Joel Magarey

Andy Southam was a “sparky, chatty, funny” 24-year-old, his sister Judith McDonald says, when he left the family residence to enter a group home for men with intellectual disability in 1993.

“Back then,” she says, “he was interested in anything and everything.”

Joel Magarey

Disability service providers used unauthorised restraints, such as locking people in their homes and administering potentially harmful sedatives, on people in the NDIS more than 300,000 times in the previous financial year.

Evan Young

Officials from the administrator of the NDIS have been grilled in a Senate hearing about the controversial independent assessment reforms set to roll out next year.

The integrity of a pilot program for controversial reforms to the National Disability Insurance Scheme has been called into question by federal senators.

The National Disability Insurance Agency, which runs the NDIS, was grilled about the independent assessment reforms set to roll out next year at a Senate estimates hearing on Thursday.

Zach Hope

Victorian prisoners with known intellectual disabilities are facing internal disciplinary hearings, and receiving punishments, without specialist support services to ensure they understand what is happening and what they have done wrong.

Rebecca Zahra

What would you do if your child was ridiculed in front of all their friends and peers and couldn’t do anything about it? Bullied and treated badly by the one person you entrusted with the care of that child?

My son has autism. We have never hid that fact, we have always been very open about it.

Another peak medical body has sounded the alarm over the new NDIS independent assessment model set to be rolled out next year.

Evan Young

A peak body for Australian psychologists has lent its voice to a chorus of concern about controversial new National Disability Insurance Scheme reforms and is calling on the government to stop them from being rolled out. 

The Australian Association of Psychologists says the “simplistic” independent assessment process will create greater disadvantage for Australians living with disability.

On ABC Canberra Afternoons with Paula Kruger

Getting your first job out of school is an exciting milestone... but for many people on the Autism spectrum it can be daunting.

23-year-old Canberra man Darien Judge has been working for almost two years in IT at the Australian Bureau of Statistics after joining a specialist recruitment program.

Darien spoke to ABC Radio Canberra's Paula Kruger about his experience to encourage other Autistic jobseekers and potential employers to see the benefits of hiring someone with Autism.

New figures show NDIS appeals to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal have soared in recent years, as the government comes under fire for disability reforms.

Evan Young

Appeals against National Disability Insurance Scheme decisions have skyrocketed by more than 700 per cent since 2016, as the government concedes parts of the process have been "complex, costly and inconsistent".