Talking Disability

19/10/2026

Fear of fraud is driving fast NDIS reform, and NDIS participant and advocate Tracy Leigh says it’s costing the people the scheme was built for. She spent two years being wrongly refused before getting in, and says she’s had to fight to keep her support ever since.

Participants, she argues, are being painted with the same brush as shonky providers, even though many use their funding to work and pay tax. She wants the NDIS Future Generations Act repealed and reform to start again, with real input from people with lived experience. This is part one of a two-part series.

Read about it here 👇

NDIS participant and advocate Tracy Leigh says fear of “shonks” has driven reform that overlooks the people...

15/10/2026

Three years after the Disability Royal Commission’s final report, an independent review has found none of ten key recommendations has been fully implemented. Four show no real action, and one, better coordination of NDIS support, is actually going backwards.

Of the Commonwealth’s 172 recommendations, only eight have been fully carried out so far, and the taskforce monitoring progress has been disbanded. As the author puts it, the Royal Commission was meant to drive reform, not just measure the gap.

Read about it here 👇

Three years after the Disability Royal Commission’s final report, an independent review finds none of ten key...

13/10/2026

Free guides, Adelaide! We’re coming to DAL Expo 2026.

Swing by Booth 91B on Friday and Saturday for your free copy of the Disability Support Guide.

10am to 3pm, at the Jubilee Pavilion, Adelaide Showground. See you there!

12/10/2026

Five clients have just made history at Minda, graduating the first cohort of a pilot vocational program: a Certificate I in Access to Vocational Pathways, delivered with the South Australian Learning Centre. It covers real work-readiness skills like reading workplace signs, teamwork and digital literacy.

Graduate Marcus says he’s learnt “to be on time, talk to people, work in a team, solve problems and do things by myself,” and hopes to work at Bunnings one day. The pilot may now become an ongoing offering.

Read about it here 👇

Five clients have graduated Minda’s new vocational pathway pilot, building work-readiness skills, confidence and...

11/10/2026

A great partnership on the Limestone Coast: Minda and the Mount Gambier Pioneers basketball club are opening up NBL1 South games to people with intellectual disability, and it's already changing lives. Minda client Tyne now volunteers at games and training, selling raffle tickets and chatting with players.

Pioneers President Tom Kosch says it best: "This partnership is built on shared values of inclusion, opportunity and community."

Read about it here 👇

A partnership between Minda and the Mount Gambier Pioneers is helping people with intellectual disability build...

06/10/2026

Proposed NDIS changes could mean a return to block funding for home and living supports, shifting decisions away from participants and back to providers. Around 1,400 small plan managers could be squeezed out as the market consolidates around big providers.

One mother, Odessa, describes losing self-managed funding for her non-verbal autistic daughter Summer, and needing therapist sign-off just to buy assistive tech she'd already researched herself. Her point lands hard: "when choosing resources that support them, that decision is left to someone who may spend an hour with your child every other week."

Read about it here 👇

The NDIS put the disabled community in the driver’s seat of their care. They were on the ground experiencing their...

04/10/2026

Everyone dies, so why shouldn't the people doing it get care from clever, kind people? That's palliative care researcher Dr Priyanka Vandersman's blunt take on why we need to talk about death, not avoid it.

One project got 50 aged care services having simple morning tea chats about death and palliative care. Turns out staff and residents were completely willing to talk, they just needed permission and a bit of structure to start.

Read about it here 👇

We need to journey towards death together. Collaboration is key. Being able to talk about death has been found to be one...

29/09/2026

Recovering at home after a hospital stay, or living with complex medical needs, doesn't mean giving up hospital-standard care. Nurse-led home care brings trained clinical support to enteral feeding, tracheostomy care, ventilators and seizure management, right in your own space, while also handling the paperwork that helps get NDIS funding and home modifications approved.

It's not just about the person receiving care either, having that professional support in place takes real pressure off exhausted family carers.

Read about it here 👇

Nurse-led care can bring safer, more personalised support for people with high-intensity or complex care needs at home....

22/09/2026

New research surveyed 123 families about finding an NDIS behaviour support practitioner, and the results are a wake-up call.

Only 32% rated their practitioner's knowledge and skills as moderate or better, and over half said practitioners were weak at building fade-out plans for restrictive practices. One parent went through eight practitioners before a single plan was completed.

Researchers say real choice means transparency, not just availability. Worth asking upfront about a practitioner's experience, how they'll involve your family member in goal-setting, and whether a trial meeting is possible first.

Read about it here 👇

A new national study asked families about their NDIS behaviour support practitioners. What they said, and the questions...

15/09/2026

Public transport accessibility for disabled people is still not good enough. Advocates are shocked they still have to push for it.

For Hannah, a Paralympian routinely on the move, to fully and completely improve public transit accessibility, it all starts and ends with disabled consultants.

With Melbourne’s trams getting an upgrade for the new G-class line, and accessibility improvements not included in the changes, advocates are voicing frustration at a clear opportunity missed.

Disabled users must be front and centre in the push for basic rights to move around our cities. To lead full lives, Hannah shares, people should be excited for their destination, not bamboozled by one broken lift and an extra hour of travel.

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Public transport accessibility for people living with disability is a no-brainer policy promise that strangely still...