The duplicity of choice and empowerment: disability rights diluted in Australia’s policies on assistive technology

Article

Steel, Emily J.. 2019. "The duplicity of choice and empowerment: disability rights diluted in Australia’s policies on assistive technology." Societies. 9 (2), pp. 1-12. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc9020039
Article Title

The duplicity of choice and empowerment: disability rights diluted in Australia’s policies on assistive technology

ERA Journal ID211363
Article CategoryArticle
Authors
AuthorSteel, Emily J.
Journal TitleSocieties
Journal Citation9 (2), pp. 1-12
Article Number39
Number of Pages12
Year2019
PublisherMDPI AG
Place of PublicationSwitzerland
ISSN2075-4698
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.3390/soc9020039
Web Address (URL)http://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/9/2/39
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.

Keywordsassistive technology; choice; capacity; national disability insurance scheme; interpretive policy analysis
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020420318. People with disability
440712. Social policy
489999. Other law and legal studies not elsewhere classified
Byline AffiliationsSchool of Health and Wellbeing
Institution of OriginUniversity of Southern Queensland
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