As the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) prepares to roll out a new assessment tool for NDIS participants, disability experts have voiced concerns about the tool’s effectiveness and suitability across diverse disability types.
The Instrument for the Classification and Assessment of Support Needs (I-CAN), a three-hour semi-structured interview, is set to be the basis for determining support plans for NDIS participants from mid-2026. However, the president of the Australian Psychological Society, Dr. Kelly Gough, warns that the tool has not been adequately tested on a variety of disability types, including diverse autism needs.
“All of those studies and all that validation has been done with people who were allied health professionals of one kind or the other – psychologists or physios or OTs,” Gough said. “We don’t have any published evidence that I’m aware of that it’s an effective or a valid tool if it’s done by people who don’t have all that other knowledge and background.”
The president of the Institute of Clinical Psychologists, Dr. Marjorie Collins, echoed these concerns, stating that the I-CAN has only been “validated on a couple of populations, one of them being people with intellectual disability,” and that rolling it out to all adult NDIS participants without further testing would be “reprehensible.”
Jenny Karavolo, co-chair at the Australian Autism Alliance, welcomed some aspects of the I-CAN, such as its basis on the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health. However, she said her organization had not endorsed the tool’s use because “we haven’t found any studies that show it can reliably capture the diversity of autistic support needs.”
The NDIA has stated that the tool will be rolled out over the next five years and that they will use the I-CAN “as the starting point for developing a tailored tool for the NDIS’ specific needs.” They also said that the tool is “appropriate for use across all disability types” and has been “extensively researched and tested in a range of real-world disability settings.”
However, experts warn that without further research and validation, the implementation of the I-CAN could lead to “terrible outcomes” and “a couple of tragedies” before any issues are addressed. They call for the NDIA to take the time to ensure the assessment tool is fit for purpose across the diverse range of NDIS participants.