News Hub Opinion
Voices of experience on living with disability, inclusion and how the NDIS is transforming lives.
Disability advocates alarmed as the NDIA breaks its silence on disability housing
You may have missed it last week with all the fuss about the government’s decision to walk away from the increase to the Medicare Levy to fund the NDIS, but the National Disability Insurance Agency finally broke its silence on the future direction of disability housing in the NDIS.
Read more
The AAT and why what they say is important
Many people don’t know where to turn when they have a problem with the NDIS. Sam Paior from The Growing Space explains what happens when an NDIS review goes the next step – to the AAT – and why we should all be paying close attention to why those AAT decisions are so important.
Read more
25 years on – the Disability Discrimination Act
Disability Discrimination Commissioner Alastair McEwin talks about the Disability Discrimination Act (the DDA) today, on it’s 20th anniversary
Read more
Don’t screen out our humanity
The idea of screening genetic conditions has become part and parcel of having children for many Australian couples. The recent push by the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute for
Read more
Choice and Control Under Threat: Victoria must listen to people with disability and stay true to the principles of the NDIS
Choice and control is one of the fundamental principles of the National Disability Insurance Scheme. We must be vigilant to ensure that this important principle is not lost in the rollout.
Read more
Exciting and challenging times…
Over the past 2 ½ years I have spoken with thousands of people with disability, their families and carers, advocates and support workers sharing information, knowledge and experience about all things NDIS. These discussions have highlighted issues, anxieties, problems and frustrations but also options, possibilities, developments and opportunities for the future. I have loved my role as Community Educator for the Every Australian Counts campaign; it is something I feel very proud and privileged to have been a part of and these are exciting and challenging times.
Read more
Is NDIS really as scary as people say it is?
If you have a child with a disability and never have been eligible for financial assistance before, the NDIS is like the answer to your dreams. To be able to write a plan with no limits, no thinking about the cost, no thinking where will I get the money from. I can tell you this was a dream we would have never thought possible.
Read more
Ben’s Travels; buses and beyond…
I belong to a group on Facebook. It’s called “NDIS Grassroots Discussion”, and it’s a place where nearly 30,000 people share their NDIS stories – their fears, wrongs, questions, anger and sometimes, their NDIS joys.
Read more
Siblings and the NDIS
The NDIS is a new way of supporting people with disability. Whilst it aims to provide greater choice and control regarding services for participants it also recognises the important role of ‘informal supports’.
Read more
Tea for two – our journeys
My sister Meredith and I are friends. We meet at least twice a week to drink tea and catch up. We work on arts projects together and belong to a peer organisation where Meredith is a member of the group I facilitate called the Freedom Fighters.
Read more
My Daughter Is Not Special!
When I set out on the path of planning for my daughter’s migration to the NDIS I was determined that there would be nothing special about her supports, her equipment or her life.
Read more
Amazing things are going to happen
My name is Kathryn Lyons and I’m going to change the world.
Read more
Let our voices be heard
I really wasn’t sure where to start. Being autistic, I have a lot of thought processes going on but I wanted to share our experience on the NDIS journey.
Read more
Hope for the future
I grew up “with my mother’s knees” – the sort that didn’t like to stay together when I looked a certain way. And I also learned her generous ways, and gave the same delights to my daughter. Oh, and apparently there were quite a few other genes I passed on that were “just not right” in so many ways.
Read more
Forward we must go
Last week Every Australian Counts launched a social media action triggered by the announcement that the Federal Social Services Minister is ready to move ahead with a new Board of the NDIA.
Read more
Disability, Diversity and the NDIS
The National Disability Insurance Scheme is one of the most important social reforms in recent history. The NDIS creates a uniform system of disability services across Australia and increases the social and economic participation of people with disability.
Read more
NDIS. Personal growth, new opportunities
The NDIS rollout in Victoria has encouraged new enterprises – from sole traders to not-for-profit associations.
Read more
Calling Out Ableism in the Media: Stop Being So Offensive To Disabled People
This weekend’s Good Weekend featured the story “Parenting an intellectually disabled child: life forever on duty” about Alex Browne a 22-year-old man with an intellectual disability. It showed that not much has changed when it comes to improving media representation of people with disabilities in this country. But listen up journos, it’s not okay to degrade people with disabilities and represent us as burdens, just because you think it makes a good story.
Read more
Access NDIS
Today, the call came. After years of campaigning, seeing it germinate from a crazy new idea to a bi-partisan policy, biting fingernails over government changes, trials and then the roll out and waiting to transition.
Read more
The quiet revolution
We’ve all witnessed it – in the shopping centre, at the movies, on the tram. A child screaming and hitting out, a desperate mother trying to keep it together.
Read more
WA need our perspective, not theirs
Around the country, disabled Australians and their families were celebrating. Australia is #ndisready, social media proudly proclaimed. A sea of purple signs, bearing the words ‘I <3 ndis’, rolled across our computer monitors and television screens.
Read more
People get ready… as the NDIS becomes a reality
Up until now, for many of us living with disabilities or caring for someone with a disability, the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) has been something that we have only advocated for and dreamt about. But on 1 July, the NDIS moved from trial phase to full rollout and for thousands of Australians, the advocacy will finally pay off and it will be time to turn those dreams into reality. Here is some advice on what you need to do to get NDIS ready.
Read more
Let’s give the NDIS a chance; A mother’s perspective
I would like to share our NDIS journey and how it has changed our lives for the better. I hope it will give people some perspective and give people hope that the scheme is destined for greatness.
Read more
The importance of home
As the full roll out of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) commences across Australia, many people with disability, and their families and support networks, are still unsure of exactly what it will mean for them when it finally comes to their area – especially when it comes to people’s options of where and how they live.
Read more