As far as job descriptions go it doesn't get much better than the role of psychologist Heath Fletcher.

Key points:

• Founded in Victoria to help children with autism, demand for The Lab classes is growing across Australia
• The Gold Coast branch has three classes with four mentors every Saturday
• Participants who have never had a friend before are able to make social connections and improve their social skills

"My job is to make smiles, so it really is the best job in the world," he said.

Alex Turner-Cohen

An exhausted mum with a child with severe autism is calling on the Australian government to do more for children with special needs while in hotel quarantine.

Brenna Russell, 29, arrived in Sydney four days ago from Los Angeles and has been quarantining in Zetland’s Meriton Suites with her severely autistic son.

She has bruises on her arms from her son’s tantrums and she also fears for his safety.

Five year old Sebastien Russell has autism, ADHD, seizures, and a genetic variation of the NFIX gene that hasn’t been found before.

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.