Why design categories matter
Every SDA home is enrolled with the NDIA under a design category and a building type. Together with the location, they set how much SDA funding the provider receives and which participants the home suits.
If SDA is in your plan, it will name a design category, a building type and a location. A home you move into usually needs to line up with what is in your plan.
The four design categories for new SDA
- Improved Liveability: a reasonable level of physical access plus features for people with sensory, intellectual or cognitive impairment, such as luminance contrast, clear wayfinding and good lines of sight
- Fully Accessible: a high level of physical access for people with significant physical impairment
- Robust: a high level of physical access and very resilient construction, built to reduce damage, maintenance and the risk of harm to residents and others
- High Physical Support: a high level of physical access plus features for people with very high physical support needs, such as structural provision for ceiling hoists and emergency power
What about Basic?
Older material often lists five categories including Basic. Basic is housing without specialist design features but with a location or other features that suit people with disability and help support to be delivered.
Basic only applies to existing stock or legacy stock: homes built before 1 April 2016 that were already used as disability supported accommodation under a previous state, territory or Commonwealth scheme. New SDA cannot be built to the Basic category.
SDA building types
Each SDA home is also enrolled as one of four building types:
- Apartment: a self contained unit in a larger residential building
- Villa, duplex or townhouse: semi attached homes, which also includes stand alone villas and granny flats
- House: a detached home
- Group home: a house with 4 or 5 bedrooms for long term residents
How your design category is decided
To get SDA in your plan, you need to have an extreme functional impairment or very high support needs, and SDA must be reasonable and necessary for you. The NDIA decides the design category from your evidence, usually including an occupational therapist's assessment of what your home needs to have.
If you think the category in your plan does not fit your needs, you can ask for a review of the decision or, if your needs have changed in a significant and ongoing way, ask for a plan variation or unscheduled reassessment.
For providers and builders
New builds must be certified against the SDA Design Standard for the category and building type they are enrolled under. Choose the category based on real demand in the area, check the current SDA Pricing Arrangements, and be clear in listings about the category, building type and number of residents, because that is how participants and coordinators search.