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Consumers with disabilities

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Information and resources to help people with a disability understand their consumer rights an make informed purchasing decisions.

On this page

Working together to empower people with disabilities

Talkin' Together about consumer rights

Resources and learning tools

Information for people selling goods and services

More information

The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) means big changes for those with a disability and the sector as a whole.

People with disabilities are now responsible for buying products and entering into contracts with service providers.

Many are entering the marketplace as a consumer for the first time and won’t always have the skills and confidence necessary to make fully informed purchasing decisions.

Self-learning tools, information and advice are available to help everyone make the transition.

Working together to empower people with disabilities

It is important we all understand our rights as a consumer before entering a contract, hiring a service, or making a complaint. Equally important is having the right mix of advice and learning tools available to suit different learning styles and life experiences.

Fair Trading is working with other organisations to develop resources to help you. Australia’s consumer protection agencies are continuing to produce new educational materials and resources to help you learn more about your consumer rights at your own pace, and at a time that suits your individual needs.

Talkin' Together about consumer rights

The Talkin' Together project was an innovative project where we worked collaboratively with community partners to develop new tools and material to assist consumers and those working with people with disabilities.

Our partners nominated clients who were trained as peer educators and worked alongside NSW Fair Trading staff, co-delivering sessions about consumer rights, including how Australian Consumer Law applies to NDIS contracts.

A range of digital stories have been developed, where peer educators share their experience and top tips for using consumer rights. Stories focus on the topics of entering contracts, hiring services, making complaints and being aware of scams.

The digital stories are also available in Cantonese, Mandarin, Arabic, Vietnamese, Korean and Khmer.

A co-design workshop with The Deaf Society was filmed and the same consumer rights messages are also available being delivered in Auslan.

Resources and learning tools

Video resources

Entering a contract

Hiring a service

Making a complaint

Scams awareness

Fair Trading is keen to work with advocacy organisations, carer networks, disability support networks, and other agencies to share knowledge and build skills in the sector to support people with disabilities in the marketplace. Collaborative projects involving, for example, Fair Trading and NSW Family and Community Services (FACS) are delivering new tools and material to assist consumers and those working with people with disabilities.

More resources

Fair Trading offers seven easy-to-read postcards and a contract checklist:

The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) offers consumer guides and videos.

These and other resources can be found on the ACCC website.

What we have learned through Talkin’ Together’s collaborative approach and through the co-delivery/co-design sessions has been compiled into the Talkin’ Together Toolkit to assist other organisations looking to utilise the peer-to-peer model for engaging with traditionally hard to reach communities.

Information for people selling goods and services to people with disabilities

If you are selling goods or services to consumers with disabilities, it is important to know your rights and obligations.

You may like to read the ACCC’s A guide to competition and consumer law: for businesses selling to and supplying consumers with disability and the Small Business Complaints Toolkit made available by The Society of Consumer Affairs Professionals Australia (SOCAP).

The NSW Ombudsman offers Tips for accessible complaint handling for organisations wanting to develop an accessible and responsive complaints handling system.

Information for people selling goods and services to people with disabilities

If you are selling goods or services to consumers with disabilities, it is important to know your rights and obligations.

You may like to read the ACCC’s A guide to competition and consumer law: for businesses selling to and supplying consumers with disability and the Small Business Complaints Toolkit made available by The Society of Consumer Affairs Professionals Australia (SOCAP).

The NSW Ombudsman offers Tips for accessible complaint handling for organisations wanting to develop an accessible and responsive complaints handling system.

Need more information?

To find out more and to request a speaker, email us  [email protected]

Visit our Community Voice Networks page to sign up for our regular newsletters, become a network member or learn about upcoming events to help make a difference to your community.

If you have an issue connected to NDIS but are not sure who to talk to, contact the Government agency that deals with the issue as follows:

Disability support provider issues

NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission
1800 035 544
ndiscommission.gov.au

Actions of the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA)

Commonwealth Ombudsman
1300 362 072
ombudsman.gov.au
[email protected]

Purchased product or service issues

NSW Fair Trading
13 32 20
Lodge a complaint

This information is also available in a handy document for consumers dealing with NDIS-related issues:

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