The National Disability Insurance Scheme is a new program, entering the lives of Australians with disabilities from July this year. A lot of these people will have been living under difficult circumstances for many years, and now, finally, they’ll have access to the same opportunities as everyone else. The program aims to provide each person with an individualized plan so that they can receive services that are tailored to their needs – but there’s a catch: how does one go about doing Web Design for NDIS?
This article aims to answer that question. It will focus on the research I’ve done into NDIS and web design, as well as giving some basic guidelines for how to proceed with a website for anyone with a disability.
I’ll be dividing this article in two parts: The first part will cover the background of NDIS and web design, because that’s what I felt needed explaining most (as well as covering some of the NDIS themes which are peculiar to web design). The second part will cover more specific aspects of web design, including writing techniques and content.
What is NDIS?
In a nutshell, the NDIS is a plan that gives people with disabilities more independence and opportunities. This will be accomplished over a period of seven years, to make it easier for the government to fulfil its goals. It takes into account the needs of each individual – so what works for one person might not work for another – and ensures that each person receives support that suits their specific needs.
The National Disability Insurance Scheme is a new program (entering the lives of Australians with disabilities from July this year) that provides each person with the opportunity to live independently via a plan tailored to their individual needs.
So, what are those needs? Well, it depends on the nature of the disability that person has. A person with a physical disability wouldn’t need as much care and support as someone who has more severe psychological issues, for example.
The NDIS is also giving families and family members of disabled people the right to have a say in their loved ones’ lives. This can be seen as a positive move by some people, but we must also consider that it may bring some negative aspects as well. It is up to each family member whether they choose to get involved with the NDIS or not, and if they do want to get involved, it needs to be clear for everyone that their decisions don’t interfere with another person’s own choices and freedom.
The main goal of the NDIS is to give people with disabilities access to the same opportunities as everyone else. It takes into account the needs of each individual – so what works for one person might not work for another – and ensures that each person receives support that suits their specific needs.
Deciding which style of website to create for NDIS
The first decision to make is whether you want to build a “traditional” website or a “web-based” website.
If you build a traditional website, the content will be contained in documents and folders within your site, which is more appropriate for a company rather than an individual.
If you’d like to learn more about traditional web design, here’s a link that should help you (afaik, this was written by some the original web designers).
The other option is to create a web-based website. This will allow you to upload content into your site, rather than having it stored on special folders that people need to go to manually in order for them to see it. I’ll be explaining Web-Based design in more detail later on in the article.
A “traditional” website (left) vs. a web-based website (right). Traditional websites are more appropriate for companies rather than individuals because it allows the user to read their contents without having to be involved with uploading, whereas in web-based websites, the user uploads content and shares it with others.
As you can see there’s more than one way for you to go about creating a site for NDIS: you can either go traditional or web-based. The decision is entirely up to you and what you feel comfortable with, as the two will have different results.
How do I go about getting web design for NDIS?
There are a lot of people who will want to get involved in the NDIS, so how are you going to make sure your website stands out from the crowd? Well, there’s two things you can do: either make it really nice, or publicise it in a way that will get people talking about it.
If you want to make it really nice, look into the different kinds of website designs and layouts. There’s plenty of help out there on the internet, so I suggest you take advantage of it. Once you’ve chosen one that you feel is both practical and aesthetically pleasing, get designing!
If you want to publicise it successfully, then the best thing to do is to make sure people know about your site and that they know how they can access it. It may be hard to publicise your site (because you don’t want to make other people jealous or upset about your site), but this is something you have to do on your own.
How do I go about getting web design for NDIS? You can also see a gist of this process here.
PART TWO: SPECIFIC ASPECTS OF WEB DESIGN
Here’s the second part of this article, in which I’ll be covering more specific aspects of Web Design for NDIS:
1. Writing techniques
I’m going to cover some aspects of writing here, because it’s important to remember that easier does not mean better. Too many writers fall into the trap of overdoing their own style, making their pieces “busy” and hard to read. It’s an easy trap to fall into because you have a story you want to tell, and so you stop thinking about the technicalities of your own language, and instead go crazy with how “exciting” it all sounds.
I’m not going to go into detail about writing techniques as I’ve already done a detailed guide on my blog, but I’ll be including my own personal preference for over-writing in this article. It is a choice that I made because there are some things I feel make a piece stand out more than others.
If you want to learn more about writing and the different types of writing, you can check out this excellent article by Dale Carnegie.
2. Character development
When creating characters for your story, it’s important that you give each of your characters their own distinct personality. Some writers don’t put in the effort required for this, or they just simply don’t know how.
Here are a few tips on how you can make your characters stand out:
Make their personalities different from one another Make their backstory different from your other characters, but don’t make it so different that everyone will have a hard time understanding it.
3. The art of the chase
The chase is something you should always keep in mind when creating your story’s plot; this is because it makes the plot interesting, and just that little bit more engaging for your readers. A chase can be a little thing, or it can be something as big as a war between two countries, and it mirrors the plot of your story very well in this way.
You’re going to have to keep things interesting from start to finish, because when your reader is bored, they’re going to stop reading your story. Keep this in mind when writing your next chapter, and you’ll find yourself stumbling upon good ideas that you otherwise wouldn’t have found.
Give them flaws. Most of the time, when you pick out a character, you will find that they’re “perfect”, like Snow White or Cinderella. And sure, that’s great and all… but it gets boring really quick and so it’s definitely not something you want to do.