The Rebuttal

People who read The Rebuttal regularly will be aware that I once worked in the NDIS area. I first worked as a Senior Local Area Coordinator, or SLAC for short. I then worked for a time as a Senior Planner within the NDIA. For a brief time I also worked as a Support Coordinator. From this experience, I know the NDIS very well.

I worked within the NDIS until 2019. When I left, I often had people contact me for help with their NDIS. These people were from all over Australia, Northern Territory, Brisbane, Sydney, Newcastle, Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne – Everywhere.

Many of them needed assistance to review their first plan which was often crap. Sometimes they had a change of circumstances and needed to change their plan and get extra funding. Sometimes parents would contact me because the NDIS had refused Auslan in their child’s plan. Sometimes I was even asked to support people that the NDIS would not change decisions for at AAT, or court level. This was always hard with lawyers involved, the need for witness, extra evidence etc.

The first person I assisted received a first plan of just $1500. She was besides herself and in tears. We complained and put in a review and she received 75 hours of interpreting. Another person had a change of circumstances where their health was impacted. They didn’t have enough interpreting for private allied health treatments. They only had about 40 hours. We got that increased to 310 hours. I assisted a couple of parents get better plans that included Auslan for their kids. It varied.

The NDIS in the past made mistakes. Heaps of them. But what I found was that if you put in a good review, they could be flexible and would change their decisions and add extra support. Not always, mind you. But it seems to me that in the past they were more responsive and willing to make changes if the evidence suggested that it was warranted. This all seems to have changed now.

My wife applied for the NDIS. She submitted her application and evidence and should have been notified as to whether she had NDIS access within 21 days. It took them almost six months.

Upon getting access she was allocated a LAC to gather her information. Another long and drawn out saga. She provided all the evidence. Explained her needs around Auslan interpreting for community access and her need for new hearing aids. And waited.

Eventually she got her first plan. It had no interpreting funding. It had almost $6000 for assessments for low cost technology and hearing aids. It had just $300 to purchase low cost technology. She reviewed and received a new plan which offered just $1300 a year extra for interpreting. She was very upset and is currently preparing for an AAT appeal which is her only remaining outlet to have these ridiculous decisions overturned.

Another friend, after years of avoiding applying for the NDIS, finally applied. He submitted all of his evidence, audiograms etc. He has been profoundly deaf since birth. He was denied access to the NDIS. He was told he had not explored all treatment avenues, whatever that means. Perhaps the Doctor has some miracle cure to fix him. Perhaps through allied health he will learn to hear again and speak better. Who knows what the NDIS were thinking when they made this decision. It is absurd.

Another recently contacted me because her adult daughter had received an atrocious plan. The daughter has become more deaf over time. She is very isolated. Her mental health has been impacted as a result. She has been denied any assistance for the deafness related mental health needs and provided with no communication access. She asked for live captioning to access doctor and community events. She was told she didn’t need captioning because she could get a media streaming device for her hearing aids that would eliminate the need for any captioning. Let that sink in.

The final example is my favourite, if you can call it that. A woman was told that over the course of her three year plan, they would reduce Auslan interpreting. Why? Because by the third year she should have developed enough skills to be able to communicate independently. She is some how gonna hear better or become an awesome lipreader by the third year. It is bizarre!

What is going on here? I have a theory that the NDIS has a plan. This is just a theory, my opinion, that the powers that be within the NDIS have instructed NDIS planners and delegates to reduce expenditure on deaf plans. How are they doing this? By giving crap plans like they did for my wife. By giving ridiculous reasons for no access like they did for my friend. By coming up with some ridiculous reasoning that technology and time will somehow alleviate all need for human support such as captioners or Auslan interpreters.

Perhaps they think that if they make it hard enough, deaf people will give up. Perhaps they think that if they deny access as they did my friend, they will just go away. I really do not know. But what I am seeing is a pattern. It is pattern that suggests a deliberate strategy to reduce expenditure on deaf plans.

Perhaps, over time, the aim is to remove deaf from the NDIS all together unless they have really high needs such as additional disabilities. People like myself, who have strong language and independence, perhaps the long term aim is to remove us from the NDIS all together. It’s just a theory, my opinion, but I am certainly seeing a pattern.

It’s for this reason I am calling people to arms. We deaf people, and our representatives like Deaf Victoria and Deaf Australia need to start bringing attention to the shoddy way the NDIS is beginning to treat deaf people.

Ill go further and say the people working for the NDIS, who are deaf or have a disability, need to bring attention to this issue. If I was still working in the NDIS and I saw this happening, I would be so angry. Maybe these people should all get together and go on strike. People I know – the Michael’s, Sarah’s, Brian’s, Megan’s, Shane’s, Dane’s, Melissa’s and the Ryan’s, real people with a disability working within; we need them to speak out on our behalf!

Before it is too late.