Shifting disability into ability

I’m a Junior Policy and Projects Officer at NDS, the peak body for non-government disability services.

People with disabilities face onerous challenges on a daily basis, whether it’s access to transport, funding for services we require or participation in the community. People with a disability, their families and support networks have shared these pivotal experiences, and I have experienced them myself. It is these experiences that encouraged me to enter the sector. It is these experiences that challenged me to be a voice for people with disability, shifting disability into ability.

I want to work towards ensuring that people with disability, their families and support networks, now and in the future, have equitable access to the support and services they require to remain active participants in the community; and to work towards ensuring that the disability sector and disability service providers have the capacity to deliver services that people with disability require.

Whilst getting careers advice at school, I was encouraged to enter a disability related area, however back then, I never thought I would. Four years later, I ended up in the sector. Some of the subjects I completed within the last year of my university degree reeled me towards the sector. Various people have encouraged me to enter the sector - through university, family, friends, people I have worked with, service providers I have used. Interestingly, most of my work placements and internships during university were at disability sector organisations.

The people I came into contact with, the people I worked with, the entanglement of disability and service provider related challenges and the way these organisations would passionately seek to make a difference, both challenged and influenced me.