If you want someone to talk you through what to do, contact the NDIS on 1800 800 110.
You can start getting help from the NDIS now, if you:
- live in a trial site, and
- you meet the access requirements.
Trial sites
At the moment the NDIS is only in a few places around the country. These are called trial sites (people have also been calling them launch sites).
There are trial sites running now, in:
- The Australian Capital Territory (ACT)
- across the whole territory
- New South Wales (NSW)
- the Hunter region
- Lake Macquarie, Maitland, and Newcastle
- Nepean Blue Mountains (only for young people up to the age of 18)
- Blue Mountains, Hawkesbury, Lithgow and Penrith
- the Hunter region
- The Northern Territory (NT)
- the Barkly region
- South Australia (SA)
- across the whole state (only for children up to the age of 12)
- Tasmania (TAS)
- across the whole state (only for people aged 15-24)
- Victoria (VIC)
- the Barwon region
- the City of Greater Geelong, the Colac-Otway Shire, the Borough of Queenscliff, the Surf Coast Shire
- the Barwon region
- Western Australia (WA)
- Cockburn/Kwinana
- Lower South West
- the Perth Hills area
- Kalamunda, Mundaring and Swan
Queensland (QLD) is preparing for the NDIS, but it won't begin there until the whole scheme begins to roll out nationally, from July 2016.
Access requirements
Everyone who lives in the trial sites can be part of the NDIS if they meet the access requirements. The access requirements are questions about:
- your age
- where you live
- your citizenship
- your disability
- your support needs
- if you would benefit from early intervention
- and exceptional circumstances (for example, people that moved into a trial site after the NDIS trial started there)
These questions are to make sure the NDIS follows the law, so that it is fair for everyone.
You'll find these kinds of questions in an access request form, or on My Access Checker.
To see whether you might be in without doing anything official, use the NDIS Access checklist. This will help if you are not sure if you can try to get into the NDIS. It is an online checklist, with 5 questions.
If you want to ask to join the NDIS officially, you need to fill out an access request form. You can ask for someone to help you with either NDIS Access checklist or the form by contacting the NDIS.
When you put in your forms, the NDIS might want you to give them more information. You can ask for help to do this if you need to. Once the NDIS has your forms and all the information, the law says you should find out if you are in within three weeks.
Photo: Screenshot of one of the pages of NDISAccess Checklist.
Related pages:
How does the Planning process work?