There is less support for disabled people in a remote Western Australian town under the NDIS compared with the old state-based system, a royal commission has been told.
Fitzroy Crossing, 400km east of Broome, used to have a Disability Service Commission office that Topsy Jackamarra says would visit with her disabled daughter Ronita Jackamarra.
"Before the NDIS I found it much easier to get support for Ronita on the basis that they were based locally in Fitzroy central in town," Mr Jackamarra told the hearing in Alice Springs on Wednesday.
"In the days that they were supporting us they used to do face-to-face home visits just to check in on us and used to arrange meetings with other families to get together and discuss issues."
The family has been waiting for three years for a vehicle hoist to help Ronita get in and out of cars and "years" for an updated wheelchair.
The Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability has heard the town of about 1300 people has one disability service provider and it is too busy to help all the disabled people locally.
NDIS participants in Fitzroy Crossing are spending on average just 28 per cent of their allocated funding and 31 per cent are spending none at all, according to the scheme.
Local carer Geoff Davis says the drive-in drive-out, fly-in fly-out, or telehealth model of service provision in remote communities was "totally ineffective".
"They ring me up two or three times a year," he said when asked about the scheme's $11,000 management fee it has charged one of the disabled youths he cares for.
The last call Mr Davis received from the scheme was in March, from a staff member in Geraldton, 2250km southwest of Fitzroy Crossing.
"She was very compassionate when ... she said, 'Yes, this funding is under threat because you have not used it'," he said.
"But she had no idea as to why that money was not spent, and the threat of it being taken away is quite traumatic, really."
The inquiry is examining the treatment and experiences of thousands of Indigenous people with disabilities in remote communities.
Barriers to accessing the NDIS and disability services are among the issues being covered during the five-day sitting.
It is also considering whether those hurdles cause or contribute to violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation of Indigenous people with disabilities.
Earlier, the inquiry heard that poverty in some remote Indigenous communities was hampering access to the NDIS.
"When you don't have enough food and shelter and safety, engaging with your NDIS plan is just not a priority," Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Women's Council team manager Kim McRae said.
Ms McRae said people with disability on Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara country, which straddles the Western Australian, South Australian and Northern Territory borders, often did not understand their NDIS plan.
They also did not have access to the NDIS portal to check their plan due to the lack of computers, she said.
There were also cultural barriers to having an NDIS assessment related to "shame and blame" if a child had a disability.
"Sometimes families are concerned that people in the community might blame them or think they did something wrong," Ms McRae said.
There are about 66,000 Indigenous people with a profound or severe disability in Australia.
Of those, about 11 per cent, or roughly 7000 people, live in remote or very remote areas, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
