In a confronting and honest story, the ABCs disability affairs reporter Nas Campanella tells how she’s been told she shouldn’t exist because of her disability. She’s sharing the story to mark the ABC’s week of coverage to mark International Day for People with Disability, designed to increase public awareness, understanding and acceptance of people with disability.
The new series of The Crown is extraordinary in two ways. Not only does the storyline include Nerissa and Katherine Bowes-Lyon, the Queen’s cousins who both had a learning disability, but it has also cast actors with a learning disability in those parts.
From what we can tell, the NDIA seems to be signalling some pretty dramatic changes to the planning process. We have known for a while now that they plan to start implementing Independent Assessments (IAs), but the link between them and plan budgets has not been clearly defined. But now it seems like the NDIA’s plan is to use IAs to develop a draft plan budget without conducting a planning meeting.
The NDIA is calling on people with disability, participants, their families and carers and the wider disability sector to have their say on changes to make the NDIS simpler, faster, fairer and more flexible.
Babies are being removed at birth from First Nations mothers living with disabilities, the disability royal commission has heard. Giving evidence in Brisbane, Ms Schwartz said she had witnessed the removal of Indigenous babies first hand. “I would call it a heinous practice,” she said.
“We are among the most seriously disadvantaged members of the Australian community, and are also experts on the impact of policies on us,” says First Peoples Disability Network Chief Executive Officer Damian Griffis. “This week, a number of First Nations people with disability will give evidence about the different racist and ableist systems that harm our children.”
e NDIS Quarterly Reports have always had lots of interesting data on how the scheme is tracking. They allow people with disability, their families, organisations, even governments (shock horror) to get a better idea of where the scheme is working well – and where it is not. But the most recent Quarterly Report released last week features a brand new report card on the NDIS. And it makes for some interesting reading.
Many people experience hearing loss – from mild to disabling – but COVID-19 face masks are making communication even harder for people with hearing impairment
“I just thought, stuff it, I’m going to just employ people with disabilities top to bottom and show how good they can be within a workplace,” Alcott said. “We’re not doing this for CSR and we’re not doing it to do the right thing. We’re doing it because people with disabilities are bloody good employees.”
Five members of an accused Melbourne crime syndicate have been charged with defrauding the National Disability Insurance Scheme and the Child Care Subsidy of $800,000.
New South Wales disability groups are breathing a sigh of relief after the state government announced it will continue funding advocacy for the next three years. The NSW government’s commitment of $13 million a year ends an uncertain period for advocacy groups, who had no funding certainty beyond mid-2021.
Have you ever suspected that the NDIA has a secret list of supports they consider ‘controversial’ or simply ‘no-go’ zones? Well, it turns out that up until the middle of this year, you wouldn’t have been too far off the mark. We learnt all this in the latest episode of everyone’s new favourite TV show Senate Estimates. (Just me? Oh, OK.)
The essential functions and value of advocacy and representation in the protection and advancement of rights are described throughout the report and evidenced through The contribution advocates made at hearings, and submissions received from advocacy organisations.
Under the administrative review system that allows people to challenge government decisions, NDIS participants who have been denied supports and applicants who have been denied access to the scheme can appeal to the tribunal. While few people with disabilities are legally represented in these cases, new figures provided to the Senate show increasingly they face the prospect of negotiating with or facing off against lawyers from top private firms.
Supporting the rights and needs of people with disability for equal access to safe, nutritious and enjoyable food is the call behind Dietitians Australia’s latest submission to the Disability Royal Commission.