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The Duplicity of Choice and Empowerment: Disability Rights Diluted in Australia’s Policies on Assistive Technology

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  • Emily J Steel

    (School of Health and Wellbeing, The University of Southern Queensland, Ipswich, QLD 4305, Australia)

Abstract

The combination of choice as a contested concept and its increasing adoption as a policy principle necessitates a critical analysis of its interpretation within Australia’s reforms to disability services. While choice may appear to be an abstract and flexible principle in policy, its operationalization in practice tends to come with conditions. This paper investigates the interpretation of choice in the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), via an interpretive policy analysis of assistive technology (AT) provision. Analysis of policy artefacts reveals a diminishing influence of disability rights in favor of an economic discourse, and contradictory assumptions about choice in the implementation of legislation. The language of choice and empowerment masks the relegation of the presumption of capacity to instead perpetuate professional power in determining access to resources by people with disability.

Suggested Citation

  • Emily J Steel, 2019. "The Duplicity of Choice and Empowerment: Disability Rights Diluted in Australia’s Policies on Assistive Technology," Societies, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-12, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsoctx:v:9:y:2019:i:2:p:39-:d:233472
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Emily Cukalevski, 2019. "Supporting Choice and Control—An Analysis of the Approach Taken to Legal Capacity in Australia’s National Disability Insurance Scheme," Laws, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-19, March.
    2. Summers, Michael & George, Verikios, 2016. "Assistive Technology Pricingin Australia: Is It Efficient and Equitable?," MPRA Paper 106500, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 09 Dec 2016.
    3. Vrangbaek, Karsten & Robertson, Ruth & Winblad, Ulrika & Van de Bovenkamp, Hester & Dixon, Anna, 2012. "Choice policies in Northern European health systems," Health Economics, Policy and Law, Cambridge University Press, vol. 7(1), pages 47-71, January.
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    Cited by:

    1. Natasha Layton & Jackie O’Connor & Amy Fitzpatrick & Sharon Carey, 2022. "Towards Co-Design in Delivering Assistive Technology Interventions: Reconsidering Roles for Consumers, Allied Health Practitioners, and the Support Workforce," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(21), pages 1-18, November.
    2. Nóra Menich, 2022. "Each Person as an End? The Users’ Choices in the Service Delivery Process for Assistive Technology in Hungary," Societies, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-14, September.

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