Participants are Paramount: Ensuring Safety in Specialist Disability Accommodation

From (Ms) Joe Manton – Director, Access Institute In Australia, the National Disability Insurance Scheme provides support to eligible individuals in various types of Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA). New residential accommodation buildings must comply with the National Construction Code (NCC) and adhere to the SDA Design Standard. However, there are concerns regarding the application of … Read More

SDA Pricing Review Released –
News for SDA Assessors

From (Ms) Joe Manton – Director, Access Institute The Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) Pricing Review results have just been released and are available on the NDIS website at the link below. There are a number of reports that relate to this review that incorporate extensive technical data and detail. The majority of SDA configurations have … Read More

Why you need to use an Access Consultant on your next Project

Ms. Joe Manton, Director Access Institute, ACAA & Williamson Fellow Access Consultants have been operating in the marketplace for more than thirty years. The profession began with a few interested people, some with disabilities, who were working in the design and development of the built environment and recognised the need to ensure buildings were accessible … Read More

All Gender Toilets – We just want to go to the toilet!

Ms. Joe Manton, Director Access Institute, ACAA & Williamson Fellow In an ABC Opinion piece by Rory Blundell posted on Tuesday 4 April 2017, Rory states: ‘Like most people who consume almost a litre of soft drink while seeing a movie at the cinema, I really need to pee. A familiar, prickly feeling of anxiety … Read More

New Minimum Accessibility Standards for Housing in the NCC

After much work across a wide range of sectors, the National Building Ministers forum has agreed that new minimum accessibility Standards, based on the Silver Performance Level of the Livable Housing Australia (LHA) Design Guidelines, will be incorporated into the National Construction Code (NCC). Ministers also agreed that a voluntary Gold Level technical standard for … Read More

Accredited SDA Assessor – Update 3, April 2021

Clarifications re the SDA Design Standard Interpretations 12 April 2021 This is the third update of Clarifications re the SDA Design Standard Interpretations. This 3rd Update also includes the content from Updates 1 and 2. The SDA Design Standard has now been in use for over 12 months and there are currently more than 60 … Read More

Toilets for Everybody – A Right not a Privilege

Ms. Joe Manton, Director Access Institute After spending my very early years trudging through the back yard to the outdoor ‘dunny’ in the winter, I developed a great appreciation, as did many others, for a comfortable, warm, clean, ‘spider free’ toilet, as these were introduced to homes across the country. Of course, you just need … Read More

Good Food, Good Access, Great Results!

The Comfort of Social Distancing With cafes and restaurants opening up again after the long hibernation it’s time to celebrate with a night out at our favourite eatery. With social distancing in place it may mean that people will be more comfortable at the dining table without the elbows of the diner next to them … Read More

‘I was very impressed with the LHA course facilitator, Lucas Wheeler. He was terrific, very knowledgeable, fantastic use of words to describe meanings and processes and was able to respond really well to all questions. I also liked how he was able to extrapolate from specific questions and weave into dialogue to either give an example or contextualise it in relation to the bigger picture. Thought he was a first class facilitator.’ — Pauline Young, Sales Consultant, Amicum - Aged Care and Retirement Living Specialists