Abstract
The combination of choice as a contested concept and its increasing adoption as a policy principle necessitates a critical analysis of its interpretation within Australia’s reforms to disability services. While choice may appear to be an abstract and flexible principle in policy, its operationalization in practice tends to come with conditions. This paper investigates the interpretation of choice in the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), via an interpretive policy analysis of assistive technology (AT) provision. Analysis of policy artefacts reveals a diminishing influence of disability rights in favor of an economic discourse, and contradictory assumptions about choice in the implementation of legislation. The language of choice and empowerment masks the relegation of the presumption of capacity to instead perpetuate professional power in determining access to resources by people with disability.
Highlights
Reforms to Australia’s disability policies represent a cultural and ideological shift in thinking about the rights of people with disability, emphasizing personalization in the provision of services through the National Disability Insurance Scheme’s (NDIS) mantra of “choice and control”
The NDIS commenced operation in July 2013, with activities in eight trial sites, followed by progressive rollout across Australian states between 2016 and 2019. It is administered by the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA), an Australian Government agency and a Corporate
It sets out the objects and principles for the operation of the NDIS, and the governance arrangements for the NDIA and its Board and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), and an Independent Advisory Council
Summary
Reforms to Australia’s disability policies represent a cultural and ideological shift in thinking about the rights of people with disability, emphasizing personalization in the provision of services through the National Disability Insurance Scheme’s (NDIS) mantra of “choice and control”. Different interpretations of policy affect practices and outcomes, which may not be consistent with policy objectives. This research explores choice in the context of assistive technology (AT) provision at a time when two different discourses are intersecting in the reforms to Australia’s disability policies. The first is the disability rights movement that emphasizes respect for the autonomy and dignity of people with disability, and their right to participation, including making choices pertaining to their own lives [6]
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