About the Association for Children with Disability

ACD’s existence and direction is dictated by the needs of children with disabilities and their families. Our organisation has a growing concern for the lack of services, specialist and community, available to them.

ACD commenced business in 1997 as a support group for parents who had children with disabilities. In 1998 we became incorporated and since then the organisation has employed staff to support and empower families, and grown in stature as a service provider and peak body organisation.

We have approximately 200 members largely comprising of parents, carers, families, parent support organisations and schools.  Anyone who is interested in joining our Association can do so by contacting us.

The majority of our Board of Management are parents of a child or young adult with disability.  As such, they have an excellent understanding and knowledge of the needs of families and a wide experience of services, having used those services themselves.

Our Philosophy

Our philosophy is based on the idea that parents can empower other parents.

The Association for Children with Disability believes that families should be provided with the flexible services they need before they reach crisis point. Parents should be involved in the decision making and planning of services for families of children with a disability. We want to work co-operatively with government to ensure that families are provided with the services that they believe are the best for them, rather than government providing what they think the families need.

State and Federal Governments should ensure that there is adequate disability funding for meeting the needs of all Tasmanian families who have a child or children with disability. They should also make sure that these resources are allocated fairly and equitably to families according to their needs.

Guiding Principles

The guiding principles to which ACD is committed to are: Choice, Access and Equity.
 

ACD’s Objectives

1. To be a statewide organisation providing advocacy, support, information and referral services to families of children with disability
2. To be pro-active in representing the interests of families of children with disability to government authorities and the general community
3. To be pro-active in lobbying government authorities on issues affecting the lives of families of children with disability.