You can ask the NDIA for an interpreter for your dealings with the scheme, and the agency states plainly that participants and carers are not charged for it. You do not have to justify it, and you do not have to prove anything about your English. Yet across Liverpool, Fairfield and Cabramatta, many families still bring a teenage daughter to translate a conversation that decides a year of funding. Here is how to ask for an interpreter, and why it matters more than almost anything else you will do.
Why this matters more than people think
An NDIS planning meeting is a conversation where the precise words carry the money. "I need help in the shower" and "I cannot get into the shower alone and if nobody comes I do not wash" describe the same life and produce very different budgets.
If you are working in your second or third language, under pressure, in front of a stranger, you will reach for the simpler sentence. Everyone does. The simpler sentence is the one that costs you.
This is not about how good your English is. Plenty of people who run a business in English will still lose precision when they are asked to describe their own body failing them, in a room that feels official, with a lot riding on it.
Asking is normal, and it does not cost you
The NDIA arranges interpreters for your dealings with the scheme. That covers planning meetings, plan reviews, and phone calls with the agency.
The cost question is the one most families quietly worry about, so here is the answer in the agency's own words. On its language interpreting services page (that page current as of 3 May 2026), the NDIA states: "NDIS participants and carers are not charged for language interpreting services." Interpreting is delivered by TIS National on behalf of the NDIS, and TIS National contracts more than 3,000 certified interpreters across Australia in more than 160 different languages.
You do not have to prove your English is inadequate. You do not need a letter. You are allowed to speak English perfectly well and still prefer to do this particular conversation in your own language, and that is a legitimate reason.
Two limits worth knowing. Interpreters interpret spoken words only, which means they cannot give you advice about the NDIS, however much they may want to. And this is a spoken language service: if you are Deaf, hard of hearing, or have a speech or communication difficulty, the NDIA points you to the National Relay Service instead, giving them the NDIS number 1800 800 110.
How to ask, step by step
It is simpler than most families expect.
- When you first make contact, say clearly: "I need an interpreter in Arabic" or whichever language you want. Say it at the start of the call, before anything else, so it gets recorded on your file.
- Name the language and the dialect if it matters. Arabic covers a lot of ground; if you speak Levantine or Iraqi Arabic, say so. The same applies for Assyrian, Chaldean, Kurdish, Dari and Farsi, and for Chinese where Mandarin and Cantonese are not interchangeable.
- Say whether you prefer a man or a woman. This is a normal request. The NDIA says you can ask your provider to help book a specific interpreter every time you meet, for example if you want the same interpreter or prefer a specific gender. For many families that is the difference between a frank conversation and a polite one.
- Ask for it in writing. After the call, ask them to confirm the interpreter booking by email or letter so there is a record.
- Confirm a few days before. Bookings do fall through. A short call to check saves a wasted meeting.
- If the interpreter does not turn up, you can ask to reschedule. You do not have to press on without one because you feel you are being difficult.
If you are calling the NDIA yourself, you can reach them through the Translating and Interpreting Service (TIS National) on 131 450 and ask to be connected, or call the NDIS on 1800 800 110. Your NDIS planner, NDIS partner or support coordinator will book a certified interpreter for you, and where possible the NDIA books an on-site interpreter for face to face meetings, using phone interpreting for short, simple conversations. You can also ask for your plan in your preferred language, or your carer's.
Why using a family member is a bad idea
This is the part families push back on, so let me be direct about it.
Your daughter loves you. That is exactly the problem. And you do not have to choose between the two: the NDIA says you can bring a family member or friend who speaks English to your meeting, and it will still give you an interpreter.
When you say your husband cannot toilet himself, a professional interpreter says that. Your daughter says he needs some help in the bathroom. She is not lying. She is protecting her father's dignity and softening something painful in front of a stranger, which is a decent human instinct and the wrong thing in this room.
There are other costs too:
- Children should not be asked to translate their parent's incontinence, their sibling's behaviour, or a conversation about how much longer someone can be cared for at home.
- Family members leave things out to avoid arguments they know will follow in the car.
- If you disagree with your relative about how bad things are, their version is the one that gets recorded.
- A relative cannot interpret and advocate at the same time. A professional interpreter is neutral, which frees your family member to sit beside you and support you.
Bring your daughter. Just do not make her the interpreter.
What a good interpreted meeting feels like
A professional interpreter renders everything, including the parts that are unflattering or emotional. They interpret in the first person, so when you say "I cannot manage", they say "I cannot manage" rather than "she says she cannot manage".
Speak to the planner, not to the interpreter. Say a few sentences at a time and pause. If something is not being captured, say so; you are allowed to stop and correct the record. If a word has no equivalent, ask the interpreter to explain rather than substitute.
Meetings with interpreting take longer. Book more time and do not let the clock rush you into short answers.
Culturally safe is not the same as translated
Language is the first barrier. It is not the only one.
A support worker can speak your language and still misread the household completely: who makes decisions, what personal care a person of the opposite gender may provide, what food is acceptable, what prayer times mean for a roster, what shame attaches to a diagnosis in your community, whether a disability is discussed openly at all.
That understanding is not something an interpreter can add in the moment. It comes from a team that already works with your community, which is a fair question to ask any provider before you sign anything. Our post on NDIS support for Arabic speakers in Sydney goes into what that looks like day to day, and for families who arrived recently, our refugee and settlement services work alongside NDIS supports rather than separately from them.
If you are helping someone else
If you are the bilingual person in your family or your congregation, you are probably already doing a lot of unpaid translating for other people. The most useful thing you can do is not to interpret the meeting. It is to tell people that they can ask for an interpreter, and to help them do it.
A great many families in Liverpool have simply never been told that it does not cost them anything.
If you want to talk to someone in Fairfield or Cabramatta who understands both the paperwork and the household, call our Liverpool team on 1300 95 25 95. If you would rather not have that conversation in English, call TIS National on 131 450 at any time and ask them to connect you with Crescent Care. Either way we will help you get the meeting set up properly.
Ready to take the next step?
Our Liverpool team is here to listen and help, with an interpreter if you want one, at your pace.
