Australian Rehabilitation and Assistive Technology Association (ARATA) Submission
Inquiry into the Thriving Kids initiative by the House Standing Committee on Health, Aged Care and Disability.
3rd October 2025
For further information, please contact redacted or redacted.
ARATA would like to acknowledge and thank the ARATA members who contributed their knowledge and expertise to inform this submission.
Introduction
The Australian Rehabilitation and Assistive Technology Association (ARATA) welcomes the Inquiry into the Thriving Kids initiative by the House Standing Committee on Health, Aged Care and Disability.
ARATA values the opportunity to provide early input into the design of the Thriving Kids program. We acknowledge that governments are in an early stage of planning for this program and encourage them to work closely across jurisdictions and embed meaningful community engagement and co-design with people with disability lived expertise1 throughout the process.
Executive Summary
ARATA’s position is clear: timely, equitable access to assistive technology (AT) must be embedded into Thriving Kids from its inception. Children with developmental delay and autism, and indeed all children with functional limitations cannot afford to wait for supports that are essential to their participation, safety, learning and development.
This submission highlights:
- The critical role of AT - including both assistive products and the services required for assessment, selection customisation, fitting and review of these products - in supporting children with developmental delay and autism.
- Risks relating to the system interface between federal and state programs that may leave children without access to AT.
- Opportunities to embed AT into Thriving Kids to promote inclusion, equity, and family wellbeing.
We provide a series of policy recommendations, aligned with the Terms of Reference for Thriving Kids, to ensure the program delivers effective, evidence-based and sustainable outcomes.
About the Australian Rehabilitation and Assistive Technology Association (ARATA)
ARATA is the national non-profit peak body representing a range of AT stakeholders including users, providers, researchers, and educators. ARATA promotes, develops, and supports the national rehabilitation and assistive technology community of practice as well as contributing as a founding organisation to the Global Alliance of Assistive Technology Organizations (GAATO), and a member of the Coalition on Rehabilitation Engineering & Assistive Technology in Asia (CREATe Asia). ARATA also works with other AT stakeholder organisations by chairing the National Assistive Technology Alliance (NATA), a member-based alliance of Disabled Persons Organisations and Representative Organisation that hold interest in the AT sector. For further information on ARATA, please see details at https://www.arata.org.au/.
About Assistive Technology
The World Health Organization defines assistive technology (AT) as an umbrella term for assistive products and their related systems and services - assistive products include physical products such as wheelchairs, glasses, prosthetic limbs, white canes, and hearing aids to digital solutions such as speech recognition or time management software and captioning and assistive services, whilst assistive services may be delivered by health professionals who offer assessment, advice and training on assistive products, or peer supporters who provide lived expertise perspectives. The World Health Organization also notes that assistive technology can help people in all aspects of their lives, including in education, employment, fitness, leisure and other everyday activities such as self-care, cooking and reading.
Assistive technology can positively impact a person, their family and friends, and has broader socioeconomic benefits. For example, specific to the goals and needs of children with developmental disability and their families, the World Health Organization details that:
- early provision of hearing or vision assistive products for young children supports their development of language and communication skills, limiting negative impacts on their education, future employment and community participation;
- provision of appropriate mobility assistive products facilitates mobility, improving individuals’ access to education and employment while reducing healthcare costs due to a reduction in secondary complications such as pressure injuries and contractures; and
- timely provision of assistive technology can improve independence and safety.
For details, go to https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/assistive-technology
Building on the position of the World Health Organization, in December 2023, the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) released an evidence snapshot on AT interventions to support children with physical or intellectual disability or developmental delay who have goals focused on communication, mobility, and participation (at home and in the community). Although the quality of the identified evidence was mixed, common themes included the importance of early AT intervention, the provision of training for children and families in using specific AT, and the consideration of child and family preferences and satisfaction with AT.
For details, go to https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/assistive-technology
Combined, this national and international guidance provides a strong indication of the importance of both assistive products and services required for children who may enter the Thriving Kids program.
Key considerations for design of the Thriving Kids Program, specific to assistive technology
To ensure the Thriving Kids program offers both effective program outcomes for children with disability and their families, and cost benefit to governments, assistive technology must be closely considered and included within the Thriving Kids program design. ARATA recommends that the Thriving Kids program embeds clear and consistent program guidelines for access pathways and funding of, and pathways to, both assistive products and services for all children with developmental delay or autism for whom AT interventions would best meet their needs, and who are outside of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). Families should have access to evidence-based, culturally safe, multilingual, and easily understandable resources that support their understanding and use of AT within the environments where children engage in age-appropriate everyday activities, such as early childhood, education, and play settings.
The program must ensure timely AT provision, recognising the urgency of children’s developmental needs. ARATA has provided extensive guidance to the NDIA on this recommendation in a previous submission to an RFI on an early childhood approach to AT within the NDIS.2 Given the rapidly changing AT needs of children with disability, it should also include access to trial, loan, and reissue schemes so families can explore solutions before committing to purchase. Investment in workforce development is essential, including sector-specific training, AT micro-credentials, and the introduction of navigator roles to guide families.
Equity must be addressed through culturally responsive design, targeted support for rural and remote communities, and funding mechanisms that reduce financial barriers. The program should also draw on international best practice and lessons learned from the NDIS to avoid repeating systemic gaps, or siloed programs in specific systems that limit outcomes that can be achieved. Seamless transitions between mainstream health, education, and early childhood services must be guaranteed, supported by clear funding responsibilities.
Finally, reforms should be introduced in a phased and evaluated manner, ensuring sufficient time for co-design and so that the program is both robust and responsive, while avoiding unintended service gaps.
1. Evidence-based information and resources for parents
Families require clear, accessible guidance to recognise early signs of developmental delay and to understand available supports, including AT.
- Resources should be developed in plain language, culturally responsive, and translated into multiple languages.
- Awareness of AT must be embedded across child health, primary care, playgroups, and early childhood education settings.
- Practical, family-friendly tools (fact sheets, digital resources, peer stories) should highlight AT options for communication, learning, mobility, sensory regulation, and sleep.
2. Effectiveness of current and past programs
Current programs demonstrate significant gaps in recognising and supporting children’s AT needs, including:
- Closure of Independent Living Centres and limited trial/loan programs restrict families’ ability to develop their knowledge and test solutions in the area of AT.
- AT is inconsistently integrated across mainstream services such as schools, early childhood, and health care.
- NDIS implementation has shown that unclear responsibilities between systems result in delays and inequities.
- Recent NDIS price guide changes that have reduced funding for AT advisory services to travel to test AT solutions in the various environments that children would use these products risks limiting availability of skilled AT advice, or achieving good AT outcomes.
Thriving Kids must learn from these experiences and explicitly include AT access as a program feature, using identified good practice steps of AT provision including assessment; selection; implementation (including delivering equipment to the AT user, fitting and training); and follow up and maintenance to ensure effective use of the assistive product, and avoid the risk of AT abandonment.3
3. Equity and intersectionality
Children from First Nations and culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds experience heightened barriers to AT access. These include cost, lack of culturally safe services, and limited local availability.
- Co-design with First Nations and CALD communities is essential to ensure resources and supports are relevant and trusted.
- Regional and remote families require equitable access to AT, supported by outreach and telepractice models.
- Dedicated funding must address financial disadvantage to prevent inequities in AT access.
4. Workforce support and training
Thriving Kids will require a workforce capable of identifying AT needs and integrating solutions into practice.
- Training modules and micro-credentials should be developed in partnership with ARATA, other Disabled Persons and Representative Organisations, and people with disability lived expertise.
- Early childhood educators, teachers, allied health practitioners, and child health staff must be supported to recognise when AT may be required for a child and how to connect families to supports.
- A navigator model is strongly recommended to guide families through AT access pathways, reduce delays, and minimise distress.
5. Domestic and international policy lessons
International best practice highlights:
- Loan and reuse schemes are beneficial and allow families to trial AT.
- Navigator or key worker roles to ensure continuity of support.
- Integrated AT pathways across health, education, and social systems.
Domestically, lessons from the NDIS underscore the importance of clarifying responsibilities between jurisdictions and ensuring timely, coordinated AT provision.
6. Seamless transitions through mainstream systems
Transitions - such as entering kindergarten or school - are points of heightened vulnerability for children with developmental delay and autism.
- Thriving Kids must ensure AT is available at all stages, regardless of NDIS eligibility.
- Clear, transparent thresholds for NDIS access are required to avoid children falling into gaps.
- Dedicated AT funding streams in health, early childhood, and education will ensure continuity.
- Navigators should actively support transitions, enabling families to remain connected to supports and reducing the risk of exclusion.
7. Areas of AT need
ARATA members identify the following AT needs that are likely to be experienced by children in scope of Thriving Kids:
- Low-cost AT for sensory and emotional regulation.
- Communication and learning devices, software and apps (Alternative and Augmentative Communication, learning and language apps, often best accessed on low cost tablet devices or similar hardware).
- Mobility supports such as strollers or adapted vehicle restraints.
- Sleep-related AT for positioning, sensory accommodation, and safe sleep environments, recognising the significant impact of sleep problems on children and families.
Policy Recommendations
ARATA recommends that the Thriving Kids program:
- Embeds AT access (for both products and services) and funding pathways for all children with developmental delay or autism for whom AT would offer functioning and/or participation benefits.
- Provides evidence-based resources for families, culturally safe, accessible, and available in multiple languages.
- Ensures timely AT provision, recognising that children’s developmental needs change rapidly.
- Enables the reinstatement and expansion of trial/loan and reissue schemes, allowing families to test AT solutions before purchase.
- Includes investment in workforce development, including sector-specific training, AT micro-credentials, and navigator roles.
- Addresses equity issues to AT access through culturally safe design, rural outreach, and funding models that reduce financial disadvantage.
- Incorporates lessons from international best practice and from gaps identified in NDIS implementation.
- Guarantees seamless system transitions, embedding AT into mainstream health, education, and early childhood services, with clear funding responsibilities.
- Adopts phased implementation with evaluation, ensuring reforms are robust and responsive while avoiding service gaps.
Conclusion
Thriving Kids represents a significant opportunity to improve outcomes for children with developmental delay, autism, and other support needs. Embedding AT - which includes both assistive products and services - into the program’s design is essential to ensuring timely, equitable, and effective supports that enable children to participate fully in family, education, and community life, and offer program cost-benefit.
ARATA stands ready to collaborate with the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, governments across jurisdictions, and community stakeholders to ensure that Thriving Kids achieves its intended goals.
For further information, please contact redacted
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