Disability in the Bush
Partner
National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA)
Challenge
Aboriginal people living with Disability in remote NT communities did not understand the NDIS and how it could support them.
Research Approach
We spent 6 months on the ground, in five remote Aboriginal communities. Through this research, we found that people were missing out on vital support available as they did not know about the NDIS or know they were eligible. NDIS workers were arriving in the bush and were known locally as the ‘purple shirt mob’. Information was being delivered using unfamiliar language and concepts, and via channels that weren’t used in communities.
We also asked Aboriginal people living with disability and their families what they needed to live a good life. We recorded their stories to help the wider community listen to and understand their needs. We then worked out how the NDIS support could best meet their needs. We found new ways of translating and sharing information about the NDIS so that it was more accessible and relevant to their lives.
Knowledge Translation - App development
Interplay worked with communities to define specific words and also formulate a new dialogue to better explain NDIS and the service it provides.
In order to deliver this information through an accessible channel, we co-created a web-based app called ‘Disability in the Bush’.
‘Disability in the Bush’ provides clarification on the NDIS and its service. It includes translations in two Central Australian Indigenous languages Arrernte and Pitjantjatjara – and two Top End languages, Anindilyakwa and Yolngu Matha.
“Aboriginal Australians are twice as likely to have a disability as non-Aboriginal Australians, but too many are missing out on NDIS support because they don’t understand the system. We need to shape the system around the end-users, not the other way around.
Disability in the Bush combines knowledge translation principles and technology and is designed by, and for, Aboriginal Australians. Indigenous people led the development of the app from the research stage, right through to the look and feel, and language used.”
