Contact and communication

Core rule. The Agency must contact and correspond with a person using the method, format and communication support they have told it they need, must not treat a single unanswered contact attempt as evidence a person is uncontactable, and must not pause, suspend or withdraw a person's supports because of a missed or unreturned call.

Legal

Application. This section applies whenever a duty holder contacts, corresponds with or communicates with a person, or is contacted by a person, in connection with an Agency function or service.
Recorded communication preference. A duty holder must record a person’s stated preferred and required contact method, format, language and communication support — including an interpreter, Auslan interpreter, Easy Read, an alternative format, extra time, or a requirement to communicate in writing, through a nominee, or not by telephone — and must use that method unless the person changes it.
Preference travels with the person. A recorded communication preference applies across every Agency channel, team and partner handling the person’s matter. A person must not be required to re-explain or re-establish it at each contact.
No assumption of non-contact from a single attempt. A duty holder must not record, rely on or act on a person as uncontactable, non-responsive or unreachable on the basis of one unanswered call or one unreturned message, unless a genuine attempt has been made using the person’s recorded preferred method and a further attempt by an alternative accessible method has also failed.
No withdrawal of supports for missed contact. A duty holder must not pause, suspend, reduce or cease a person’s supports, plan, funding or case management because of a missed or unreturned contact attempt, without first giving written notice, a reasonable further opportunity to respond by an accessible method, and genuine consideration of whether the person’s disability affected their ability to respond.
Identifiable, returnable contact. A duty holder must contact a person from a number or channel that identifies the Agency and that the person can use to reach someone able to assist with their matter. A duty holder must not contact a person from a withheld or blocked number as a matter of routine practice.
Reasonable notice. Before contacting a person for a planning, review or decision-related discussion, a duty holder must give reasonable advance notice of its likely timing, purpose and expected duration, proportionate to the significance of the matters to be discussed, and must not represent that contact will occur within a period it knows or ought to know is inaccurate.
Accessible identity verification. A duty holder must offer an identity verification method that does not rely solely on a person speaking on a telephone call, for a person whose disability affects their ability to do so, including verification through a nominee, support person or an alternative protocol recorded on the person’s file.
Interpreters and accessible formats. A duty holder must arrange a qualified interpreter, Auslan interpreter or accessible format, including Easy Read, for a person who needs one, in advance of a planning, review or decision-related interaction. A duty holder must not proceed with, or treat the person as having been consulted in, that interaction if the required interpreter or format was not provided.
Written confirmation of significant communications. Where a duty holder communicates a decision or a proposed change materially affecting a person’s supports by telephone or in person, it must provide written confirmation, in the person’s recorded accessible format, within a reasonable time.
Open channels. A duty holder must not use an automated system to close, reject or block a person’s, nominee’s or advocate’s reply, request or complaint without a person reading and considering it, or without notifying the sender that it was not received or actioned.
Recording for accessibility. A person may request to record a meeting or call with the Agency for their own accessibility, memory or accuracy needs. A duty holder must not refuse to hold, or terminate, a meeting or call solely because of that request, and may impose only conditions on the recording that are reasonable and necessary to protect the privacy of other participants.

Plain English

This section is about how the Agency reaches you, and what it must do when it can’t.

How the Agency must contact you

It must use the method you’ve told it you need — phone, email, SMS, letter, through your nominee, or written contact only — and it must remember this, not just for one team but everywhere in the Agency.
It must give you reasonable notice before a planning, review or decision-related call, and it must not tell you contact is coming “within the hour” if it isn’t.
It must call from a number that identifies the Agency and that you can call back on. It should not be calling you from a withheld or blocked number as standard practice.

If you can’t be reached

One missed call or one unreturned message is not enough for the Agency to record you as “uncontactable.” It has to genuinely try your preferred method, then a different accessible method, before it can say that.
It cannot pause, cut or reduce your supports because it couldn’t reach you on one attempt. It has to write to you, give you a real further chance to respond in a way that works for you, and think about whether your disability affected your ability to respond.

Interpreters and accessible formats

If you need an interpreter, an Auslan interpreter, Easy Read or another accessible format, the Agency must arrange it in advance of a planning, review or decision-related meeting — not turn up without it and call the meeting done.
If the Agency tells you something important by phone or in person, it must also confirm it in writing, in your accessible format, within a reasonable time.

Verifying who you are

If speaking to confirm your identity on a phone call doesn’t work for you because of your disability, the Agency must offer another way — for example, through your nominee or support person, or a protocol already noted on your file.

Meetings and recordings

You can ask to record a meeting or call for your own accessibility, memory or accuracy. The Agency must not refuse to meet with you, or end a meeting, just because you asked to record it. It can only set reasonable conditions to protect other people’s privacy.
The Agency must not use an automated system to close off, bounce or block your reply, request or complaint without a person actually reading it — and it must tell you if something wasn’t received or actioned.

Easy Read

These rules are about how the NDIA contacts you.

The NDIA must contact you the way you have told them to.
If you told them not to phone you, they should not phone you.
If you need an interpreter or Auslan, they must arrange this before a meeting.
If you need Easy Read, they must give you Easy Read.
One missed phone call is not enough. The NDIA cannot say you are “uncontactable” after just one missed call.
The NDIA cannot stop your supports just because you missed one call.
The NDIA must call from a number you can call back.
The NDIA must tell you before they call, and give you enough time to get ready.
If a worker tells you something important on the phone, they must also send it to you in writing.
You can ask to record a meeting to help you remember it. The NDIA should not refuse to meet you because you asked this.
These rules are a draft. They are not law yet.

Evidence for this section

Treaty anchor
CRPD Article 9 requires accessibility to information and communications, and Article 21 requires States to take appropriate measures so that people with disability can exercise the right to freedom of expression, including the freedom to receive and impart information, on an equal basis with others, by accepting and facilitating the use of Auslan, Braille, augmentative and alternative communication, and all other accessible means, modes and formats of communication of a person's choice.
A3
Current legal anchor
The Disability Discrimination Act makes it unlawful to discriminate against a person with disability in the administration of Commonwealth laws and programs, including by failing to make a reasonable adjustment a person needs to receive a service on an equal basis with others. Contacting a person only by a method they cannot use, or without an interpreter they need, is a service barrier of exactly this kind.
A2
Disability Royal Commission anchor
The Disability Royal Commission's Volume 4 findings on accessibility and adjustments describe the routine failure of government systems to accommodate a person's communication needs as a systemic driver of exclusion, not an isolated service failure.
A4
Existing policy anchor
The Participant Service Charter already commits the Agency to responsive and connected engagement with participants.
A6
Verified internal practice anchor
The Agency's own 'Complete a Planning Internal Review Decision' Standard Operating Procedure (FOI 23/24-0323) instructs staff, before calling a participant, to "check if the preferred method of contact is via phone and/or if an interpreter is required" (source page 2), and separately to "confirm their preferred method of contact for the internal review outcome notification" and record any change against the system (source page 19). It sets out a dedicated Letter/Mail workflow for a participant whose preferred contact method is listed as Letter (source page 20), and contact-method-specific SMS and email templates -- including routing a participant with a hearing impairment to the email template rather than phone (source page 22). This shows that contacting a person by their recorded preferred method, and arranging an interpreter in advance, are already Agency-mandated internal steps; clauses 2 and 9 make an existing internal duty externally enforceable rather than inventing a new one. Caveat: at the time of citation this document was still 'generated-draft'/markdown-review 'not-started' in the pipeline that produces it (provisional extraction, not yet human-reviewed) -- the quoted passages are drawn from its ordinary text-layer pages, not from any of its four OCR-derived pages, but the citation should be re-checked once the document completes review.
A12
Proposed extension
Clauses 4, 5, 8 and 12 create protections not presently expressed as an enforceable Agency duty: that one missed or unreturned contact attempt is never on its own sufficient grounds to record a person as uncontactable or to withdraw their supports, that an accessible alternative to live voice identity verification must be offered, and that a person may request to record a meeting for their own accessibility without the Agency refusing or ending it. This pattern is heavily corroborated by Senate inquiry submissions collected for the NDIA Accountability Project -- see the themes project's pausing-supports-due-to-uncontactability (9 corroborating submissions), inaccessible-indirect-communication-channels (13), failure-to-accommodate-disability-communication-needs (19), unreliable-contact-and-false-non-contact-claims (4) and rigid-voice-identity-verification themes -- though lived-experience evidence of this kind is not yet a formally citable authority type under this Code's evidence model (see that project's own doc, §6).
A1
Drafting choice
"Recorded communication preference" is used throughout to match the definitions established in 1.2. "Duty holder" matches 1.1's defined term for who this Code binds.
A1

Authorities cited (6)

CRPDA3Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
Articles 1 to 5, 9, 12, 13, 17, 19, 21, 22, 25, 26, 28 and 33 are particularly relevant to these sections.
LegislationA2Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth)
Sections 4 to 6, 11, 24, 29 and 29A; current compilation checked on the Federal Register of Legislation.
Disability Royal CommissionA4Disability Royal Commission Final Report, Volume 4 - Realising the human rights of people with disability
Human rights framework; proposed Disability Rights Act; public-authority compatibility and proper-consideration duties; equality, accessibility and adjustments.
NDIA public commitmentA6NDIA Participant Service Charter
Transparent, responsive, respectful, empowering and connected engagement principles.
FOI-released documentA12NDIA Standard Operating Procedure — Complete a Planning Internal Review DecisionOn this site
Source pages 2, 6, 19, 20 and 22 require staff to check and confirm a participant's preferred method of contact before calling, to arrange an interpreter where required, to use the participant's preferred method (including a dedicated Letter/Mail workflow and contact-method-specific SMS/email templates) for outcome and review notifications, and to record any change in stated preference against the system record. Note: this document was still 'generated-draft' / markdown-review 'not-started' in markdown-pipeline's own review workflow at the time of citation (provisional: true, extraction_quality: needs-review) -- the quoted passages are drawn from its non-OCR text-layer pages (2, 6, 19, 20, 22; Tesseract OCR was only used on pages 11, 12, 43 and 44 of this document), but this citation should be re-checked once the document completes human review.
LegislationA1National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013 (Cth)
Sections 3 to 7, 9, 15, 17A, 31, 32, 73V, 118 and related provisions; current compilation checked on the Federal Register of Legislation.

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