By Neena Bhandari
Sydney, 21.06.2021 (Hireup): Twenty-five percent of Australians with profound or severe disability don’t speak English at home but most of the information provided by the NDIS is in English. So how do people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds access the needed supports in their plan?
The term ‘CALD participants’ refers to participants of the NDIS who don’t use English as the primary language at home. Historically, Australians from CALD backgrounds have been underrepresented in the disability sector.
According to the National Dashboard in 2020, there were 40,391 people from CALD backgrounds; 9.3 percent of the 442,209 people nationally on NDIS. And further data shows that CALD participants are utilising 66 percent of their plans on average compared to 68 percent for non-CALD participants.