The driver behind the Ability8 app is family. And one family’s journey with disability.
What is Ability8?
Ability8 is a user-friendly self-management tool designed to help manage your disability journey. It equips users with the necessary tools to organise and manage care needs. This includes
paying for services
scheduling care
arranging payroll
establishing timesheets
ensuring you meet tax and super contribution obligations
There's a plan to suit all care needs with three simple plans to choose from. And it’s also designed for carers, contractors, and permanent employees. So you can ensure continuity of care for you or your loved ones.
Why Ability8
We launched Ability8 in 2018 to provide anyone with a disability the freedom to self-manage their care plan. As parents of an adult daughter with severe disabilities, we've navigated complex funding issues over the years. We knew there had to be a better way to help our family and anyone managing their care plans.
We began creating our app when the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) was announced. We wanted something that:
kept track of funding
managed payments
help with scheduling care
Initially, we focused on succession planning, our app's most basic plan available. We know succession planning is a significant area of concern for any parent of a child with a disability. We all want peace of mind that our child will be cared for when we’re no longer around. But we soon realised the potential of a full-service app. One that could help people with various needs to manage their disability journey.
We spoke to many people who care for someone with a disability and saw many similar challenges. For example, extensive paper filing systems and spreadsheets. Making it time-consuming to check spending. This can become more complicated if you have staff. For example, managing tax and super contributions. It can almost be a full-time job on its own, often with no training or skills to manage it. So we wanted to create something that made it easy to self-manage care. With everything stored in one central location.
How we created the system
While we had plenty of experience with our daughter, we wanted to learn from others. We consulted with the disability community to understand what people needed for self-management. We wanted to create something suitable for anyone, regardless of care needs.
We researched IT providers to ensure the safety and protection of user data. We spent months testing different providers before settling on the current IT provider.
Which is now the same system used by the NDIS with their app.
We also wanted to give individuals and families control, instead of service providers. Ability8 allows you to:
turn different menus on and off, so it's personalised for your needs.
grant and restrict access to your information.
add new users who can access the information they need
Set up users with their own unique log-in who can only see the information you want them to see.
Who we want to help
As parents, we set out to design a system tailored for families. We designed it to meet the needs of families caring for loved ones with a disability. We wanted to help make it easier for them to manage day-to-day life. But we quickly realised that anyone living with a disability could benefit using our app.
Our system allows anyone to create a detailed profile covering all aspects of daily life. This can include:
daily routines
mobility needs
medication management
complex behaviours
likes and dislikes for food and wardrobe
work
scheduled activities
and much more
The future of Ability8
We currently have around 450 individual customers signed up to the app. We also have users, including family members, health care providers, and even schools. Carers can also use the system to access essential information and communicate with each other.
We're into our second iteration. We've got lots of new product features and our new version is faster and easier to navigate. We're set to launch even more functionality in the next few months. And we won't stop seeking feedback and making adjustments to keep meeting our user's needs.
Around 500,000 people are on the NDIS, though less than 15% of those self-manage their own care. That's something we want to change for anyone who wants to self-manage.
Of course, self-managing involves assessing knowledge, abilities, and skills to manage funds. But we want more people to have the option of using our app if they decide self-management is right for them. Our system can help users
recruit and maintain staff
coordinate support
achieve outcomes against individual care plans
At Ability8, we're passionate about understanding the needs of wants of people with disabilities. We want everyone to be able to access the system to see what it can do.
We offer a free 30-day trial with complementary training to any new users. And our prices haven't changed since our initial launch four years ago. We're committed to providing a service that benefits anyone with a disability.