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Virtual Disability Conference 2022: Raising Expectations
Virtual Disability Conference 2022: Raising Expectations
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Symposium

Session

Session

4:15 pm

21 September 2022

Plenary

Streams

VDC 2022

Session Description

The Symposium is taking place in the Plenary room.

Session Program

The National Disability Insurance Scheme has unquestionably changed the lives of many people with disability. But it is also true that the benefits have not been realised equally amongst all participants. Inequality and inequity persistent, particularly amongst First Nations participants, participants from a Culturally and Linguistically Diverse background and participants from a lower socioeconomic background. And many participants struggle to achieve the outcomes they want against a background of a complex and complicated bureaucracy, unavailable services, a lack of flexibility, rare service innovation and, more recently, big policy changes creating great uncertainty and cuts to individual funding.
 
It is also true that the despite the fact the scheme has been in operation for nine years, we have yet to have a conversation about what we all expect the scheme to deliver. The focus on scheme sustainability has led to a conversation about what particular services and supports should be funded – rather than on the outcomes we would like to see, and the best way to achieve them. 
 
In this session we will explore how we can raise expectations around what we expect the NDIS to deliver for people with disability and their families. We will look at what the research tells us about the experience of inequality and inequity amongst particular groups of participants and what else we need to look at to start to address persistent disadvantage. 
 
Our presenters will then move to what they think needs to be done to raise expectations around the scheme to ensure it delivers the genuine and meaningful inclusion that we would all like to see. 
 
We will also talk about what else needs to be done outside of the NDIS to make sure all people with disability have their needs met and are included in the life of the community.

Plain Language Abstract
This presentation is by a group of people.  The speakers will be people with disability and their families. 
The presentation is about the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).  The presenters’ question is: what do we expect the NDIS to deliver or do? 
The NDIS has been good for many people with disability.  But it has not been as good for some people.  Some groups of people have missed out on good support. Some people have struggled to get the support they need.  We will look at research on the groups that are missing out.
We need to think about what the NDIS should be funding and not funding.  We need to talk about making the NDIS do better for people with disability.
We will talk about other things that need to happen in Australia to include people with a disability.