16/05/2026
🫶🫶🫶👇👇👇
I had this conversation just yesterday, with a provider and coordinator.
I explained that there is a very unfair and presumptuous attitude among service providers. Not only in our area, but country wide!
That is, that people with disabilities need to access only disability services in all areas of life.
I call this "the provider bubble".
There is no reason that a good percentage of the people we support can't enrol in a tafe course or other secondary study, join and become involved in sporting and group activities within their community- that AREN'T run by disability services.
And employment! Don't even get me started! 😪
There are SO many creative and diverse ways that people can gain employment that THEY choose. Employment that interests them and gives them a sense of accomplishment!
Let's stop existing inside the "bubble" and expecting this to feel like "enough" for the people we support.
They deserve more.
Our job is to support them to find it!! 🙌
Have a great weekend everyone 🌻
Take care of yourselves and each other!
Hannah ✌️
A Sam rant (repeated!).
Bear with me if you please:
A disabled person who is close to me started in a "special" program a while ago. When I asked the provider about including more of something good from a little outside (and inclusive) of the program, I was told it didn’t fit the “model”.
According to the Oxford dictionary, a model can be one of these things:
- a copy of something, usually smaller than the original object
- something such as a text or a system that can be used as an example for other people to copy
- a person or thing that is considered an excellent example of something
- a way of running a business, based on a particular way of getting the money you need and identifying and reaching your customers; a type of business model
For some reason/s, the NDIS, and disability service providers feel like we have to fit disabled peoples’ lives into “models”.
It’s why we have SLES, and SIL and SDA and Day Programs and ADE’s (what an alphabet soup!).
But I think models for disabled lives are more often than not, crap.
Because models tend to make lives smaller, copying what worked for someone else, and fitting people into the same boxes. They're an easier way to get the money that providers need, rather than having disabled people living big lives in individual ways driven by the person, not the provider.
While the original model design might have been excellent for the person it was originally designed for, it’s rarely all that good for many others.
So why does everyone insist on housing “models” and post school “models” and employment “models” and program “models”?
I have some possible answers.
It might be because they’re lazy, or they don’t care enough about the individual, or it’s too expensive to individualise. Or really, it’s possible they lack imagination or are just so pressed getting bare needs met, they just can’t extend themselves any further.
So how do we, as parents, as disabled people, as providers, escape the “models”, or only use the bits that are "right"?
A model can only create a smaller life than you could potentially have.
Has anyone ever asked a non-disabled person, “What housing model works for you?” Or “What employment model do you use?” or “How does your day program model work?”.
No. Able bodied people get asked “Where do you live? And "Who do you live with?”, and they get asked “What keeps you busy?”.
So, I encourage you, don’t bow to the “model” of employment, or housing or post school supports that providers and the NDIS find easy to pop into their labelled model slots and support categories and line item numbers.
Try something different. Try something that might really work for you or the person you love. Pursue the real dream, not the pre-packaged stuff that comes off the NDIS production line.
Be brave. Self manage your funds if you can and demand your planner gives you support to make it happen. Don’t just look to disability service providers to help you live a good life. Look where able bodied people look - a coach, a friend, a ballroom dancing class, a circus class, a writing group, a golf club.
Not just special golf on Tuesdays at 3pm for 45 minutes, or a special dancing group, or coffee with just a support worker at the shopping centre.
So anyway, I went outside of the “model” for a person I love recently, and boy, is life looking big and awesome. I’m thankful to the “model” for giving us a start, but I’m glad we saw its smallness and went beyond.
Think big. Think outside of group homes and ADE’s and special serviceland. Live a larger life.
Yours sincerely,
—Sam
Pic desc: A row of female fashion models, walking away from the camera, down a catwalk with lights above. All have long hair of various colours and are slim, but that’s likely the end of their similarities though they’re all walking in step in a very regulated looking line.
