The sector provides advice on the provision of access to people with disabilities and their families as well as to governments, the building industry, designers, and owners and managers of buildings and facilities. The first national qualifications and units of competency for access consulting were endorsed in 2005 in recognition of the emergence of this significant industry sector and were included in PRD01 Property Development and Management Training Package.
It is generally agreed by the access consulting sector that it offers services across nineteen main areas of activity. People working as access consultants, and organisations providing access consulting services, may provide the full range of these services or may choose to offer only some of these services.
The access consulting services are broadly described as:
· facilitating the development of Disability Discrimination Act Action Plans
· assisting in the development of policy planning
· conducting building access audits
· assessing building plans
· working with building development teams
· providing advice on renovations
· providing advice on renovations to private dwellings
· developing designs for accessible buildings
· providing advice on accessible transport buildings and conducting access audits
· providing advice on accessible transport conveyances and conducting access audits
· providing advice on accessible educational facilities and conducting access audits
· providing advice on accessible aged care facilities and conducting access audits
· providing advice on accessible playgrounds and conducting access audits
· providing advice on accessible urban streetscape design and conducting access audits
· providing advice on accessible rural and national parks and conducting access audits
· teaching, lecturing and presenting seminars
· preparing expert witness reports and giving evidence in court
· providing expert judgement, information and advice
·
serving on a Building Code of Australia Access Panel.
In the redevelopment process a number of changes were identified for the access consulting sector that should encourage greater uptake of the access consulting training and assessment pathways. The packaging rules for qualifications have been revised to ensure that they meet industry requirements and reflect the broad range of working environments of access consultants.
Two qualifications are available in the access consulting sector: a Certificate IV and a Diploma. Access consultants holding the Certificate IV in Access Consulting may work alone or as part of a team and would typically conduct access audits and provide advice on a range of access issues, depending on their area of expertise. Access consultants working in the building industry would provide access advice in relation to the ‘Deemed-to-Satisfy’ provisions of building legislation.
Access consultants holding a Diploma of Access Consulting may also work alone or as part of a team, and would also conduct access audits and provide advice on access issues. In addition to providing access advice in relation to the Deemed-to-Satisfy provisions of building legislation, access consultants holding a Diploma of Access Consulting would typically be required to assess performance-based solutions for the provision of access and provide this advice to a broad range of clients, including building certifiers.
In addition, three new skills sets have been incorporated into the access consulting sector of CPP07 Training Package in order to provide greater recognition of specific vocational outcomes in audit functions. These include:
· Conduct Building Access Audits
· Conduct Outdoor Access Audits
· Conduct Transport Access Audits
For specific information on the access consulting sector, click the link below to the sector guide for access consulting:
| Access Consulting Sector |
