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Staff profiles

Personal details

Name
Dr Lisa Stafford
Position(s)
Senior Lecturer
Faculty of Health,
School - Public Health and Social Work
IHBI Membership
Institute of Health Biomedical Innovation (IHBI),
IHBI Health Projects,
IHBI Public Health and Social Work - HDHS
Discipline *
Human Geography, Policy and Administration, Urban and Regional Planning
Phone
+61 7 3138 4595
Email
Location
View location details (QUT staff and student access only)
Identifiers and profiles
ORCID iD Twitter LinkedIn
Qualifications

PhD (Queensland University of Technology)

Professional memberships
and associations

Institute of Australian Geographers (IAG) – Member

Planning Institute of Australia (PIA) – Full Member

Disability Leadership Institute (DLI) – Member

Centre for Universal Design Australia – Member

Keywords

Disability, Participation, Inclusive Communities, Children and young people with disabilities and diverse childhoods, Participatory research methods, Lived Experinces & Phenomenology, Transition to work and education, Neighbourhood and open-space planning for all abilites and ages inc. walkability and play, Spatial Justice, Universal Design

* Field of Research code, Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC), 2008

Biography

Dr Lisa Stafford  is a social scientist, social/community planner and human geographer with 20 years’ experience in the field of disability and inclusion with specific focus on the social-spatial needs of children, young people and their families.

Lisa’s expertise is in building inclusive communities, and was recently awarded the highly competitive Australian Research Council – DECRA Fellowship 2019 in Inclusive community planning for people with disabilities in regional areas.

Her other strength is in using visual creative participatory methods that enable all people, in particular children and people with complex communication needs, to be heard in research and engagement.

In 2018 alone she was awarded nearly half a million dollars in research funding:

  • 2018 – $110,000 grant– Empowering Children’s Voices in services research project with UnitingCare  – Lead CI
  • 2018 – $383,960.00 – ARC DECRA 2019 – DE190101512 – category 1. Title: Inclusive community planning for people with disabilities in regional areas.

In addition to her work as an academic, Dr Stafford has worked in practitioner, management and director roles in government and non-government organisations. Dr Stafford’s work has included the development and management of All Abilities Playground projects across Queensland.

Research Specialties: person-environment interaction studies (environmental psychology and social ecological systems), geographical phenomenology and participatory research methods that enable all people, in particular those with complex communication needs, to be heard in research.

Research Interests:

  • Inclusive Communities and Social-Spatial Justice Interested in creating inclusion and equality through understanding the complexity of social and spatial injustices.  Specific areas of interest: neighborhoods, mobility studies, inclusive play spaces, and regional perspectives.  Interested in Spatial Justice theorizing and Body-space politics.
  • Participation and Disability Interest in understanding the meaning of participation and the journey (routines and processes) to achieve genuine participation for people with disabilities. Specific interest is in children and young people with complex disabilities.  Phenomenology, interactional model and human ecological system approaches are common frames to examine participation.
  • Transition and Young people with disabilities Interested in the transitional journey from education to work for young adults with disabilities. This includes taking a systems approach to understanding the complex policy/programmatic, social-cultural, and geographical influences that shape experiences and participation outcomes.
This information has been contributed by Dr Lisa Stafford.

Teaching

Supervision topics include:

  • Disability Social & Economic Participation
  • Disability and childhoods
  • Inclusive Communities & Spatial Justice
  • Universal Design
  • Person Environment Studies & Everydayness

Supervision research methods include:

  • Phenomenology – Lived experiences
  • Interpretative Policy Analysis
  • Post-occupancy evaluations
  • Participatory research methods

Teaching:

Current lecturer/unit coordinator – SWB306 – People, Community, Disability; SWB102 – Human Development and Behaviour; SWB212- Community and Place Base Practice  in School of Public Health and Social Work.

Past teaching: School of Design’s undergraduate theoretical subjects: DTB403 Design Psychology and DTB504 Design in Society.

Also guest lectured in Masters level unit LCN601 – Designing Spaces for Learning on topics of inclusion and universal design.

This information has been contributed by Dr Lisa Stafford.

Experience

Translating Knowledge to practice – Workshops/Seminars

  • 2017, invited to deliver a seminar and design inquiry workshop on community planning and universal design organised by Sunshine Coast Regional Council and USC in June 2017; https://www.sunshinecoast.qld.gov.au/Council/News-Centre/Attend-the-Inclusive-Tourism-and-Community-Planning-Forum-300517
  • 2017, invited to deliver a master class to Stockland in Sydney on behalf of Touched By Olivia Foundation on inclusive environments in shopping centres 2017.
  • 2017 invited to speak to Indonesia Ministry for Disability visit on the Social Model of Disability and Inclusive Spaces – Cases of play spaces.
  • 2017, invited to deliver Australia Awards Fellowships – AAF QUT workshop with women with disabilities from Ghana on building inclusive communities for women and girls with disabilities.
  • 2018 invited to deliver Australia Awards Fellowships – AAF QUT workshop with representative from Tonga on building inclusive communities for people with disabilities.
  • 2018 invited to deliver workshop to Vietnam Department of Transport staff on the development of inclusive transport and inclusive economic development on the intersection of gender and disability. Australia Awards Short Course: Project Implementation to Optimise Gender Outcomes-AUS4REFORM.
  • 2018 – Building Inclusive Communities presentation– NDIS and Business Opportunities – Gympie Regional Council and Chamber of Commerce – 20 June 2018 https://gympiechamber.com.au/?tribe_events=national-disability-insurance-scheme-opportunities-for-business
  • 2018 – Hosting Team Member, for Changing Lives, Changing Communities Forum – QCOSS, QDN, ADCQ. Brisbane 27-28 November 2018. https://www.qcoss.org.au/qcoss-event-changing-lives-changing-communities-brisbane
  • 2019 – Appointed to the Virtual Centre Expert Advisory Panel for Women With Disability Australia

Edited Book

Mclean, L., Stafford, L., and Weeks, M. (eds). (2014). Exploring Bodies in Time and Space. Oxford: Interdisciplinary net. ISBN: 978-1-84888-246-1.

Book Chapters

Stafford, L., Adkins, B., & Franz, J. (2014). “The Habitual Rhythms of Becoming-Involved: Insights into participation experiences in urban spaces by children with diverse mobility”. In L. McLean, L. Stafford, and M. Weeks (eds), Exploring bodies in Time and Space. Inter-disciplinary net: Oxford. ISBN: 978-1-84888-246-1

Stafford, L. (2014). “Journey of Becoming Involved in Urban Spaces by Children with Diverse Mobility”. In Buccieri, K.  Body Tensions: Beyond Corporeality in Time and Space. Oxford: Interdisciplinary net. ISBN: 978-1-84888-286-7.

Mclean, L., Stafford, L., and Weeks, M. (2014) “Introduction”. In Exploring Bodies in Time and Space. Inter-disciplinary net: Oxford. ISBN: 978-1-84888-246-1. Adkins B., Chamorro-Koc M., Stafford, L. (2015). “Designing New Motilities for Accessible Cities: Scenarios for Seamless Journeys”. In Arraya, D. (ed.), Smart Cities as Democratic Ecologies. Palgrave MacMillan. ISBN: 9781137377197.

Journals

Stafford, L. & Voltz, K. (2016). Diverse bodies-space politics: Towards socially just built environments. TEXT, Special Issues, 34. http://www.textjournal.com.au/speciss/issue34/Stafford&Volz.pdf

Stafford, L. 2017. Journeys to Play: Planning Considerations to Engender Inclusive Playspaces. Landscape Research, 42(1). http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01426397.2016.1241872

Stafford, L. 2017. What about my voice? Emancipating the voices of children with diverse abilities through participant-centred methods. Children’s Geography, online. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14733285.2017.1295134

Stafford, L. & Baldwin, C. 2017. Planning walkable neighbourhoods: Are we overlooking diversity in abilities and ages? Planning Literature. Accepted 22 March 2017, online. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0885412217704649?journalCode=jplb

Stafford, Lisa, Gregory Marston, Marianella Chamorro-Koc, Amanda Beatson, Judy Drennan, 2017.  Why a one size fits all approach to transition hinders employability of young people with disabilities in Australia. Journal of Industrial relations, 59 (5),  pp. 631–651. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0022185617723379.

Published Conference papers and Abstracts – 5

Conference Presentations International and national – 14

Key Note Speaker

Stafford, Lisa. (October, 2015). Round Table 3. Children, Young People and Everyday Environments. “Through Their Journey’s: Understanding inclusivity of everyday environments for Children, Young People and Families. “ State and Status of Inclusive Design in the Australian Context Workshop, 20 October 2015, Brisbane.

Research Translation Design Practice – Inclusive PlaySpaces

In 2003, Dr Stafford first seeded the idea of creating public all abilities playgrounds as a form of respite and enhanced community participation for children and families. This evolved into the development of the award-winning Pioneer Park’s All Abilities Playground at Landsborough. Since this time, she has been intensively involved in creating and promoting inclusive play-space design.  She developed and project managed the expansion of the pilot play-space into the $5M funded Queensland All Abilities Playground Project for Queensland Government between 2007-2010. This project engaged 16 local governments and industry to create 16 All Abilities Playground as well as an e-All abilities playground develop by sonakids. Since this time, Dr Stafford has been involved in more advisory roles such as National Inclusive Playspace Strategy as well working with local councils on identifying problems and solutions (access audits and ideas) to make public parks into inclusive playspaces.

Awards

  • 2018 – $383,960.00 – ARC DECRA 2019
  • International awards program, ACCESS-IT – best practice in relation to accessibility All Abilities e-Playground  ACCESS-IT 2009 Best Practice Publication.  – Online All Abilities e-Playground created by Sonakids in conjunction with QAAPP and Gold Coast City Council, provided two gateways to playing the same online program – real example access for all.
  • QLD Government Premiers Awards – Highly Commended, Engaging and Serving Communities, Pioneer Park All Abilities Playground. Sunshine Coast Region, Disability Services Queensland 2006
  • PRAV/Parks & Leisure Australia  –  NationalPlayground Design Award – Pioneer Park All Abilities Playground 2006;
  • Kids Safe – Certificate of Commendation, Innovation in Industrial Design – Pioneer Park All Abilities Playground 2006.
This information has been contributed by Dr Lisa Stafford.

Publications

For publications by this staff member, visit QUT ePrints, the University's research repository.

Research projects

Grants and projects (Category 1: Australian Competitive Grants only)

Title
Inclusive Community Planning for People with Disabilities in Regional Areas
Primary fund type
CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
Project ID
DE190101512
Start year
2019
Keywords
Title
Seamless Journeys to Work for Young Adults with Physical Disabilities
Primary fund type
CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
Project ID
LP150100168
Start year
2015
Keywords

Supervision

  • Supervision topics include:

    • Disability Social & Economic Participation
    • Disability and childhoods
    • Inclusive Communities & Spatial Justice
    • Universal Design
    • Person Environment Studies & Everydayness

  • Supervision research methods include:

    • Phenomenology – Lived experiences
    • Interpretative Policy Analysis
    • Post-occupancy evaluations
    • Participatory research methods

  • Completed PhDs:  Steele, Emily. (2017) The right choice? An interpretive policy analysis of assistive technology in Australian disability services. UQ.

Current supervisions