The National Disability Insurance Scheme is set to be fully rolled out by the end of the year. This scheme was designed to address some of the many disparities between people with disabilities and their peers. Throughout the history of Australia as a minority group traditionally people with disabilities have had no voice in our democratic system. This has lead to wide spread abuse and no access to the legal system when their rights are undermined.
The path to people with disabilities finding a collective voice was the Every Australian Counts campaign, this is where Australians with disabilities, their family members, caregivers, guardians and community supporters lobbied the governments for the right to have an active role in the democratic system. From this two things gave people with disabilities a greater voice; 1) A royal commission into their care and 2) the ndis we have today.
For the first time people with disabilities were able to tell their stories and were believed. Australians potentially could take their abuses to court. It was recognised, that this alone left them dis-empowered and still unprotected by the law and society as a whole. This was only part of the formula to giving people with disabilities a say in what shaped our nation. Disability on its own did not disqualify people from taking part in the democratic process and the Every Australian Counts Campaign highlighted this.
What really stopped these Australians was access to services and amenities that were open to other Australians. Things like education, job skills, training, employment, the arts, transport, sports and recreation. Not only did individuals face access barriers in the community, but their family members too. Often parents needed to forgo income to stay at home and care for their child with disabilities, in the same way children whose parents became disabled lost their childhood and access to education to care for their parents.
Those living disabilities (the persons with disabilities and family members) were disadvantaged in terms of education, employment, access to the legal system and economically. However all the general public chose to see was the drain on the public purse, not the true causes for their inability to participate in economic growth of this country. Discrimination was often unseen and occurred because the complexities of the issues lead to people with disabilities living on the outer of our communities.
The nature of disability itself in not well understood. A wheelchair is currently the international symbol of disability, in reality the majority of people with impairments do not use a wheelchair. Many people have disabilities that are invisible, yet they still need support or assistance to live their daily lives. Impairments leading to disability can be physical, neurological, intellectual, sensory, social, psychological, behavioural or a mixture of two or more of these impairments.
I was born with cerebral palsy which is primarily a physical disability that is a result of a brain injury occurring prior to birth or in the early childhood years. This means every person with CP will have a physical impairment. However depending on where the damage occurs in the brain, a person may have a neurological, behavioural, sensory or intellectual disability. CP is just one example of disability and yet society wants to put all people with disability into one basket.
Disability occurs as a result of the way our society is structured. In other words, the complex way of living denies people with impairments, access to the community in the same way as other Australians. Resulting in a limited experience of life both for people with impairments and their family members.
An individual may been born with impairment(s) or they many acquire an impairment at anytime. By the time an individual reaches the age of 80, 90% of people will have some type of impairment that limits their ability to interact in the community. Disability is something that will touch all our lives, in some way, even if we do not acquire a disability ourselves. Making it an issue for Every Australian.
All Australians are only one illness or accident away from having a significant impairment that alters the way they are able to access society.
The ndis was originally to address these access barriers both at an individual or family level and at a community level. In the same way a powered wheelchair enables me to access my local community independently, for someone with an intellectual impairment a life skills course may enable them to be more independent. Or assistance for a school aged child with complex disabilities to get ready for school in the morning, may allow both parents to work full time. Until now a child with an impairment could limit family's lifestyles in significant ways.
The primary objectives of support(s) is to allow a participant in the ndis to be as independent as possible. The ndis looks at the life span needs of an individual and asks what investments can be made now so participants can have a better quality of life into the future. It looks at potential access issues before they occur.
Most people with disabilities are able to work when given the correct support and training, in the main it will not be full time. I am self-employed and run my own business, I would otherwise be unemployable due to epilepsy. Most people who will be supported by the ndis desire to engage in the life of the community. This is one of the many ways we wanted to be included in everyday life. There are some participants who are profoundly impaired or have a disability that will result in premature death. There are a small percentage of people who will require 'traditional disability care' under the ndis.
The ndis moves away from the traditional medical care model to a model where individuals and family members are fully participating in the planning of their supports and participating with that assistance to engage in the community. Instead of meeting the immediate needs of participants, the ndis seeks to support individuals to reach the goals, both short term and long term, as well as enabling them to build a lifestyle of their choice.
The ndis promotes independence rather that depends on a life time of 'care'. It will achieve this through early intervention programs; give access to therapy, equipment and environmental modifications to all participants not just those on lower incomes. This means no one should be financially disadvantaged due to meeting access requirements of disability.
However the ndis has failed to address the costs of accessible transport and affordable housing that meets the individual needs of living with disability. Six thousand young Australians are still living in aged care homes and many in group homes where they're unable to choose their own house mates.
While I was running a professional development arts program for visual artists living with disability, the number one access issue was the cost of transport. Many people can not access the public transport system due to disability or their disability combined with where they live. Many of my artists received a mobility allowance and were eligible for the TSS. Even then they couldn't afford the transport costs of getting to their classes or mentor sessions. In many cases the transport cost of getting to the class was significantly higher than the class itself.
The Queensland Government is considering removing access to the Transport Subsidy Scheme to ndis participants. Many participants are still isolated due to transport costs, Transport services for those with disabilities are now unsubsidised, putting them beyond participants. Failing to provide an affordable transport for people living with disabilities has left participants without a way to access their community activities.
Accessing the ndis itself has been plagued with problems. The website itself is inaccessible, the starting place for everyone wanting to access the ndis. The entire scheme was based on the Centrelink model a system riddled with access issues for us all. While such access issues continues to remain unaddressed the government does not consider people with disabilities as equals.
Both sides of the government have failed to secure funding for the ndis into the future. Due to the many difficulties in navigating the ndis millions of dollars have been unspent. Instead of using this money to address the issues and ensure every person has equal opportunity to participate in the Australian way of life. The government have diverted it to other areas allowing them to bring the budget back to surplus.
Nothing has been done to woe voters living with disabilities, our votes and our voices are still of little significance. Addressing our needs and our rights still is very low on the national agenda. The future of the ndis needs to be put on the 2019 election agenda. The current surplus needs to be reinvested to improving the ndis. Anything less says to people living with disability that they don't count.
Those of us with disabilities labour under a constant battle to be heard. We ask you to email your electorate candidates and ask what their party intends to do about fixing the problems of the ndis. People with disabilities do count and we should be accommodated by the Government.
Those living disabilities (the persons with disabilities and family members) were disadvantaged in terms of education, employment, access to the legal system and economically. However all the general public chose to see was the drain on the public purse, not the true causes for their inability to participate in economic growth of this country. Discrimination was often unseen and occurred because the complexities of the issues lead to people with disabilities living on the outer of our communities.
The nature of disability itself in not well understood. A wheelchair is currently the international symbol of disability, in reality the majority of people with impairments do not use a wheelchair. Many people have disabilities that are invisible, yet they still need support or assistance to live their daily lives. Impairments leading to disability can be physical, neurological, intellectual, sensory, social, psychological, behavioural or a mixture of two or more of these impairments.
I was born with cerebral palsy which is primarily a physical disability that is a result of a brain injury occurring prior to birth or in the early childhood years. This means every person with CP will have a physical impairment. However depending on where the damage occurs in the brain, a person may have a neurological, behavioural, sensory or intellectual disability. CP is just one example of disability and yet society wants to put all people with disability into one basket.
Disability occurs as a result of the way our society is structured - not the
impairments themselves.
Disability occurs as a result of the way our society is structured. In other words, the complex way of living denies people with impairments, access to the community in the same way as other Australians. Resulting in a limited experience of life both for people with impairments and their family members.
An individual may been born with impairment(s) or they many acquire an impairment at anytime. By the time an individual reaches the age of 80, 90% of people will have some type of impairment that limits their ability to interact in the community. Disability is something that will touch all our lives, in some way, even if we do not acquire a disability ourselves. Making it an issue for Every Australian.
The ndis was developed for every Australian
All Australians are only one illness or accident away from having a significant impairment that alters the way they are able to access society.
The ndis was originally to address these access barriers both at an individual or family level and at a community level. In the same way a powered wheelchair enables me to access my local community independently, for someone with an intellectual impairment a life skills course may enable them to be more independent. Or assistance for a school aged child with complex disabilities to get ready for school in the morning, may allow both parents to work full time. Until now a child with an impairment could limit family's lifestyles in significant ways.
The primary objectives of support(s) is to allow a participant in the ndis to be as independent as possible. The ndis looks at the life span needs of an individual and asks what investments can be made now so participants can have a better quality of life into the future. It looks at potential access issues before they occur.
ndis is assistance for people with disabilities to engaged in their local communities.
Most people with disabilities are able to work when given the correct support and training, in the main it will not be full time. I am self-employed and run my own business, I would otherwise be unemployable due to epilepsy. Most people who will be supported by the ndis desire to engage in the life of the community. This is one of the many ways we wanted to be included in everyday life. There are some participants who are profoundly impaired or have a disability that will result in premature death. There are a small percentage of people who will require 'traditional disability care' under the ndis.
The ndis moves away from the traditional medical care model to a model where individuals and family members are fully participating in the planning of their supports and participating with that assistance to engage in the community. Instead of meeting the immediate needs of participants, the ndis seeks to support individuals to reach the goals, both short term and long term, as well as enabling them to build a lifestyle of their choice.
The ndis promotes independence rather that depends on a life time of 'care'. It will achieve this through early intervention programs; give access to therapy, equipment and environmental modifications to all participants not just those on lower incomes. This means no one should be financially disadvantaged due to meeting access requirements of disability.
However the ndis has failed to address the costs of accessible transport and affordable housing that meets the individual needs of living with disability. Six thousand young Australians are still living in aged care homes and many in group homes where they're unable to choose their own house mates.
While I was running a professional development arts program for visual artists living with disability, the number one access issue was the cost of transport. Many people can not access the public transport system due to disability or their disability combined with where they live. Many of my artists received a mobility allowance and were eligible for the TSS. Even then they couldn't afford the transport costs of getting to their classes or mentor sessions. In many cases the transport cost of getting to the class was significantly higher than the class itself.
The Queensland Government is considering removing access to the Transport Subsidy Scheme to ndis participants. Many participants are still isolated due to transport costs, Transport services for those with disabilities are now unsubsidised, putting them beyond participants. Failing to provide an affordable transport for people living with disabilities has left participants without a way to access their community activities.
Accessing the ndis itself has been plagued with problems. The website itself is inaccessible, the starting place for everyone wanting to access the ndis. The entire scheme was based on the Centrelink model a system riddled with access issues for us all. While such access issues continues to remain unaddressed the government does not consider people with disabilities as equals.
Both sides of the government have failed to secure funding for the ndis into the future. Due to the many difficulties in navigating the ndis millions of dollars have been unspent. Instead of using this money to address the issues and ensure every person has equal opportunity to participate in the Australian way of life. The government have diverted it to other areas allowing them to bring the budget back to surplus.
Nothing has been done to woe voters living with disabilities, our votes and our voices are still of little significance. Addressing our needs and our rights still is very low on the national agenda. The future of the ndis needs to be put on the 2019 election agenda. The current surplus needs to be reinvested to improving the ndis. Anything less says to people living with disability that they don't count.
Those of us with disabilities labour under a constant battle to be heard. We ask you to email your electorate candidates and ask what their party intends to do about fixing the problems of the ndis. People with disabilities do count and we should be accommodated by the Government.
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