Western Australia has a beautiful, diverse and supportive natural environment that provides material, aesthetic and spiritual benefits. These benefits should be regarded as an essential part of the livelihood and quality of life of all Western Australians, including people with disabilities. People with disabilities are among the visitors to parks and recreation facilities managed by the Department of Environment and Conservation. They are among people seeking information from DEC's public information counters and are included among departmental employees.

DEC is among the most decentralised State Government agencies, with more than half of its workforce employed in regional areas. In addition to its head office in Perth and other metropolitan work centres in Crawley, Kensington, Fremantle, Booragoon, Woodvale and Wanneroo, DEC operates from nine Regional and 34 District and local centres, as well as from a number of other locations.

DEC is also the major provider of outdoor recreation areas and facilities in natural areas in Western Australia. As such, it is responsible for the management of several hundred recreation developments, ranging from day-use and camping areas to nearly 1800 kilometres of bushwalking, horse riding and other trails. DEC also organises and conducts various outdoor activity programs, and prepares and disseminates information to visitors and the general public in a range of formats.

In Western Australia, approximately one in six members of the community has a disability. Unfortunately, these individuals frequently experience difficulty in gaining access to facilities and services enjoyed by the rest of the community. DEC is committed to ensuring that people with disabilities are better able to access, use and enjoy our State's natural areas and the associated facilities, services and programs for the benefit of the entire community.

Since its formation in 1985, CALM (and subsequently DEC) has endeavoured to improve public access and upgrade or provide new visitor facilities and services suitable for use by all members of the community including people with physical and intellectual disabilities. Because of the size, remoteness and ruggedness of many of our national parks, State Forest areas and other reserves, this has not been an easy undertaking. Nevertheless, the department has made considerable progress and a significant number of recreation and tourism destinations throughout the State now have wheelchair accessible facilities such as parking areas, toilets and walkways. The DEC ParkFinder is an invaluable aid to finding out about some of the parks with universally accessible facilities.

To ensure people with disabilities have ready access to information from the department, information is available in alternative formats upon request. 

DEC has also actively sought to provide job opportunities for people with disabilities and employs people with a range of disabilities at all levels of the organisation. As an equal opportunity employer, DEC is committed to seeing that people with disabilities are considered on merit in applications for employment, training and promotion, and that jobs and facilities are redesigned as required to remove any remaining barriers to employment and promotion.