ndis What's the deal?

The central aim of the ndis is to increase the participation rates of individuals and families living with disability. It is not the person's impairment that prevents them from being fully involved in the community, but the way our communities are structured and the attitudes towards anyone who is different.

'Sharing our abilities 

and a different perspective on the world.'

'Having Your Voice' Art Exhibition 

The ndis' role is to assist people with disabilities to navigate the access barriers society has created.  Some ways access issues arise are through physical barriers such as stairs, poor lighting, inappropriate lighting, lack of seating room, lack of accessible toilets, height of counters, communication barriers, lack of access in the education and legal systems, lack of accessible housing, a society dependent on technology and the ability to read; and the public transport system.

Through providing funding the ndis can enable its participants to better navigate the community in which they live.  For example providing someone with a communication device and technology training, enables them to communicate with others and make phone calls independently of others.  The goal of ndis plans is to enable participants to be less dependent on others. 

Where this is not possible the ndis provides a person to support that person with an activity that is likely to result in the participant being more independent in the community, such as a life skills program where participants learn to use public transport.  When an individual is less dependent on family members, those family members can actively participate in society.  For example, they may be able to look for part-time work. Through enabling more people to participate in the economic and social life of the community, and providing more jobs in the disability sector, overtime the ndis should pay for itself.  

People living with disability are often financially disadvantaged because of the costs they incur due to their disability.  For example feeding a guide or service dog or having to modify their houses and cars to suit their needs. Paying for these items lessens the burden on their income and gives them more money to spend in the community thus making an increased contribution to revenue collected by the GST. 

We as a community need to focus less on what the ndis is costing us and more on the social outcomes and economic benefits to ourselves.  The biggest challenges of the ndis is for the community to accept for too long people with disabilities have been undervalued and their talents and skills gone unrecognised.  If working in the sector for 17 years has taught me anything, it is how much I underestimate my clients and by the lies society has told me. 

By limiting people with disabilities, I am ultimately limiting the service I can provide.  Every time I think there is a limit to what my clients can achieve I am proven wrong. As a person who identifies with having a disability I am ashamed to make a public admission.  However if I don't make this admission people will continue to believe things like people who are visually impaired see nothing, people who are intellectually impaired cannot learn and behavioural disorders are a result of lack of discipline. None of these statements are true. 

Hanging out with a few on my friends

from Arts Connect

The reason Australia needed the ndis is we needed a system that actively encourages people with disabilities to shine and thus fully participate in community life.