Work is good for lots of reasons. You can earn money from work. A job is often part of living a more independent life. You can meet more people and make new friends when you have a job. Working is an important part of feeling positive about your future.

Having a job is part of an ordinary life. You should be able to have a job and a career, if you want to. People with a disability can find it harder to get and keep a job. It is important to us to support people with a disability to find a job, build a career and stay in work.

There are lots of different supports you can use to pursue your work goals. These guides have information about different supports. The guides also tell you where to get more information. When considering what supports you may need, remember that a support that works for someone might not work for a person with your disability and circumstances.

Our Guidelines - Work and Study has information about work or study now or in the future. It tells you how we make decisions, what we fund and what supports may be available outside your NDIS plan.

You can use the Let’s talk about work booklet  to get ready for a conversation about work. You can use it to record key information about your work capacity, strengths, barriers and challenges. It is also good to have with you at a planning meeting with your LAC or NDIS planner.

More information and examples of what kind of supports the NDIS funds is available on the ‘Would we fund it’ website, the School Leaver Employment  booklet and Supports in Employment  webpage.

•  

• Developing a pathway to work: You have never worked or you haven’t worked for a long time and would like to start thinking about a plan and supports to get you the job you want

• Moving from school to work: You, or your child, are at school and thinking about work
• Getting a job: You are ready to look for a job
• Thinking about self-employment: You are thinking about setting up your own business
• Keeping a job: You need help to stay in your job
• Changing jobs: You want to change jobs. This might mean a new employer or a new job with the same employer.

The information in the guides is from:

• high quality research evidence
• participant preferences
• provider expertise

This is called using an evidence-informed framework. Below, you can read more about the information in these guides.

Research Evidence

These guides use research from a scientific review. The review was written in 2021 by researchers from:

• University of Melbourne
• University of NSW Canberra
• Brotherhood of St Laurence.

The review has information about:

• people on the autism spectrum
• people with an intellectual disability
• people with a psychosocial disability

The researchers looked at how different supports could improve opportunities for work for people with different disabilities. The review also told us how these different supports are used in Australia.

The guides also use information from a research project . We did this research to find out how the NDIA can support participants to find and keep a job. The research looked at:

• participants with an intellectual disability
• participants on the autism spectrum
• participants with a psychosocial disability.

We spoke to participants, NDIS Planners, Local Area Coordinators and NDIA representatives.

The guides also have information from a report by the Centre for Social Impact Swinburne about fostering employment for people with intellectual disability

There are lots of places where you can find more information about employment.

• Websites with more information Easy Read (PDF 2.16MB)
• Websites with more information Easy Read text only (DOCX 47.1KB)
• You can read the report “Evidence review: Strategies to increase employment and economic participation for people with a cognitive disability”
• You can read the report “Achieving a ‘sense of purpose’: pathways to employment for NDIS participants with intellectual disability, on the autism spectrum and/ with psychosocial disability”  .
• You can read the report “Fostering employment for people with intellectual disability: the evidence to date”  .
• You can read more about our Employment strategy  .
• You can read more about how the NDIS makes decisions about Work and Study .
• You can use the “Let’s talk about work”  booklet to help you get ready for a conversation about work