About us
Advocacy for Disability Access and Inclusion aims to:
Provide advocacy support for a person living with disability to have a voice in decisions that affect their life
Provide advocacy support for family members who need to speak on behalf of the family member living with disability
Stand with and help individuals living with disability and families caring for a person living with disability to gain access to services or to improve services
Encourage, empower and support people living with disability toward independence through self advocacy
Encourage, empower and support family members, parent groups and networks to advocate for family members living with disability
Provide information on opportunities for people living with disability and their families to gain the skills to advocate
Ensure people living with disability, their families and carers gain access to and attain their rights and entitlements under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disability
What we do
- Help families gain access to services
- Support parent groups and networks
- Assist individuals, parents and carers to advocate for improved or new services
- Promote community involvement
- Provide information
What we don’t do
- Provide emergency, crisis care or case work services
- Take over job of other co-ordinators or case workers
- Take over a person’s life (or problems) and make all the decisions for the person or their family
- Stop people helping themselves
- Make people feel helpless or dependent
- Keep people “in the dark” and do everything for them
- Try to control individuals and families
- Expect individuals and families to “make do” with services
- Accept poor services
- Pretend the problem does not exist
- Stop individuals and parents from becoming activists
History
A group of parents acted as advisors for the State Government in starting new and different disability services and to establish the Intellectually Disabled Persons’ Services Act, 1986. Funds were provided by both the South Australian and Federal Governments to start Parent Advocacy (known as Advocacy for Disability Access and Inclusion since 2015 to represent its current role) and it was incorporated in 1986.
Before that time, many parents accepted that “professionals” knew more about their children’s special needs. These parents soon realised that they were “the experts” in knowing what their child needed. Or at least, that they should have the opportunity to be involved in the decisions being made by others about their son or daughter’s needs.
In 2006 Parent Advocacy changed its name to Family Advocacy Incorporated (FAI) and to Advocacy for Disability Access and Inclusion in 2015. Families have changed over the past twenty years; they were traditionally made up of two parents and their children but now there are many single parents, siblings, grandparents and other family members caring for people living with disability.
Advocacy for Disability Access and Inclusion has helped many families to be involved in decision making and to work with disability services so that families of a person living with disability can get better opportunities for their family members living with disability.
Advocacy for Disability Access and Inclusion remains a small advocacy agency with a central office at 183 Archer Street, North Adelaide.
Today, Advocacy for Disability Access and Inclusion Inc. is funded by the Department of Social Services (DSS) to provide independent advocacy to a person living with disability and or the family that supports them.