Submission 2498
Inquiry into the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for
Future Generations) Bill 2026
To the Committee,
I write as a Specialist Vision Teacher working in New South Wales, with deep concern and disappointment regarding the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026. I submit this because I believe the voices of frontline practitioners — people who see the real-world consequences of NDIS funding every single day — must be part of this inquiry. I feel a responsibility, as someone who has worked alongside children and people with disabilities for my entire teaching career to do whatever I can to ensure people living with disabilities can continue to live with dignity and self-determination. The changes to this bill will have dire consequences for our children, and adults with disabilities and their families and support networks.
What I see as a teacher (a former high school teacher and now specialist vision teacher)
The children I support do not have simple, single diagnoses. Most of my students present with multiple, intersecting disabilities. The student I most intensively support is blind, has Autism, and has ADHD — three significant conditions, each requiring specialist support in its own right, each compounding the others. Without NDIS support, he would not be able to grow up to be a productive and independent member of the community. He is not an outlier. Most of the students who receive vision support for a vision impairment, also have other multiple disabilities that have an enormous impact on them.
Throughout my years as a high school teacher, and now as a specialist vision teacher, I have observed that the students who access the NDIS are consistently achieving their goals at a higher rate than those who do not. They make more progress, participate more actively in their education, and develop greater independence. This is not coincidence. It is the direct result of NDIS-funded supports: orientation and mobility training, assistive technology, specialised therapies, and capacity-building activities that give these children tools they would otherwise never have access to. The impact this will have on our education system will be far reaching, with teachers bearing the brunt of this irresponsible legislation. Our public schools are already under extreme pressure with limited funding for our students, especially students with disabilities. When you take away or reduce necessary supports from children, this will impact every school, every class and every student, not just those with disabilities. Teachers will be even more stretched because the effects of students not receiving support outside of school through their usual NDIS providers.
The NDIS has given these children, and their families, something that no prior system managed to provide: genuine independence and self-determination. For a child who is blind (and has other disabilities), being able to navigate their school independently, access their learning materials, and participate alongside their peers is not a minor outcome. It is transformative. And it was made possible by NDIS funding.
Submission 2498
The changes proposed in this bill will cause real harm — not only to the children I work with, but to the entire community of Australians living with disability. I am deeply concerned about the following provisions specifically:
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Eligibility based on ‘substantially reduced functional capacity’: Children with vision impairment, autism, and ADHD — particularly those with multiple diagnoses — do not always present as impaired on standardised assessments. Surface-level functioning can mask profound barriers. A child can appear to cope in a structured classroom while being unable to function independently in any other environment. Standardised functional assessments, conducted by generalist assessors, will routinely miss this. The result will be children who are denied eligibility despite having genuine, significant, and ongoing needs.
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Restriction of plan reassessments: Children’s needs change rapidly. A plan appropriate for a seven-year-old with autism and low vision may be wholly inadequate for the same child at ten. Tightening reassessment criteria imposes rigidity on a system that must, by its nature, be responsive to development. Families of my students are already managing immense administrative burdens — this will make an already difficult process harder. Some of my students wait months, sometimes even more than a year in order to have their plans updated for their new needs. This is already causing significant barriers to accessing necessary supports – further restrictions to this will undoubtedly cause more harm.
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50% reduction in community participation and capacity-building funding: This is another provision I find very alarming. For children who are blind, or autistic, or both, community participation and capacity-building supports are not optional extras. They are how independence is built and hpw they can access the community in a safe and supported manner. Cutting this funding by half will directly undo the progress these children have made. By restricting community participation funding, you are condemning children and adults with disabilities to being trapped in their homes with no support for engaging in the wider community. When my student’s funding for community access was reduced a few months ago, he was devastated because it meant that he could no longer travel with his support workers and participate in social outings with other children. I have noticed that since he no longer attends these events, his social skills and functioning have deteriorated, which then in turn impact on his education. I must also raise that the students who do access the NDIS — and who are thriving because of it — are doing so despite a system that already imposes significant administrative burden on their families. Parents of my students routinely describe hours spent on documentation, plan reviews, service agreements, and provider communications — on top of caring for a child with
complex, multiple disabilities. The Bill’s new compliance, record-keeping, and claims
requirements will add further weight to families who are already at their limit.
The broader disability community
While my submission is grounded in my direct experience with children, I want to clearly state that my concern extends to all Australians living with disability. This Bill will adversely affect participants of all ages, all conditions, and all circumstances. Adults with disability who have built their lives around the independence that NDIS funding affords — their employment, their
Submission 2498
housing, their social participation — face having that independence eroded or removed. Older participants, those with progressive conditions, those with psychosocial disability, those who self-manage their plans: all face greater uncertainty, greater administrative burden, and real risk of losing access to supports they depend upon. And in many cases, most of these supports are life saving and life changing. By making these cuts, you are effectively saying that people with disabilities are not worthy of our tax money, are not worthy of dignity and are not worthy or owed self-determination like all other citizens.
The NDIS gave the disability community something unprecedented in Australian history: the right to direct their own support, to live on their own terms, to participate rather than merely survive. This Bill, as currently written, threatens that right — not just for some participants, but across the scheme and impacting future Australians too.
I respectfully urge the Committee to recommend:
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That the Bill not pass in its current form, and that it be genuinely revised in consultation with the disability community and frontline practitioners. There is a saying in the disability community that must be upheld in this case: “Nothing About us Without Us.” Any changes to the NDIS must be done in consultation with the community and parents and carers if we going to uphold the dignity of people living with disability.
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That eligibility assessments include specialist pathways for conditions — including vision impairment, autism, and multiple disability — where functional limitations are not reliably captured by standardised tools.
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That the proposed 50% reduction to community participation and capacity-building funding be suspended until foundational support alternatives are established,
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That the impact of the Bill (in whichever form it passes) on all participants — adults and children alike — be subject to independent review. The NDIS is not a perfect system. But it is, for the children and adults who access it, a life changing one. I urge this Committee to ensure that any reforms protect what works — the independence, the dignity, the genuine outcomes — rather than sacrificing them in the name of cost reduction.
Thank you for reading my submission.