DPSC Stream 3 — IAR Cat B Consortium (DAS lead)

Working title (form field, ≤250 chars)

Remote Reach: a cross-border consortium making disability information, advice and referral genuinely accessible in remote Australia — one shared production engine, trusted local doors

DAS leads a consortium across the NT + tri-state centre + Top End: DAS builds and runs the shared accessible-information production engine (Easy Read, audio, video, Auslan, first languages, offline-ready) and the IAR practice framework; partners deliver information, advice and warm referral through doors remote communities already trust. ~40-45% of funds sub-granted to partners, mostly ACCOs.

Project description (form field, ≤1,000 chars)

Remote Reach is a five-year consortium service making trusted disability information genuinely accessible across remote Australia, starting with the NT and the NT/SA/WA cross-border region. DAS, as lead, operates the shared infrastructure: a production engine that turns verified disability information into Easy Read, audio, video, Auslan and First Nations language versions, distribution built for low-bandwidth communities, a common IAR practice framework, training, and consortium-wide reporting. Consortium partners — disability advocacy, legal and Aboriginal community-controlled organisations — deliver information, advice and warm referral through local access points their communities already trust, adapting content to local language and culture. People with disability govern priorities through partner lived-experience structures and a First Nations governance group with decision rights. New partner regions join from Year 3, sharing one engine instead of rebuilding it.

Activities

1. Shared production engine (DAS): canonical content → Easy Read / audio / video / Auslan / first languages + offline distribution kit; partner request queue, 10-day SLA; cultural sign-off mandatory before in-language release
2. Trusted local IAR access points (partners, min 15hrs/wk each): NPYWC tri-state, DCLS + IADA Top End, Anyinginyi Barkly, Congress CA health, Inclusion NT ID-accessible practice
3. IAR practice framework + training: common standards, advocacy-escalation firewall, biannual practice forums
4. First Nations governance + cultural adaptation: majority-ACCO group with decision rights, paid local cultural advisors, data sovereignty (CtG PR4)
5. Consortium data + DEX-aligned reporting; open practice-sharing across the DPSC network
6. Scale pathway: 2-3 additional remote-region partners from Y3 reusing the engine (§3.2 scale logic)

Eligibility self-check

• Genuinely different activity from CDIS: B funds NO DAS front-line delivery in Central Australia — engine + framework + partner doors only
• Gateway differentiation: remote-only scope, transformation not collation, human warm referral through trusted doors — banned words in self-description: platform / portal / navigator
• Hub-and-spoke named in §5.2 as a legitimate coverage route; scale ambition matches §3.2
• ~40-45% of funds sub-granted to partners (mostly ACCOs) — consortium substance

• NPY Women's Council (tri-state anchor — APPROACH NOW, longest approval cycle; also the remote-CA IAR incumbent: partner or be beaten)
• Darwin Community Legal Service (keen — current consortium)
• IADA (keen — current consortium)
• Inclusion NT (warm)
• Congress (candidate — CA health interface)
• Anyinginyi (candidate — Barkly)
• First Nations governance group (majority ACCO-appointed, decision rights)

REFUTERS (11 Jun): NOT CREDIBLE AS SCOPED — salvage to minimum-viable NT-anchored shape. Fix the $28k/yr-to-administer-$450k/yr sub-grants management line; recast DAS as infrastructure servant to ACCO-operated front doors; ARDS contests 'no in-language products' in Top End — narrow claim to Central/Western Desert languages. See dossier §3.