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Disabled and neurodivergent writers: using NDIS funds to improve your writing skills

If you are a disabled or neurodivergent NDIS participant who wants to write or tell your story, or improve your writing skills, to work towards meeting your short or long term goals, you may be able to use your NDIS funds to pay for a writer coach or storyteller coach to support you to learn those skills.

Please see the below examples of NDIS participants (names changed for privacy) who have used their NDIS funds to pay for an editor or scribe to coach them and assist them to improve their storytelling, writing and/or self-editing.

Storytelling coach/scribe support

Typing and storytelling coaching support to improve writing and storytelling skills and result in sharing copies of her story with others

Max has a head injury, anxiety and PTSD. He used to write a lot before his accident, and has been told by his health care team that he should use writing as a therapeutic tool. He wants to write his life story to make sense of his life so far – to him and maybe to others as well. However, trying to  type on a computer is impossible for his brain and makes his anxiety go through the roof. So he needs someone to do the typing for him, while he speaks what to type. He’s tried using voice-to-text software to get his story written but it didn’t out work for him – using the technology was confusing and gave him high anxiety.

So Max has hired a storytelling coach/scribe to work with him one on one, via Zoom, to type his story while he speaks it. He finds it hard to much in one day so due to other commitments, he only meets up with his coach and has a session once a fortnight. During sessions, the coach types what he says and asks him to clarify what he means, or fill in gaps such as how he felt when this or that happened. The coach helps him sort out the when what and why of what happened and get his story typed and sorted in chronological order. Max and his coach have been working together once a fortnight for six months, and are still working on his story. So far, the coaching sessions have supported Max to tell his story, even the hard bits, and seeing it in writing has helped him make more sense of his life, really. He has then shared some parts of his story with family members and their feedback has been really positive: for example, “Oh – I didn’t know that was a trigger and that is how a meltdown feels. Now I understand you better!” Eventually Max hopes to finish writing his story and to share the finished version of his story with others who have similar disabilities and/or their carers and friends.

Editor coach support

Motivational and self-editing coaching

Chris, who is AuDHD and suffers from anxiety. They have written poetry all their life and want to continue to hone their poetric writing skills. They have a collection of poems they would like to self-edit and potentially self-publish. But due to their disability, they find it hard, even impossible, to stop procrastinating and actually do this. Their other problem is, they want to eventually start a TAFE writing course, but they do not yet have the confidence to do this. So, Chris needs an editor coach to work with them to support them in improving their writing skills and at the same time motivating them to keep working on their poems and improving their writing, and at the same time build their confidence in showing others their poems and talking about their writing and how to better self-edit their writing.

So Chris has hired an editor coach to work with them one on one, via Zoom, and they work together for about 2 hours a week. Between sessions Chris has “homework”: they continue to write and self-edit her poems which they then look at together during the next session. After three months of working together, Chris has successfully self-edited six solid poems to publication standard, has submitted one of their poems to an anthology, and has written between sessions another dozen or so poems. Since Chris commenced being supported by their editor coach they have improved their productivity by 400% and has cemented their plans to self-publish a book of poems this year.

Typing support due to physical disability

Lucy, who has cerebral palsy, wants to pursue a career as a writer and, once she has self-published a book, as a motivational speaker. At the same time, Lucy wants to improve her writing – but has so far been limited by her disability. She has always been very articulate but due to her disability she is unable to use a computer or write by hand. She has already used voice to text software to write the first draft of her autobiography. But she is unable to self-edit that writing, because voice-to-text software doesn’t provide that sort of assistance. She needs someone to help her by using a computer as she speaks what corrections to make, and where, so that she can self-edit her writing –  using someone else’s fingers.

So she has hired an editor coach to work with her one on one, via Zoom, to help her do this. The coach types in Lucy’s self-editing corrections and at the same time, provides editing suggestions and coaches Lucy in improving her writing and in self-editing her writing. The coach has stepped Lucy through a “developmental edit” of her manuscript, to ensure the style and structure of the manuscript meet the needs of the audience. The coach has been working with her for several months and Lucy has nearly finished self-editing her manuscript to a high standard. Once they have finished Lucy plans to use her private (not NDIS funds) to get the book designed, then self-publish it.

Note: if your coach is helping you with self-editing or editing, make sure they are a registered member of Institute of Professional Editors, as this is the best way of being sure they are an experienced editor with the right skillset. 

For more information

For more information about how a disabled or neurodivergent person who is an NDIS participant can use their NDIS funds to pay for a coach to support them in their writing and self-editing, see:

Image: thank you to WOCintechchat for permission to use this image.

 


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