Orla
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‘Agencies are filled with people that don’t have disabilities and it’s like they’re telling you “you can have this” or “you can’t have that”, so it’s really like they’re dictating to a person with a disability … you can have social activities if we say you can, or, you know, you can hear properly if we decide that you can.’
Orla, 50, has had a vision impairment for about 10 years and more recently, a hearing impairment.
A couple of years ago, Orla asked the NDIA to fund new hearing aids that her audiologist and occupational therapist recommended. Orla provided their assessments and reports explaining why she needed the hearing aids and outlining the risks if she didn’t use them.
Orla said the NDIA ignored the reports, telling her to use the standard hearing aids funded through a different government agency.
Orla told the Royal Commission she feels unsafe when she wears the standard hearing aids. If someone speaks behind her she is unable to hear them. If there is a lot of background noise she cannot hear properly. Orla says just trying to get across a busy road is challenging as she cannot hear the traffic properly. ‘Every day they put me at risk and I've had a lot of near misses with being hit by cars.’
The standard hearing aids have button batteries. If Orla drops the batteries she can’t pick them up because she can’t see them. Orla has a guide dog and fears her dog may ingest the batteries.
Orla applied for an internal review of the decision. After 12 months she hadn’t heard anything and contacted the NDIA. She discovered a staff member had made a decision but had left the agency. She had to apply again, but was unsuccessful.
Orla appealed to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. She engaged a solicitor, and a barrister represented the NDIA. Orla believes the barrister’s fees alone would pay for the hearing aids she needs ‘three, four times over or more’. Meanwhile the NDIA continued to ‘really put [her] through a lot of anxiety, a lot of high stress, a lot of risk’.
‘[The barrister] was allowed to question me like a criminal … because I was asking for something that was, to me, really vital to stop me from getting hit by a car or other risks to my guide dog, or if I had a fall.’
Meanwhile, Orla ran out of funds because her NDIS package ‘didn’t quite cover her needs’. She had to stop all services and supports. ‘I can't clean my floors, I can't clean my shower, just socially isolated. I've become depressed and … I can't really go out into the community.’ She has asked for an urgent review.
Orla would like to return to paid work but ‘keeps getting knocked backed’. She’s applied for at least 10 jobs at the NDIA and – although she’s highly qualified, has a postgraduate degree and a disability – has been unsuccessful.
One prospective employer emailed her a link for a virtual interview but it wasn’t accessible. Her disability employment service organised a phone interview but Orla never heard anything further.
Another employer shortlisted Orla for an interview but when the employment service asked a question about Orla’s guide dog, the employer withdrew the offer of an interview.
Orla believes government should take the lead and employ more people with disability.
‘That's where the government needs to take responsibility because nobody else will.’
Disclaimer: This is the story of a person who shared their personal experience with the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability through a submission or private session. The names in this story are pseudonyms. The person who shared this experience was not a witness and their account is not evidence. They did not take an oath or affirmation before providing the story. Nothing in this story constitutes a finding of the Royal Commission. Any views expressed are those of the person who shared their experience, not of the Royal Commission.