Empowering Women with Disability to Lead, Connect, and Thrive
with Summah McKinnon
People with Disability Australia
Mentorloop Impact Award Winner 2025
When People with Disability Australia (PWDA) set out to design the Advancing Women with Disability in the Workplace project (Advancing Women) — a mentoring program empowering women with disability to step into leadership — they knew connection and safety had to come first. What began as a pilot quickly evolved into a national initiative spanning nine organisations, creating inclusive spaces where women could share experiences, build confidence, and challenge systemic barriers. With Mentorloop, PWDA found a way to scale that human connection — ensuring every mentoring relationship is supported, safe, and impactful.
People with Disability Australia (PWDA) is a national, cross-disability organisation led by and for people with disability (70% of staff identify as a person with disability).
In 2023, PWDA designed Advancing Women, a mentoring + e-learning program to increase the representation of women with disability in leadership and decision-making roles. After piloting the program, PWDA adopted Mentorloop to make mentoring safer, more structured, and easier to scale across multiple organisations and states.
“Safety was key… Mentorloop gives me consistent, high-level feedback on how a match is going. I can see star ratings, notes and insights after meetings, which has taken away so much manual labour.”
The Challenge
A 2023 gaps analysis confirmed what PWDA sees every day: women with disability face unique barriers to leadership—from diminishing access to accommodations at higher levels, to isolation and a lack of safe spaces to problem-solve systemic issues.
The first pilot proved the content was strong, but program safety and visibility were hard to manage:
- No reliable way to track user experience without “prying” via email
- Power dynamics and safeguarding needed careful, ongoing oversight.
- Manual spreadsheets made it slow to match, monitor, and support pairs.
PWDA needed a platform that upheld safety, accountability, and accessibility—at scale.
Why Mentorloop
PWDA chose Mentorloop to create a clinically safer, transparent mentoring environment:
- Live oversight without intrusion: “Because of the star rating, I can see a collective overview and individual experiences… notes and feedback from their one-on-one loops.”
- Faster admin, more support: “I have my platform open all day, every day… I can literally see what’s happening in 1–3 minutes and engage regularly.”
- Prompts that drive accountability: Automated nudges keep leaders and mentees moving, lifting retention versus the first pilot.
- Group Loops for connection: Easy broadcast of weekly plans, links and resources into mentee and mentor groups—without chasing email threads.
- Safer matching: Side-by-side profiles (or algorithmic support) to align on goals and leadership qualities, not just disability expertise.
“Connection was the one thing that we identified as having the most impact… the space we created for women with disability to connect and belong is where the change really happened.”
Impact so far
- Higher retention & engagement: Prompts, structure, and visible progress improved continuity compared to the first pilot.
- Belonging over isolation: The program’s biggest impact came from peer connection—yarning-circle inspired sessions and mentor partnerships that normalised challenges and sparked collective problem-solving.
- Safer program operations: Real-time sentiments, star ratings, and notes give PWDA swift, high-level oversight to intervene early if needed—without invasive check-ins.
- Scalable delivery across Australia: Online mentoring reaches participants in regional and remote areas, and across nine participating organisations (one completed; nine in progress).
- Confidence building: A dedicated, in-platform channel to the coordinator gives mentees “another way to communicate,” reinforcing the program’s goal to build confidence even when workplaces are slow to change.
Accessibility & Co-design
PWDA’s program is co-designed with an Expert Advisory Group of women with disability, and delivered with culturally safe practices (e.g., a First Nations woman facilitating a yarning-circle-style workshop that participants found “inspiring and deeply impactful”).
When low-vision users raised screen-reader issues, PWDA collaborated with Mentorloop on improvements:
“Feedback isn’t negative—it’s an opportunity to collaborate… we’re working together to ensure mentoring on the platform is available to everybody, including people using screen readers.”
Features that Made the Difference
- Star ratings & post-meeting notes for rapid, high-level safeguarding
- Automated prompts & milestones to lift accountability and retention
- Group Loops for weekly briefs, resources, and community building
- Profile-based and algorithmic matching to align on leadership goals
- Centralised messaging so mentees always have a safe line to the coordinator
Summah's Advice for New Program Coordinators
“Ensure equitable access. Build a co-design team that reflects community—women with disability, First Nations, intersectional voices. Think attitudinal, physical, informational and systems accessibility. That’s how you create a program that includes everybody.”
If you’re launching or scaling a mentoring initiative where safety, accessibility, and real-time visibility are non-negotiable, PWDA’s experience shows how Mentorloop can reduce manual effort, increase retention, and help you prove impact—while protecting participants and centering lived experience.
Ready to build a safer, more inclusive mentoring program?
Summah McKinnon
People with Disability Australia
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"Mentorloop has taken away the fear of managing so many people at once. It gives me visibility, accountability, and peace of mind — all while letting our participants focus on what matters most: connection, confidence, and belonging.”
– Summah McKinnon, People with Disability Australia
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