Disability Action Week 2025

Disability Action Week is a time for Queenslanders to reflect on our progress and think about what we can all do to build a more accessible, inclusive state.

The 2025 theme - Communicate. Connect. Create. - reminds us that everyone has a role in improving access for people with disability. When we communicate in accessible ways, connect with others, and create spaces where everyone belongs, our whole community becomes stronger.

Here in the Outback, OIL is celebrating Disability Action Week with a region-wide Creative Competition for children and young people aged 0–18. This is our way of helping the next generation learn about inclusion, celebrate people with disability, and express what accessibility and community mean in everyday life.

Living a Great Life in the Outback

Creative Competition

Children and young people learn through creativity. When they draw, paint, photograph or build something, they are not only expressing their own experiences, they’re also learning how to:

  • Communicate their ideas and thoughts

  • Connect with others around them

  • Create something new, different and expressive

Our competition is about starting conversations about inclusion. It gives us all the chance to think about disability in positive, empowering ways and to celebrate people with disability as part of everyday life in the Outback.

We’re aligning this to Disability Action Week theme’s about encouraging accessible communication, connection across communities, and creative expression from young people.

  • Any creative piece:
    ✔ drawings
    ✔ colouring in (see link below)
    ✔ paintings
    ✔ photography
    ✔ digital art
    ✔ a photo of something you’ve made

    We’ve also created free Outback-themed colouring-in sheets showing inclusive Outback life to help spark ideas.

  • Open to all children and young people aged 0–18 living in Central West Queensland.

    Age categories and prizes:

    • 0–8 years: $100 Smiggle pack

    • 9–12 years: $100 Smiggle pack

    • 13–15 years: $100 prepaid gift card

    • 16–18 years: $100 prepaid gift card

  • Email your entry to: contact@oil.org.au

    Entries close: Sunday 30th November

    Winners announced: Wednesday 3rd December

  • To celebrate Disability Action Week, the Longreach Water Tower will be lit up orange - OIL’s colour - as a symbol of inclusion, visibility and unity across our region.

  • Disability Action Week is a reminder that small changes make a big difference, from using accessible language, to designing inclusive spaces, to inviting more people to take part in community life.

    Through this competition, we hope to:

    • spark conversations

    • build connection

    • celebrate creativity

    • and empower our young people to help shape an inclusive future

    Everyone belongs in the Outback, and everyone deserves the chance to thrive.

Download Colouring Sheets