Report on Interviews About Technology Accessibility, Support and Safety Considerations for the NDIS Disability Wellbeing Index

Abstract

The Centre for Disability Research and Policy (CDRP), University of Sydney, was contracted to contribute to a three-year research project, 2022-2024, funded by the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) and lead by Associate Professor Gang Chen, Monash University. The overarching aim of this research project was to design and test a preference-based wellbeing instrument that captures factors impacting on the wellbeing of people with disability in Australia, now known as the Disability Wellbeing Index (DWI). The role of the team based at the CDRP was to facilitate people with disabilities being involved in each stage of the research, including accessibility, safe environment, and self-reporting considerations for survey respondents. This is the second of four reports documenting the contribution of the team at the CDRP. This report describes the results of a consultations conducted with representatives from Disabled People’s Organisations (DPOs) and Disability Representative Organisations (DROs) to understand the accessible formats, support options, and safety considerations required to facilitate completion of the DWI. Dr Keran Howe, on behalf of CDRP, consulted with 16 representatives from eight Disabled People’s Organisations (DPOs) and Disability Representative Organisations (DROs) during April-June 2023. Results from this study confirmed that people with disability strongly recommended self-reporting of wellbeing where at all possible, with proxy completion being the option of last resort. Findings informed the development of a suite of alternative formats and support options that met a range of respondent support needs and communication preferences and further detailed safety considerations needing to be addressed, such as the potential for certain items to be triggering and cause distress.