Why I won’t fight the NDIS and want the Government out instead.

Here in Australia, the last few months has been a roller-coaster for people with disabilities and their families. Despite fierce objections by the disability community, the proposed changes to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) are being rammed through according to a political agenda rather than a human one. The NDIS appears to be achieving new all-time lows as summarized by Disability Services Consulting (read the full article here)

There are fierce and committed advocates in the community gearing up for a fight as I write. However, because…

In recent times there has been a shift in how the disabled community look at themselves. More and more disabled people are identifying with their disability and promoting pride with their disability. To be clear, I am not saying this is bad — in fact it is a significant and important shift forward as people engage and rightfully demand their place in society.

Sheri Byrne-Haber, CPACC addresses this in her Medium article “Is an ‘identity model’ replacing the charitable, medical, and social models of disability? The next stage of evolution in how the global community views disability” . …

Usually, writing is reserved for my pet professional topic of enabling disabled people and their families to build meaningful lives in their communities — aimed at a particular audience who I like to inform and support. Recently the urge to respond to the declining quality of journalism, the corrupt actions of governments and the undeniable climate change facts challenged me to raise my voice and to claim legitimacy of it.

In response I’ve committed to a practice of writing something everyday, even if I don’t feel like it. …

The typical life path of a person with an intellectual disability is not apparent to most, unless you are a parent, sibling or someone who deeply knows an intellectually disabled person.

When you have an intellectual disability (and the same can be said for many disabled people) you are shepherded down a different, ‘special’ path to the rest of us.

This is a story of choosing not to travel that ‘special’ path.

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You arrived in this world and your parents were very excited to see you. …

The coronavirus has turned our whole world literally and figuratively upside down. With major events such as this, comes the myriad narratives to try and bring meaning to what is happening (including the inevitable conspiracy theories). It’s also the time when our assumptions are brought to the surface and into sharp focus.

I’m strangely hopeful that these times are bringing those assumptions and associated practices to light, which then gives us the opportunity to call it out and do something about it.

Some of the things we can openly see at the moment are the limitations of capitalism, the augmentation…