Prevention of Gender and Disability Based Violence Audit Toolkit
The Prevention of Gender and Disability Based Violence Audit Toolkit enables organisations to reflect on their capacity to create an environment in which disability inclusive prevention of gender-based violence can occur – and identify and plan for the removal of existing barriers.
The toolkit can assist organisations to review, plan, and monitor progress in gender and disability inclusion and equity. The audit covers the areas of commitment, workplace culture, information and communications, premises and catering, and decision making and continuous improvement. Under each audit area is a collection of related questions, with some further divided into subsections. The toolkit’s auditing and planning templates are available in Word and Excel formats.
In undertaking the audit, organisations can not only increase the inclusivity of their own practices but also role model inclusion for regional partners with whom they work, to collectively prevent violence against women and non-binary people with disabilities before it starts.
Guidance and instructions
These documents help you understand the purpose of the audit toolkit and how to use the tools within your organisation.
Audit Toolkit Guide
The Audit Toolkit Guide outlines the key facts about disability and gender, as well as the impacts of ableism and gender inequality as they lead to violence against women with disabilities. Following is an overview of the strategic and programmatic context from which the toolkit responds, functions, and continues to develop.
The second half of the Guide describes how organisations can use the toolkit to review, plan, and monitor progress in gender and disability inclusion and equity, in the areas of commitment, workplace culture, information and communications, premises and catering, and decision making and continuous improvement in preventing violence against women and non-binary people with disabilities before it starts.
The Guide closes with a full list of resources used to develop the toolkit since its inception in 2019, including those referenced throughout the audit for further examples and learning
How to build capacity for disability inclusive primary prevention of gender-based violence (infographic)
This infographic illustrates how using the audit toolkit informs capacity building for prevention of violence against women and non-binary people with disabilities. It demonstrates the other steps involved in this ongoing process, namely building organisational and workforce capacity; planning for action; creating change; implementing inclusive initiatives; and monitoring, evaluating, and learning.
Auditing and planning
These tools are used to research your current activities and systems, and guide future planning in prevention of gender and disability-based violence.
Within the five Audit Word booklets, the audit questions are accompanied by notes, including examples, suggestions, and resources, which you can explore to support your audit responses, learning, and further planning.
Your audit responses can be used as a reference and baseline to develop goals and implement, monitor, and evaluate actions towards gender and disability equity over time. Use the planning templates to plan for the short, medium, and long term with respect to the resourcing and capacity you identify.
For further guidance and instructions for using these tools, refer to the Audit Toolkit Guide.
Audit 1. Commitment
This audit tool supports your organisation to demonstrate an ongoing, authentic commitment to inclusion for women and non-binary people with disabilities.
The questions relate to how your leadership, board, and senior executive take responsibility to promote, resource, and embed disability and gender inclusion throughout strategy, policy, and practice. This includes being consistent and transparent with your approach, strengthening staff capacity in creating safe spaces for people with lived experience of disabilities and victims/survivors of violence, and building genuine relationships with organisations in the disability and prevention of violence against women sectors.
Auditing commitment can lead to greater accountability and action to challenge the drivers of ableism and inequality, centre lived experience and prevent violence against women and non-binary people with disabilities.
Audit 2. Workplace Culture
This audit tool supports your organisation to demonstrate inclusion of women and non-binary people with disabilities as employees, including regular staff, volunteers, and contractors. These questions relate to your organisation’s culture, diversity, opportunities, and conditions. Using a gender and disability lens, you will consider fairness, equity, and safety, across all aspects of your workplace, including leadership, policy, and practice.
Undertaking this audit can help prevent discriminatory behaviours, challenge harmful gender and disability based stereotypes, and promote diversity of talent across your staff to incorporate throughout leadership positions – all of which contribute to the prevention of violence against women and non-binary people with disabilities.
Audit 3. Information and communications
This audit tool supports your organisation to produce and provide information and communications that are inclusive for women and non-binary people with disabilities. These questions apply to the range of media in multiple contexts with which people may interact as visitors, volunteers, employees, consultants, and partners.
Through this audit, you will assess some of the most immediate barriers for women and non-binary people with disabilities who engage and participate across your services, events, and activities – be this once, or frequently. This audit is inclusive of your organisation’s internal information sharing, communication styles, and use of public communications.
Accessibility and inclusion occur when women and non-binary people with disabilities can engage and participate fully, safely and to an extent equal to that of others, without worrying about meeting their disability related needs or relying on other participants to do so. Meaningful engagement for women and non-binary people with disabilities means that they can feel heard, accepted, and included. This also enhances autonomy, agency and decision making of women and non-binary people with disabilities and strengthens their public perception as equal contributors to community life.
Audit 4. Premises and catering
This audit tool supports your organisation to ensure that all physical spaces and catering provisions for your events, activities and services are safe, accessible, and inclusive for women and non-binary people with disabilities.
Undertaking this audit increases perceptions of safety for women and non-binary people with disabilities and reduces the need for reliance on informal supports to facilitate access. Providing gender and disability inclusive premises and catering actively promotes participation, autonomy and leadership of women and non-binary people with disabilities and demonstrates your organisation’s commitment to the equality of all people.
Audit 5. Decision making and continuous improvement
This audit tool supports your organisation to ensure systematic, inclusive, and fit-for-purpose processes for monitoring, evaluation, reporting and embedding learnings into decision making. The questions span across and strengthen efforts in the areas of the previous audit booklets. The notes and examples offer additional resources for further, intentional, continuous improvement.
A continuous cycle of monitoring, evaluation and learning within and across your policy and practice is critical to identify and address barriers and enablers to participation of women and non-binary people with disabilities in your services, events, and activities. Your organisation will show genuine commitment and action to advance the rights of women and non-binary people with disabilities as decision makers in their own lives and communities, including members of your staff with disabilities.
Planning and measuring for a gender and disability equitable organisation
This tool includes planning templates for developing goals for your organisation and monitoring progress over the short, medium, and long term, in gender and disability inclusion and equity. It also outlines good practice indicator statements for each of the audit areas, for further guidance.
Auditing and planning - alternative format workbook (excel spreadsheet)
You may choose to use this Excel workbook as an alternative template format for responding to the audit and/or further planning. The Audit sheets reflect the entire bank of questions found in each audit area. There are also Plan sheets for each audit area and the final sheet is an optional template to consolidate your planning for several audit areas.