“The Scheme Was Designed with a Very Different Idea in Mind of Who a Disabled Person Is”: The National Disability Insurance Scheme and People with Intellectual Disability

Abstract

This chapter uses the concept of dedifferentiation to explore whether or not the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) can deliver on its promise to adults with intellectual disabilities. Dedifferentiation means including people with intellectual disability in the broader group of people with disability, rather than regarding them as a separate group for the purposes of policy, service provision and professional practices. The chapter examines the benefits and drawbacks of the dedifferentiated approach of the NDIS and outlines the ways in which the scheme struggles to deliver on its intended purpose to adults with intellectual disability. It explores how adults with intellectual disability have fared in the NDIS and outlines some of the reasons for their poorer outcomes compared to other groups. It also considers how a more differentiated approach might allow people with intellectual disability to more optimally benefit from the NDIS.