The problem will finally be rectified next month, although Blind Citizens Australia raised it about three years ago

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

It seems like an obvious thing for a national disability program: don’t send letters to blind Australians in a format they cannot read.

But since the national disability insurance scheme began its rollout, blind and vision impaired participants have received vital correspondence – such as their support plans – in the form of regular letters, or as PDFs that do not accomodate a screen reader.

“The plans were simply being sent to people through the MyGov portal as a secure PDF file,” the acting chief executive at Blind Citizens Australia, Rikki Chaplin, told Guardian Australia.

“Screen readers cannot read secure PDF files so some people were receiving print copies of plans, and they were braille readers. Naturally, they can’t read those.”

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The problem is particularly severe for those who self-manage their support plans.

A key tenet of the NDIS is that it is intended to help participants with their independence; yet Chaplin said people were waiting from a “few months to a year” to get an accessible version of their plan.

“By that time the plan [might] have expired,” he said. “They might have gone through it with the support co-ordinator, but if you’re self-managing a plan you need to be able to look at how much money you’ve got left.”

In July, the National Disability Insurance Agency will roll out new measures, which Blind Citizens Australia believes will fix the problem. The agency will introduce an automated system so people can receive correspondence in their preferred format, be that large font, audio, e-text or braille.

Chaplin was disappointed the NDIA had taken so long to respond to their concerns.

“We first raised this probably around three years ago,” he said.

“We do find it very disappointing that we’ve had to fight this long for the agency whose job it is to take care of the needs of people with disability to understand what we feel is a very basic, fundamental concept.

“While we’re disappointed, we do have to congratulate them for coming to the table.”

The NDIA had also introduced measures this year to improve the accessibility of its website.

The website maintains an A rating from the international Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, set by the World Wide Web Consortium.

An NDIA spokeswoman said the agency was committed to ensuring “information is accessible, and delivered to NDIS participants in their preferred format”.

“As a result of consultation with participants, their families and carers, the NDIA will begin testing an automated process for requesting alternative formats,” she said.

The improved access for blind and visioned impaired people came as the federal government struck an important deal with the states and territories on Friday, under which the NDIS will fund disability-related health needs, including for swallowing and respiratory issues, and continence aids.

The NDIA had been reluctant – or refused – to finance the health aids, which it had said were not its responsibility. Guardian Australia reported this month that a crucial ruling at the administrative appeals tribunal had cast doubt on the agency’s ability to refuse to finance the aids in question.

The federal NDIS minister, Stuart Robert, was reportedly offering a $90m-a-year federal funding support package to the states.