Nikki Hind will be among the closing session speakers at the 2018 World Congress of the World Federation of Colleges and Polytechnics in Melbourne.

A worldwide network of colleges that focuses on workplace education, the federation’s congress is due to be compered by journalist and author Leigh Sales.

The program includes presenters from France, South Africa, China, the US and Britain.

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Ms Hind, who is legally blind, said the opportunity arose out of being a panel guest and designer in Access to Fashion, a sold-out Melbourne Fashion Week event that highlighted disability inclusion. 

Three items from her first collection See Me, which combines silk and denim, were modelled by women with disabilities.

“It was the most incredibly joyous and energising buzz and every model on that catwalk was beaming,” Ms Hind said.

The designer said she felt “so privileged and energised” to have been part of an important discussion about making the fashion industry more accessible.

“That’s a conversation that’s been needing to be had for a long time,” she said. 

“For the industry not only to take note of the disability community as 20 per cent of the population.

“To have them justifiably represented and to have them represented in an incidental manner as well, rather than there’s the token person with a disability.”