National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 1585
To whom it may concern
I am a mother of two children with disabilities, both of whom are on the NDIS.
I am going to address issues we are now have and my concerns for future with these NDIS cuts.
My oldest daughter, who is legally blind started off on the NDIS for early intervention. Some of the areas early intervention addressed were pre-braille (blind literacy) and pre cane skills (Orientation Mobility).
Currently my oldest daughter is working closely with all of her therapists so she can work towards becoming more independent with her reading and writing. We have been trying to get low vision equipment for our daughter so she can focus on her braille & braille literacy skills. As her specialists have recommended, Braille needs to be her main means of written communication, but we are continually coming up against brick walls.
We are being told by NDIS delegates “that blind people don’t use braille” or “why can’t she use audio descriptions”. They have made it near imposable to get specialised braille devices that she desperately needs. Unfortunately, the delay in getting said equipment is at a great detriment to her development of her braille skills. Braille should be seen as pen and paper. Braille is also literacy and you don’t learn literacy from audio descriptions.
I am so scared for my daughter’s future as these announced cuts may impact her as she needs to rely on a support network that WILL NOT be available to her if her NDIS plan is further reduced or cut altogether.
Disability equipment like canes, braille devices and other low vision technologies should always be available to people like my daughter but without the NDIS these specialist items will be unaffordable and uneatable.
These planned cuts also taking away Social and Community Participation meaning a loss of rest bite, education possibilities and employment opportunities, in turn will no doubt further segregate my daughter form the rest of the community.
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 1585
She does not want to go out into the community due to Anxiety around her disability but thanks to the hard work from her occupational therapist and her orientation and mobility specialist working together to help her through this. I fear any cuts or reduction to her plan may take away any independence and skills that have been gained.
In relation to proving a disability is lifelong. I would like to know what happens as my daughter is blind due to a rare genetic disorder. Her eyesight will never improve, her eyesight may worsen as she gets older. Meaning losing her sight altogether. At the moment she has minimal vison. Will NDIS expect more testing to that will cause pain and even harm just confirm she still legally blind at each plan review? There is no treatment that will improve her eyesight as you can’t regrow the structure of the eyes that she never had. Just like you can’t regrow body parts!
The stress of these cuts have me worried as I know I can’t afford the therapies and equipment needed for my vision impaired daughter and I already know my other child is likely to be removed off the NDIS due the target set on autistic kids. So we will have to try and fund the youngest early intervention needs, incontinence support and her dietary needs. That’s two high needs children that We may have to pick and choose who gets the support as we will not be able to fund both ourselves.
If these cuts go through some services may not even be available in our area as most of low vison services are based in metropolitan areas.
Then with thriving kids’ program there won’t be enough staff to staff both thriving kids and NDIS in some towns so will create large gaps for children to fall through. Having two programs running at same time will just create even more short falls. Could some people end up on both NDIS and thriving kids? Stuck between two complicated systems that won’t fund anything as red tape says the other system will fund it? I don’t think the government have realise this extra stress they have put on an already venerable community with announced cuts and the thriving kids program.