Specialised Disability Accommodation in Remote, Rural & Regional Queensland: A Landmark
SDA Services is a passionate and proud organisation. We are dedicated to making diverse disability-accessible housing a reality for people with disabilities across Australia. Long-awaited by many, NDIS SDA is a landmark for people with disabilities in many communities.
The importance and power of collaboration between NDIS Participants, networks, and the skills and experience we house is a keystone of the SDA Services ethos. People with disabilities who work as part of the SDA Services team are integral to SDA Services’ mix to achieve the best possible SDA outcomes. Our team is based across Australia.
Recently, our marketing team sat down with one of our amazing Participant Interviewers, Ange, who lives in Far North Queensland (see map). This article is a snapshot of her SDA journey and speaks to the:
reach of NDIS SDA across Australia
importance and value of positive SDA outcomes for people with disabilities and their communities
importance of SDA Services work in remote, rural and regional Australia.
Equitable services and infrastructure for remote, rural and regional Australia
Ange has lived through historical struggles faced by people with disability in remote, rural and regional Australia. She knows about the inequity of geographical isolation from appropriate support services, accessible infrastructure and accessible housing faced by those with disability who live outside capital cities. She has seen the profound disconnect in society created for people with disability gradually improving since the 1970s.
Born in 1974 into her loving family from South West Queensland, the third of three sisters, Ange was also born with significant physical disability involving many complications, including having to use a wheelchair for mobility. In the 1970s and 80s, disability support services were centralised in capital cities, virtually non-existent on the ground elsewhere, and Government and medical instruction of the day was to remove children with disabilities from their families so they could be placed in ‘homes for the disabled’ institutions (like Montrose for example in Brisbane), or for families to move to the city to be closer to services.
But, against the odds, remote, rural and regional families with disabled children managed to stay in their communities if they were able. Choosing to go against what are now considered very outdated, inequitable approaches to ‘managing’ disability. “I’m forever grateful to my parents that I was never institutionalised, despite them being advised to do so and advised that I could only expect to live my life to ‘25%’ of a normal person”, Ange recalls.
Personal experience of NDIS SDA
NDIS was well-received by Ange, given her experiences and struggles living with disability in regional Australia. She credits getting to the point where she could ‘see it through’ to her friends and family and some genuine ‘game-changing’ people throughout her life.
Fast forward to 2024, Ange has moved into a home built to SDA standards in rural Far North Queensland. “I am so glad, despite many difficulties, to have lived long enough to see the NDIS Act. I’m very sad for my childhood peers with similar disabilities, who had to live in ‘homes for the disabled’ and deserved better but didn’t make it this far. SDA Services really have been instrumental in me being able to finally call a fully accessible house my home. My rock. It is a major accomplishment and relief for me and my family. I feel very fortunate.”
We also think Ange, her family and networks are an inspiration. Testament to the fact that a diversity of accessible homes, like options enabled by SDA, in remote, rural and regional Australia are not only possible but are essential infrastructure of great importance and value. SDA ‘levels the playing field’ for people with disabilities and enriches the fabric of remote, rural and regional Australia. Real value now that will carry on long into the future as landmarks of positive change.
SDA Services’ work in remote, rural & regional Australia
A quantum leap forward for people with disabilities in remote, rural and regional Australia has been the diversity of disability-accessible housing options enabled across Australia by NDIS SDA, not limited by location.
SDA Services sees the disparity between services provided to people with disabilities across the country and works to help people with disabilities no matter where they live. We work to help ‘normalise’ NDIS SDA (and its many benefits to participants and communities) across Australia.
SDA Services are proud to have been instrumental in many ‘landmark’ SDA decisions, and AAT appeals, in favour of Participants and meritorious outcomes under the NDIS Act.
Working with SDA Services
Since 2017, Ange has come to know Greg Barry and the SDA Services crew. She met Greg when he first travelled to Townsville to help pioneer SDA in Far North Queensland with Martin Lock (SDA supporter, builder, developer and former NQ Cowboys NRL legend). “SDA Services then embarked on my SDA journey with me. Every step of the way, SDA Services worked with me and had my back by:
travelling to areas of CYP and FNQ during the NDIS rollout here from 2018 to 2022, where we knew very little about the NDIS and SDA, to work with local people (Participants, Providers, Builders, LACs, Planners, Certifiers and Decision Makers) - to break new ground and get SDA up off the ground through reliable ongoing effort and relationships
navigating a steadfast, well informed, well-coordinated course through the sea of information, decisions and people involved in achieving SDA. No matter the ‘weather’ SDA Services never faltered.”
Seven years on, Ange describes the work of SDA Services as ‘gold’. “SDA Services embody change the NDIS Act seeks to achieve. In my experience SDAS are consistently: well-informed, respectful, balanced, reliable and easy to work with. A rare find”. Noting that “SDA Services has helped to enable equitable, participatory, ‘value for money’ outcomes the NDIS Act wants to see by:
Working in the interface between NDIA officers and NDIS Participants to achieve well-informed, mutually agreed outcomes under the NDIS Act
Supporting eligible Participants to navigate deficiencies and inconsistencies in the delivery of the NDIS Act e.g. where the NDIA is still developing as an agency and between providers across regions and states
Helping pioneer the rollout of well-informed NDIS SDA across Australia, bringing parity and ‘value for money’ outcomes for participants across the country, no matter where you live.”
“In my experience, SDA Services has been helping to pioneer the roll-out of different categories of SDA in areas of Far North Queensland and Cape York, where SDA has been limited, largely unattainable, or, in some cases, unheard of,” Ange says. “So when the opportunity became available to do some work with SDA Services, I was very happy to.”
SDA Services prides itself on the rich mix of skills and experience across our team. For example, Ange’s 30-year career spans experience working:
in Government impact assessment, decision-making, compliance, policy and planning at Local, State and Commonwealth levels
outside Government in community development to help support land managers (farmers and Traditional Owners) in achieving sustainable natural resource management, including negotiating agreements
in research, information mapping and communication for the benefit of informed, equitable operational decision-making and planning
Often being the only person with lived experience of disability in the workplace throughout her career, Ange has been involved in dealing with varying degrees of discrimination and ‘well-meaning’ but poorly informed HR rules imposed upon people with disabilities.
“In stark contrast, SDA Services is a truly equitable work environment that clears the way for people to do their jobs the best they can. Until now, I haven’t fully experienced real equity in the workplace when it comes to disability. I’m lucky, at the end of my career, to finally be part of a team where disability is truly valued and ‘invisible’ all at the same time.”
It is warming to note the evolution of SDA Services’ relationship with Ange—from SDA Services initially providing Ange with services all those years ago to now, when Ange has become a cherished member of the SDA Services team.
Words of advice from Ange?
If you are an NDIS Participant in remote, rural and regional Queensland and Australia, who is still ‘making do’ with houses and units that are not accessible or not really up to current-day standards, look into the different categories of SDA and eligibility.
Know the true value of SDA as a game changer that enables:
housing that respects basic human rights and quality of life, which has, prior to the NDIS, been ‘a dream’ out of the reach of most people with disabilities in remote and rural Australia
you to maximise your independence at home now and into the future
great value for money in the short and long term for Participants and the NDIS
‘normalisation’ and valuing disability access in the mainstream housing market, no matter where you live
a legacy of accessible houses that will live on for generations in your community
3. Stick with your SDA goals. Look what is at stake. It will take time and effort, particularly if the NDIS and SDA are ‘new’ in your community. SDA Services will help navigate the NDIA bureaucracy as best as possible
Fun Facts about Ange
In true country spirit, Ange:
Was instrumental in driving forward community coordination of the first sports wheelchairs for areas of Far North Queensland and Cape York Peninsula that have had little to no support for inclusive, adaptive sport to date, achieving the first ever:
Ten sports wheelchairs for Cookshire
Twelve sports wheelchairs for Atherton Tablelands sporting clubs and schools
Ten sports chairs were donated to Mareeba Cluster of 7 State Schools, making them the first schools in Queensland to own their own set of inclusive sports equipment—pioneering stuff! For more information, see the TORA website.
Rode the first handcycle in the historical Great Wheelbarrow Race in 2019 The Great Wheelbarrow Race 2019 - Sunday
143 km from Mareeba to Chillagoe over three days. And she’s backed this up twice since!
