What does it truly mean to live with disability, and how do policy gaps shape everyday experiences?

Lived Experience of Disability, edited by Damian Mellifont, brings together voices of people with lived experience and committed allies to explore critical issues in Australian disability policy.

Covering topics from restrictive practices and healthcare disparities to barriers in research participation and academic inclusion, this book examines how policy intentions often fall short of meeting real needs. With insights on linguistic deprivation, rural challenges, sensory impairments, and disability leadership, it not only critiques current systems but also points to evidence-based directions for reform.

This is more than an academic resource—it is a call for genuine inclusion, representation, and systemic change. Lived Experience of Disability is ideal for students, researchers, policymakers, and practitioners in disability studies and policy.

Damian Mellifont is a researcher and educator at the University of Sydney whose work advances disability inclusion, policy, and neurodiverse education.

Open Access License

This book is published under an open license. You are free to use it under the terms of the [Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International license][1]1 (CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0). Any unauthorized use outside of this license is a violation of applicable copyright laws.

Open Access Policy

We believe in equity and transparency with our partners, so we use a different approach to funding open access books.

• 5% of all sales is set aside and pooled to fund author-choice open access publishing.
• Every 6 months we track (and publish publicly) our average cost of production.

Open Access Approach

Any of our authors at Lived Places Publishing can opt in to having their book considered for open access publishing. If they opt in, they will forgo royalties on the open access products (royalties will still be payable on printed books).

For more detail on our approach to open access publishing, please see our Open Access Policy, which is available in the footer of every page on the website.

Open Access Titles

Here is the complete list of published and forthcoming open access titles.