Disability Studies

Grey literature

We have gathered some grey literature sources in your field to help you get started, including websites, statistics, policies, and legislation. There are many more valuable resources out there, so we've also included tips for searching Google and Google Scholar.

Recommended websites

• NDIS Care Australia: Information provided on the National Disability Insurance Scheme
• Human Services - Disability: The resource page for the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services with information about the services offered by the DHS and statistics on people with disabilities in Victoria
• Spectronics Inclusive Learning Technologies: As well as providing information about technology for people with a disability, there are links to many other useful sites in the area of disability.
• Early Intervention Services for Children with Disability: Details of the DSS initiative for children with disabilities.
• Disability Services Commissioner: The Commission produces a range of publications and promotional resources. Included are annual reports, newsletters, and papers.
• Inclusive Victoria: state disability plan (2022–2026) : The current State Disability Plan and Victorian Autism Plan, which has been extended until 2027.

Policy and statistics

• Analysis & Policy Observatory: This website is described by the publisher as a research database and alert service providing free access to full text research reports and papers, statistics and other resources essential for public policy development and implementation in Australia and New Zealand.
• Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS): The most comprehensive source of Australian statistical information is published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), Australia's official statistical organisation.
• Disability | Australian Bureau of Statistics: Collection of reports, data, and statistics relating to people with disability in Australia.
• Health Status of Victorians: Survey data and reports about the health status and determinants of health of Victorians.
• Australian Institute of Health and Welfare: National agency for health and welfare statistics.
• Australia's Disability Strategy - Australian Institute of Health and Welfare: Tracking of Australia's Strategy to make life better for people with disability.

Legislation

• AUSTLII - Australian Legal Information Institute: A key source of free Australian legal information including primary legal material such as legislation, treaties and decisions of courts and tribunals.
• Federal Register of Legislation: The Federal Register of Legislation has the most complete and up-to-date collection of Commonwealth legislation and includes notices from the Commonwealth Government Notices Gazette. Access is Free.
• The National Disabilities Insurance Scheme (NDIS) Act: A generational reform which will deliver a system of disability support focused on the needs and choices of people with disability through a partnership between the Australian States and Federal Governments.

Google and Google Scholar

Google and Google Scholar are particularly useful when searching for grey literature, e.g. organisational reports, working papers, government reports and information, statistics, conference papers, patents, blogs, webpages etc.

Google Scholar is a search engine for a variety of scholarly and grey literature - however Google Scholar has a broad scope, does not distinguish between peer-reviewed and non-peer reviewed sources and the algorithm can bias the results that are shown to you. Take a look at our evaluating information webpage to help you check the quality of resources. 

Asking the right questions in the right way

You can get the most out of search engines like Google and Google Scholar by asking your questions in the right way. You will usually find help pages, FAQs, or guides to searching on individual search engine homepages. But here are some common tips to keep in mind:

Try to keep your search queries simple

 

Carefully choose your keywords, and remember to think about alternate terms that could be used

 

If you need to search on a single term, make the term as specific as possible

 

Enclose "exact phrases" in quotation marks

 

Leave out common words, such as the, and, in and at

 

Search tools usually look for word variations, including single and plural terms e.g. Australia will match to Australian, Australia's, Australians etc.

 

Use domains to limit your search to material on specific websites, e.g. .gov.au for Australian government sites

 

For further information on searching Google, please check out our Searching the grey literature guide.