People with Disability Living in Remote and Rural Areas
People with disability who live in rural and remote areas of Australia and require the use of a wheelchair as a mobility device have no access to ‘all terrain’ wheelchairs to traverse uneven terrain, as these remain outside the scope of funding arrangements.
In particular, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with disability need access to mobility aids that are adapted to environments that provide specific mobility challenges. Access to maintenance and repair services do not meet the needs of remote communities, such as availability of local equipment supplies, and people in communities trained to undertake basic repairs and greater flexibility of service delivery arrangements.391
Case Study
A number of Aboriginal people with disability living in a remote community location in far western New South Wales are unable to have their wheelchairs repaired because they need to send them away to get them fixed. They will not have a replacement wheelchair during this time, and so they persevere with the unrepaired wheelchairs, mending the chairs as best they can with tape and other means.392
