Reform of the Disability Standards for Accessible Public Transport 2002 (Transport Standards)

The Transport Standards were introduced in 2002 to provide certainty to operators and providers of public transport services about their responsibilities under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992. There have been significant changes in public transport technology and usage since the Transport Standards came into effect over twenty years ago, including the use of rideshare services, electronic ticketing, and greater availability of passenger information delivered online and in real-time. As such, there is a need to modernise the Transport Standards to meet Australians’ current and future needs.

Feedback received on the exposure draft of the amended Transport Standards will be used to finalise the updated Transport Standards. Once finalised, the instrument will be tabled in parliament. The updated Transport Standards will come into force following a disallowance period. Information will be available to users and operators and providers of public transport in the lead up to the updated Transport Standards coming into effect.

In addition to changes to the Transport Standards, there will be changes to the guidance material that supports the Transport Standards: the Transport Standards Guidelines and the Whole Journey Guide. The Transport Standards Guidelines help operators and providers of public transport understand their responsibilities under the Transport Standards. The Whole Journey Guide helps operators and providers think beyond compliance with the Transport Standards, and to how they can make travelling on public transport a more accessible experience. Updates to this supporting material will occur alongside the legislation updates. More information will be available in the lead up to the release of new guidance.

Once the updated Transport Standards are in force, some of the existing requirements will be maintained, while some will be updated. There will be no changes to the compliance dates set out in Schedule 1 of the Disability Standards for Accessible Public Transport 2002. The reforms do not provide existing assets within any additional time to comply with the current requirements of the Transport Standards.

Reform areas were identified and developed by the National Accessible Transport Taskforce, comprising representatives from the disability community, the public transport industry, technical subject matter experts and governments.

More than 500 participants took part in a range of consultation events and activities including surveys, webinars, focus groups and written submissions.

Some reform areas were agreed in principle or required further work. To conduct this further work, the Department established working groups with people with disability, industry and government. Working groups were established for the following reform areas:

• Braille (reform areas 15 and 16)
• Removable gangways (reform area 42)
• Hearing augmentation (reform areas 9 and 10)
• Reporting (reform area 1)
• Point-to-point transport (reform area 3).

Public submissions to the Stage 2 Consultation RIS can be viewed at the Stage 2 Reforms Have Your Say page.

We have heard about the barriers people with disability have when travelling by air through the:

• 2022 review of the Transport Standards
• Australian Government's Aviation White Paper
• Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability (Disability Royal Commission).

The Australian Government wants to make sure air travel is accessible for people with disability.

In addition to the reforms, we are creating new aviation-specific disability standards (Aviation Disability Standards) as a schedule to the Disability Standards for Accessible Public Transport 2002. Creating new Aviation Disability Standards builds on the reforms to the Transport Standards. The new Aviation Disability Standards are currently being developed through a co-design process with people with disability.

More information, including updates on the co-design process, is available on our Aviation Accessibility page.