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Argument, Think Autism Melbourne 2026
Eighteen months and several NDIS applications for one refugee family
In short
At Think Autism Melbourne, SSI’s Nicole Smith read the account of a mother from Iran who had to keep applying to the NDIS for her autistic son each time the family moved.
Read it instead, 4 minutesThe transcript
The story
At Think Autism Melbourne in May 2026, Nicole Smith, head of disability supports at Settlement Services International (SSI), was the first speaker on a panel on autism and intersectionality, and she read a client’s story aloud. She told the room SSI had permission to share it, and that she was reading it out of respect for the story. It concerned a mother who had arrived from Iran three years earlier with her husband and their young son, who has autism, a heart condition and complex support needs. “Over a period of 18 months, she had to apply for the NDIS not once, but multiple times.”
The reason Smith gave was the family’s moves. The family was moving between temporary accommodation arrangements, and each move meant starting the process again. Smith said that despite the level of the child’s needs, support was not there for that period. The first stage had gone well. Through SSI and Refugee Health, and with interpreters, the mother obtained a diagnosis for her son and began to understand what autism meant for herself, for her family and in the Australian context. In Smith’s telling, the real difficulty began afterwards, once she tried to reach the systems that were supposed to provide support.
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Sources the story draws on
- Cultural and Linguistic Diversity Strategy 2024-2028 (opens in a new tab), National Disability Insurance Agency
- What are the residence requirements? (opens in a new tab), National Disability Insurance Agency
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