ABC Fact Check Infographics

•

Collage of images. An image of a map on a smartphone, a image stating “3,013 other crowded dwellings”, a screencap of a spreadsheet, another image of an infographic, and a second screenshot of a spreadsheet.

The Project

The brief for this project was commissioned by RMIT ABC Fact Check, a partnership between RMIT University and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) News, a fact-checking arm of Australia's largest multimedia news broadcaster.

The brief itself asked Masters of Communication Design students to analyze raw statistical data from the 2016 Australian national census and produce information graphics based on data of the student’s choosing. The large-scale set of data given to the program's students Section 2049.0 - Census of Population and Housing: Estimating homelessness, from the 2016 Census data. This document outlined the number of people currently experiencing homelessness in Australia, as well as demographic information related to age, race, gender. This data covered Australia as a whole and more detailed additional information about education, trade skills, self-reported English language proficiency, and more.

An example page of the Australian Bureau of Statistics document that provided the source material for this project. Rows upon rows of raw data.

Determining a Focus

Approximately 10.5% of homeless and marginally housed Australians live with a “severe and profound” disability.

As with the ABS Surveys of Disability, Ageing and Carers, the Census of Population and Housing define the profound or severe disability population as:

'those people needing help or assistance in one or more of the three core activity areas of self-care, mobility and communication, because of a long-term health condition (lasting six months or more), a disability (lasting six months or more), or old age'.

(source)

The Census 'Core Activity Need for Assistance' (ASSNP) concept was developed for the 2006 Census to indicate people's disability status in Australia according to geographic area and for small groups within the population. Of all ABS collections of disability data, only the Survey of Disability, Ageing, and Carers (SDAC) is considered to comprehensively measure disability populations and provide rates of prevalence at the national and state levels. (source)

According to the 2016 Census, 27.4% of people with disabilities live below the conservative, internationally accepted poverty line of less than 50% of median equivalised disposable income.

The research found that overall, 12.8% of Australians were living in poverty.

12.8%

Australians Living in Poverty

27.4%

Disabled Australians Living in Poverty

This suggests that people with disabilities are more than twice as likely to live in poverty as other Australians.

Building Infographics

For the first phase of this project, I built two map-based infographics to display two different sets of statistics and how the two sets of data varied across Australian states.

The first map shows the percentage by state or territory of the total population of homeless people in Australia. For example, 32% of Australia’s total homeless population lives in New South Wales (the state in which Sydney is located, for overseas readers). In contrast, 21% of Australia’s total homeless population lives in Victoria (the state where Melbourne is found), and so on. Smaller states and territories (Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory [ACT]) had predictably smaller populations of the overall homeless population than more populous states.

A map of the country of Australia, rendered in different colours from red (severe) to blue (least severe) highlighting the percentage of total homeless population residing in each state.

For the second map infographic, I used a completely different data set. Also categorised by state, the data used to make this graph relates to the percentage of each state’s homeless population that requires ASSNP assistance. Again, ASSNP assistance is defined as “people with a disability who need assistance in their day to day lives with any or all of the following core activities - self care, body movements or communication” (source)

This data paints a drastic picture of the state of homeless people in Australia. Highlighting the intersection of homelessness and disability challenges existing preconceptions of who becomes homeless and why.

A map of the country of Australia, rendered in different colours from red (severe) to blue (least severe) highlighting the percentage of the homeless population in each state requiring ASSNP assistance.

The second infographic was created to illustrate the vastness of Australia's homelessness issue, specific to how Australians with disabilities are impacted. Upon undertaking the research portion of this exercise, I learned that the Australian government’s definition of homelessness was different than my own personal conceptualisation of homelessness—and I wasn’t alone.

The Census categorises those living in impoverished dwellings, tents, or sleeping out as being homeless. People sleeping rough in Census night account for a small percentage of Australia's total homeless population. The government also categorised people living in temporary accommodation, marginally housed in caravan parks, as well as overcrowded and severely overcrowded accommodation.

People living in crowded dwellings represent a continuum within the scope of those who are marginally housed. In the context of the elements developed for the ABS definition of homelessness, people living in 'severely' crowded dwellings are considered to be homeless because they do not have control of, or access to space for social relations. In 'severely' crowded dwellings inhabitants are generally unable to pursue social relations, or have personal (i.e. family or small group) living space, or maintain privacy, nor do different family / groups within the dwelling have exclusive access to kitchen facilities and a bathroom. In such circumstances, if people had accommodation alternatives it would be expected that they would have exercised them.

(source)

The secondary phase of this project sought to provide more information about this fact within the context of disability and homelessness in Australia.

An infographic with circles of proportionally-rendered in both red and purple with numbers illustrating the number of homeless people with disabilities in Australia, based on the nature of their accommodation.

Social Media Applications

This project's final phase was to apply these infographics across social media channels to illustrate for RMIT ABC Fact Check the efficacy of the produced deliverables.