Equal education for teens and young adults with disability

Navigating high school, TAFE and university as a disabled young person.

You can read the full transcript of the event here.

The full recording is available here.

Summary

• This event was about equal education for teens and young people adults with disability, specifically, navigating high school, TAFE and university as a disabled young person.  

• The event was hosted by Kiz Blanca-Jackson, who is a community organiser and disability rights advocate, and Sophie Geeves, who is a disability advocate and CPActive Champion. 

• In the weeks leading up to the event, there was a survey sent out to people who registered for the event. The survey asked people questions about their experiences with high school, TAFE and university.  

• Kiz and Sophie began the event by sharing some of the interesting things that came out of the survey.  

• They shared some information about their own experiences with TAFE & university support and the role of teachers in the education system. 

• The first speaker was Madeleine Gay from Children and Young People with Disability (CYDA). Madeleine talked about the biggest challenges young people with disability face navigating high school and university. 

• Madeleine also spoke about what CYDA has learned from its recent national education surveys.  

• Madeleine finished up by talking about some of CYDA’s recommendations to the Department of Education to make education fairer and more inclusive.  

• The second speaker was Brooke Canham, who has over 5 years of experience working in the disability sector, currently as a Policy officer with Inclusion Australia.  

• Brooke talked about the polished pathway, which shows how people with intellectual disability are put on a different path from people with and without disability. 

• After a short break, we heard from Ryan Rowland from Up the Hill, a program that supports people with intellectual disability go to university. Ryan talked about his own experience of attending Flinders university and shared his positive memories from the opportunity. The audience was then invited to ask Ryan questions.  

• Then there was an audience Q&A with all the speakers.  

• The event closed with an invitation to register for the March 2026 Open Dialogue event which will be about friendships, relationships and intimacy.