Women With Disabilities Australia (WWDA) acknowledges the Australian Government’s commitment to reforming the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and recognises the need for fair, transparent, and consistent decision-making processes in needs assessments. In keeping this commitment, WWDA strongly advocates for the design of needs assessments to uphold the rights and dignity of women, girls, non-binary and gender-diverse people with disability, in all of their diversity.
In this position statement, WWDA outlines key principles for a human rights-based needs assessment model, identifies critical issues that must be addressed, and provides recommendations for implementation. Our goal is to ensure that the needs assessment process is equitable, person-centred, and truly reflective of the varied needs of the disability community. We aim to work constructively with the Government to develop a gender responsive, human rights-based model of needs assessment that reflects the diversity of our members.