Author: The projectABLE team

creating communities online

Posted on by The projectABLE team

What did we do before the internet?

The internet has replaced looking up a number in the phone book, queuing in line at the bank, waiting on hold, doing your research at the library.

For people living with disability, the internet has made huge changes. In the last 15 years, accessing information has been revolutionised – and as a result, those with limited mobility, hearing loss, vision impairment or the need for plain English websites can access information in more ways than ever before.

Here at projectABLE we’ve been keeping a close eye on the online community and disability – how inclusive the web is, how accessible it is, and in the best cases, how empowering it can be.

Bloggers have in recent years kind of become the new rock stars, and where rock stars with disability on stage have been somewhat lacking, they now make up for in waves online.

Some blogs, advocacy groups and communities we’ve come to love at projectABLE:

  • Stella Young on The Drum – Stella Young, a Melbourne based activist, is a blogger, comedian, activist in disability and editor of ABC’s online disability publication Ramp Up.
  • Ramp Up is produced by the ABC and is an opinion and news column for and about communities living with disability
  • Youth Disability Advocacy Service  – Established in 2006 and funded by the State Government, YDAS is the only disability advocacy service in Australia (and possibly the world) which exists specifically to represent and work on issues of concern to specifically young people with disabilities.
  • Disability Scoop is a US based online magazine covering a range of topics for and about people with disability
  • Enable is a UK based online publication covering many aspects of life when living with disability – travel, employment, the arts and more.

Have you found other similar online communities? Share with us your experience. We also regularly post interesting finds regarding disability on our Twitter and Facebook.

what is the ndis?

Posted on by The projectABLE team

There’s been some big news lately in the Australian disability and community care sector.

The National Disability Insurance Scheme, or the NDIS, a proposed funding method that disability services across Australia have been campaigning for many years, with an official campaign being run over the past year.

The NDIS will be a modern, person-centred support system, helping hundreds of thousands of Australians with disability and their families to have the opportunity to participate actively in their communities by providing targeted supports aligned to need. everyaustraliancounts.com.au

Until recently, funding in Australia for people with a disability has been dependent on where the person lives, the kind of disability that they have and how they came to have it (for instance, if a person’s disability is attained by injury, they currently may be relying on worker’s compensation or private insurance in order to attain the support they need around the home and in the community). This can be difficult for people living with a disability, their families and carers as resources can run out quickly (for instance, a student may have a lot of support during primary school years, but much less while transitioning to high school) rather than a guaranteed supply of lifelong support. The NDIS will change this by providing more choice and will give people access to funding and support, wherever they choose to live in Australia.

(The NDIS) would be individualised and person-centred. Support would be based on the choices of person with a disability and their family. everyaustraliancounts.com.au

This is good news for those working in the sector. As resources strengthen, the person-centred approach (thinking beyond time given to just physical care, and more of a focus on a person’s social and cultural needs also) will become more widely used, which will lead to more jobs within the sector and more enriching work for those who are already a part of it.

The NDIS is being trialled across Australia at particular sites. In NSW, the NDIS will be trialled in the Hunter region from 1 July 2013, where 10,000 people who have a disability will go through new procedures to have their needs assessed and start to receive individual care and support packages.

Related links

how can the web be made accessible?

Posted on by The projectABLE team

Online communities allow us to publish our own thoughts and ideas as well as connecting with people near and far. People with disability have taken to social media networks and are making a big impact.

The internet, more than other types of media, is all about choice – what you search for and what you view is of your own choosing, so it’s important for people with disability that websites are accessible.

To make a website accessible, there may be options to change the way it looks, which may be increasing font size or adjusting colours for those with vision impairment, creating plain English options for those with an intellectual disability or making website functions, such as links, accessible by keyboard, for those with physical disability. A new program called Access iQ has just been launched, offering resources and guidelines to creating and promoting the need for accessible websites.

If you’ve been to one of our workshops or even participated in our Certificate Training Program, you would have heard about our online challenge, Is your community accessible? We want you to think about how communities, whether they are online or otherwise, are accessible or inaccessible to people with disability.

You can find about more about access and inclusion on our page of suggestions, Is your community accessible?

You can post what you’ve found (as well as photos and video) through our Share your experience form. To get you started, here are some great examples of how the internet can be made accessible: