While an income tax increase may be hard to sell to some people in the community in the lead-up to a federal election, it’s the right choice for a sustainable National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS…
When humans are challenged, even as very young babies, we really can rise above and excel.
Drew Bennett
What do newborn babies, children who have been severely deprived of human contact, people with autism, and blind mothers have in common? On the surface, not much. But they provide a common theme for understanding…
The broad economics of the scheme and the fine details of its implementation remain unclear.
Image from shutterstock.com
While the Labor party’s misguided leadership coup hogged the limelight last Thursday, the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) Bill passed through parliament. The government also announced the name…
How will the NDIS support life-long planning for Australians with disability as they grow older?
Image from shutterstock.com
Last week’s protest by several quadriplegic Queenslanders against age discrimination prompts us to examine how the National Disability Insurance Scheme should balance needs-based eligibility and entitlement…
The states have agreed to an initial agreement for the NDIS, but details of the first phase remain patchy.
The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) has established an inter-governmental agreement that will form the framework for the initial phase of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). But as…
Greater numbers of troubled teens are being abandoned by their parents and into the hands of the government.
Shutterstock
The theme of abandonment runs like a current through our most pressing national dilemmas. Asylum seekers abandon their home countries in the hope of a better life in Australia. Newly elected governments…
We have surprisingly little information about the extent of forced sterilisation in Australia.
Porsche Brosseau
The Senate Community Affairs Committee has announced its intention to consider the involuntary or coerced sterilisation of people with disabilities in Australia. Unless it focuses on the right of people…
John Hattie: Welcome to The Conversation. My name is John Hattie from the University of Melbourne and I have here today, Pasi Sahlberg from the Department of Education in Finland. It’s certainly exciting…
The Australian Steelers celebrate a gold medal after beating Canada in the men’s wheelchair rugby final.
Kerim Okten/EPA
As the bright lights of the London 2012 Paralympic Games begin to dim, and as the media focus diverts back to everyday life, we’re left with a pertinent question: where to now for disability sport in Australia…
The links between the military and disability sport are being cast anew.
Corporal Jamie Osborne, Department of Defence
In the past five or six years there has been a marked increase in the overt use of disability sport in the rehabilitation of soldiers injured in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – which, in a sense, is…
The myths of disability are giving way to a new sense of normal.
Daniel Karmann/EPA
The Opening Ceremony of the 2012 London Paralympics was nothing short of a tour de force. But as a new “enlightenment” (the theme for the ceremony), it also raised as many questions about disability as…
Are individuals disabled by a society that doesn’t accommodate difference?
philippe leroyer
Australians love a good sports story about a hero overcoming adversity. Track cyclist Anna Meares’ gold medal in London was all the more impressive given her recovery from a life-threatening neck injury…
Liberal states yesterday refused to contribute funds to host NDIS launch sites.
AAP
A lot of smoke and very little illumination came out of yesterday’s Council of Australian Governments (COAG) discussions about how the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) will be funded. All sides…
Young people in nursing homes aren’t free to eat, socialise and go out when they like.
morberg
Research published this week confirms what disability advocates have long known: that young people shouldn’t be forced to live in nursing homes. Our joint Summer Foundation and Monash University study…
Early on in my career I was part of the process of closing down large-scale institutions for people with disabilities. My first experience of institutions was as a student. I visited Swanbourne Hospital…
A woman drinks using a robotic arm, something she hasn’t been able to do with her own arms for 15 years.
Nature
The world of brain-machine interfacing (BMI) has a new posterchild. A study on people with tetraplegia, published in Nature, has shown participants were able to control a robotic arm and hand over a broad…
More than 600 young Australians with disabilities currently live in nursing homes.
Michelle Newland was 19 years old when she had a severe asthma attack that left her with hypoxic brain injury. After eight weeks, the hospital staff told Michelle’s parents that she was not suitable for…
At the end of the four years, only 5% of Australians with a disability will be covered.
Flickr/afri
Last night’s budget contained an important step towards realising a National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), with $1bn allocated over the next four years. Of these funds, $342.5 million will pay for…
Caring for a disabled child currenlty requires battle after battle for basic equipment and services.
bellisg
The government has announced its commitment to the introduction of a National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), with money to be set aside in next week’s federal budget for a 2013 start-up in four locations…
Professor of Social Inclusion - UTS Business School - Centres for Business and Social innovation, and Business Intelligence and Data Analytics, University of Technology Sydney
Associate Professor, Rehabilitation, Ageing and Independent Living Research Centre and Occupational Therapy Department, School of Primary and Allied Healthcare, Monash University