FROM 2016: Let's Make This Better - NDIS Tech Future Imagined by People With Disability
This video was produced way back in November 2016, and published at W3C Conference in Perth in April 2017. The video was produced by the amazing Christopher Hills, known on X @TheSwitchMaster: He is an Accessibility Consultant, Filmmaker, Apple Certified Pro Final Cut Pro X, owner of HandsOptional and a geek with cerebral palsy.
The video creatively presents the experience of People with Disability interacting with government systems, and in particular the NDIS NDIA systems. What is revealed through this video, is a future envisaged by People with Disability, creatively designed pushing the boundaries of new technology and concepts that reimagines access and accessibility, and human-computer interfaces and experiences.
A few things to note about this video.
This video was produced NINE years ago - almost a DECADE ago - and it shows the sparks of innovation that were emerging at that time, made possible by real co-design. Not the co-design theatre paraded by the Agency for years.
In the video - at timestamp 1:42secs - a poster on the wall can be seen. The poster is a coloured crayon poster, illustrating a design interface, with a dialogue box that reads "Hi David, How can I help you today?" This poster is one of the design artefacts of the Nadia project, and is illustrated in the Nadia book. Christopher Hills was a member of the NDIS Digital Innovation Reference Group (DIRG); Samantha Connor AM was also an influential and creative member of the DIRG, which was chaired by Sean Fitzgerald. The DIRG led the co-design and creation of Nadia.
It is shameful that co-design was shutdown and the Nadia project dumped, after Nadia was introduced, in the wake of RoboDebt.
Today, 2025, the NDIS systems and accessibility are more cumbersome, complex and defective. Imagine what could have and should have been achieved in terms of innovation and augmented accessibility in the nine years since this video was produced.
Anyway, this video is too powerful not to be shared and for it to remain hidden. Imagine what could have and should have been achieved in terms of innovation and augmented accessibility in the nine years since this video was produced.