Access All Areas

The ability of people with disabilities to access all area is a the core of the legislation that underpins the introduction of (NDIS) now known as Disability Care Australia.  As I been sharing Disability Care Australia is designed to do much more than bring needed funding reform to the disability care sector.  While care and support are essential elements is the legislation they are not the focus.   

Rather Disability Care Australia aims to ensure the Human Rights of people with disabilities or access to all areas. Historically people with disabilities, their families and careers have been segregated in Australia. This has meant previously the abilities of those with physical, intellectual, behavioural, neurological and psychological impairments have often been overlooked as we have attempted and failed to meet the needs of a growing population.  

As medical discoveries are made, more people survive the initial critical period where the impairment occurs. Thus the historical life expectancy and predicted outcomes on which traditional social funding systems were founded are no longer applicable.

In Australia it is time to take a more mature look at 'disability' and what it is and what it is not. Broadly speaking disability is a lost of impairment resulting in the reduction of a persons ability to function at standard compacity.  Impairment can be physical, intellectual, sensory, behavioural,neurological, psychological or a combination of one or more of these impairments. A person with disabilities lies somewhere on a continuum between total loss of abilities thought to be less than 2 % of the population with disability and those classified as having no impairment or disability.

So as we begun to have mature discussions around the implementation of (NDIS) Disability Care Australia we need to be clear on two accounts:

1. The definition of disability and varying levels of impairment.
2. and how does that or does that not impact an person's abilities 

As we move away from historical models of 'disability' were these two issues were traditionally inter-winded, we must now begin the road to untie the two and learn to define them clearly for each individual we label as living with a disability. For each person the dot point on the continuum of level of impairment and level of ability will be very different.

       

Historical models of funding have only looked at the first of these continuum(s):- level of impairment. Until now the decision to assign support and how much support has been solely based on impairment levels. Using this model administrators would compare the impairments of all types to define a person living with a serve disabilities. That's a bit like comparing a Granny Smith Apple with a Pink Lady.

Luckily for people with disability and those who share their lives the signing of the Disability Care Australia legislation leaves behind the use of comparison models and funding based on impairment,  what a person can not do.  For we now recognize ability for its true value.  Regardless of the particular ability it still an ability. A person's impairment may only allow very limited ability such as eye movement and breathing. Regardless of their perhaps profound impairments we now must recognize all of the abilities of the person being assessed and ask, given the right supports at the right level what is possible.

Is it possible this person can have a life in the community without being accommodated in a nursing home? Can this person with a profound level of impairment have access to all areas and how can that be achieved. As we learn to ask these new questions this revolutionary system is demanding our answers our time will change as too will our definition of level of impairment. 

Certainly the productivity commission in setting the prematures for the NDIS sort to challenge the limitations and the limiting conditions that have historical lead to the exclusion of people with serve to profound n disabilities and their families for community activities including education, employment, sport, leisure, art and cultural, business, housing and politics. Disability Care Australia is very much geared towards giving people with disabilities and their primary career givers access to all areas, based on their abilities rather than level of impairment.

One tool. that enables us to offer more access to more areas than ever before is the role of advances in technology and the way they allow more people with disabilities to independently communicate with others and move independently about our community. It is our attitudes to these rapidly changing abilities and possibles for people that needs to very quickly take a turn around.

The person who only has physical abilities to breath and move their eyes has a spinal cord injury given the right equipment and support from Disability Care Australia it is possible for this individual even with a profound level of disability to live in their own home, move independently in a wheelchair through breathing, enjoy computer access, communicate through communication aids and gain employment.  A person previously requiring nursing home care is able to full access all areas providing we enable those areas to be accessible. 

Unfortunately community attitudes and ignorance of the possibilities that continue to deny people with disability regardless of the level of reduction of impairment true access.  We are still struggling in tradition common ground such as accommodation, education and retail and now Disability Care Australia on July with begin to challenge the area of employment and justice. We have a lot of public education to do before the fully functioning Disability Care System arrives in 2019.     

Let us stop focusing on what people are not able to do so together we can assist each other to see the possibilities and provide the resources for people with disability reach their potential. Let's enjoy the revolution that gives access to all areas.