Did you know
…that 1 in 6 people in Australia are estimated to be living with disability? And as you start digging deeper, you begin to understand the challenges people with disability face on a day-to-day basis.
42% of adults with disability rate their health as fair or poor compared with 7% of adults without disability.
32% of adults with disability experience high/very-high psychological distress compared with 8% without disability
90% of women with intellectual disability have been sexually abused.
In 2009, Australia ranked last amongst the 29 OECD countries for the relative income of people with disability to people without disability. Around 45% of those with disability in Australia are living either near or below the poverty line.
Something needed to change. That change came in March 2013, when the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) legislation was passed.
What is the NDIS?
The NDIS, which began rolling out across Australia in 2016, is the most significant social and economic reform since the introduction of Medicare in the 1970s. The NDIS is not a welfare system. Instead, the NDIS is designed to fund certain supports a person with disability needs to strengthen their skills and independence over time.
Be Part of the Solution
The NDIS is not the be-all and end-all, its success fundamentally relies on a broader support network: our society, which includes you! Change begins when we examine our own personal values and attitudes regarding disability and start to build awareness so we can develop and adjust our approaches. What you do in the community is important to the lives of people with disability.
This is the Iceberg model. It outlines more about what (and who) makes the NDIS successful.
What is the Social Model of Disability?
Attitudes to disability in society have evolved over time, particularly in recent years. Traditionally, the focus was on the individual as being the ‘victim’ of their impairment and therefore in need of support and care.
In contrast, a social model of disability looks at society as being responsible for someone’s disability and therefore, it is society where change needs to occur. For example, designing more accessible services. In other words, a social model says people are with disability because of the society they live in, not because of their bodies or a diagnosis.
What You Can Do
There are any things you can do to support people with disability. Here are just a few ways you can start making a change today.
1. Change your language
There are respectful words to describe a person’s impairment. It is important to start avoiding words such as:
- afflicted by
- handicap(ped)
- suffers from
- the disabled
- a person with a disability
- people with disabilities
Instead use alternative words such as:
- people with disability (women with disability, children with disability, etc.)
- has disability
- lives with disability
- lives with a chronic health condition
2. Learn About What Living With Disability is Like
There are plenty of courses, webinars and online resources available to broaden your understanding of disability. For example, watch a 9 minute Ted Talk by Stella Young called I’m not your inspiration, thank you very much.
3. Help Someone Join the NDIS
Understanding what support a person living with disability can get is often tricky and complex. For example, the NDIS may reject funding a person with disability because they have not gone through the public health network first, such as seeing the hospital, doctors and other specialists.
However, the NDIS was designed as a ‘one-stop-shop’, where even if a person is not approved for funding by the NDIS, they will be supported with the correct information and connected to the right services, networks and solutions for their situation.
A common misconception is that the NDIS is only for people with physical disability. The NDIS also supports people with psychosocial disability. Psychosocial disability relates to the experience of people with impairments and participation restrictions related to mental health conditions.