ability Allies Community of Practice, the project will examine how lived experience of disability in the engineering workforce might strengthen the accessibility, outcomes, and social value of engineering practice. Findings will be captured in a discussion paper and used to inform future research collaborations, grant applications, and industry-facing work on workforce inclusion.

The aim is to build a foundational evidence base on disability inclusion in the engineering workforce, establishing the groundwork for an ongoing interdisciplinary program of research and informing future efforts to make Australian engineering practice more inclusive, representative, and responsive to the needs of people with disability.