After more than a decade of the NDIS, has anything changed about the way we value disabled lives?

‘Disability supports … are as essential as healthcare, and yet are talked about as though they are some kind of luxury item.’ Photograph: Carly Earl/The Guardian

After a mighty amount of work from disabled people and their families, supporters and allies, the NDIS came into being more than a decade ago. But has the exclusion and isolation of people like me actually been addressed?

Listening to discussions about us as “burdens” and “costs” has been infuriating and wearying. Disabled lives have become reduced to just how much our essential supports cost with no consideration of us as citizens, deserving of a place in the community.