When Hawkesbury City Council releases its third Disability Inclusion Action Plan later this year, it will carry the weight of two previous plans behind it and the community’s expectations that this one goes further than those did.
Council has opened consultation for the 2027–2030 DIAP, inviting residents, businesses and community groups to contribute before the plan is finalised. It is the third time the council has produced such a plan, and the framing this time around is explicitly about building on what came before rather than starting fresh.
That continuity matters. Disability inclusion plans live and die by implementation, and a third plan gives the council the chance to revisit commitments that may have stalled, expand programs that worked, and acknowledge gaps that the two previous plans did not close.
The 2027–2030 plan will focus on four areas: attitudes and behaviours toward people with disabilities; accessible systems and processes within the council; employment opportunities for people with disabilities; and liveable communities more broadly. All four align with the NSW Government’s own disability inclusion framework.
Developed alongside the Council’s DIAP Working Group, the plan is intended to produce what the Council describes as practical improvements over the coming three years. What those improvements look like will depend, in part, on what the community tells the council now.
For a region as geographically spread as the Hawkesbury, access and inclusion challenges can look very different from one suburb to the next. The consultation period is the opportunity for those local realities to shape the plan before it reaches the page.
Community members can also provide feedback online via www.yourhawkesbury-yoursay.com.au/disability-inclusion-action-plan-2027-2030 or by contacting the Community Planning and Partnerships Team on 02 4560 4444 or by emailing [email protected] before Friday, 28 August 2026.
