Audit of Disability Research in Australia

The initial Audit of Disability Research in Australia was published online in July 2014, and included scientific and grey literature, government and non-government research reports. The current Audit of Disability Research in Australia Update Report 2017, hereafter referred to Audit Update 2017 was commissioned by National Disability Services (NDS), from a funding grant offered under the National Disability Research and Development Agenda, in June 2017 and undertaken by the Centre for Disability Research and Policy (CDRP) at the University of Sydney. The Audit Update 2017, used the same methods as previously, with minor modifications to align with the Centre for Applied Disability Research (CADR) Clearing House protocol. The Audit Update 2017 addressed disability research from Australia in the scientific literature between mid-2013 and mid-2017, and research reports from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), and the Productivity Commission (PC).The major differences between the reports from 2014 to 2017 are:The major differences in the time period between the initial 2014 Audit and the current AuditUpdate 2017 are as follows:• The majority of studies are in the domain of Education rather than Health and Wellbeing asin the 2014 Audit• The three most written about domains are Education, Economic Participation, and SocialRelationships in contrast to Health and Wellbeing, Education, and Economic Participation inthe 2014 Audit• The research designs utilised in the Audit Update 2017 were markedly similar to those in the2014 Audit. The most frequently appearing were qualitative studies and observationalstudies with the least frequently occurring study protocol only, historical analysis andmedia/ creative arts/ cultural analysis. In the 2014 Audit, most frequently occurring studydesigns were observational studies and qualitative studies with the least frequentlyoccurring study protocol only, systematic review, historical analysis and randomisedcontrolled trials (RCTs)• There has been an increase in the number of studies employing designs with larger samplesmore likely to be representative and permitting comparison of the circumstances of peoplewith disability with those of their non-disabled peers, however taken together these designsonly accounted for just under 1/10th of all studies.Further informationhttps://credh.org.au/reports-and-submissions