How to Describe Your Support Needs in Plain Language

A practical guide for NDIS participants and carers

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and reflects publicly available information about the NDIS I-CAN v6 assessment framework. It does not constitute professional disability support advice. Your assessor is an independent professional — this guide helps you communicate your genuine needs clearly and accurately.

There is a fundamental truth about the NDIS I-CAN v6 assessment: the assessor cannot see your life. They spend, at most, 90 minutes with you. They ask structured questions across 12 life domains. What you say — and how specifically you say it — is the primary data they have about your support needs.

The quality of your description directly shapes the quality of your assessment outcome. Participants who describe their needs vaguely, minimise their difficulties, or struggle to recall specific examples often receive plans that do not accurately reflect their circumstances. This is not dishonesty on anyone's part — it is simply the gap between lived experience and what gets communicated in an assessment room.

This guide gives you the tools to bridge that gap: a simple four-part formula, practical guidance across the most common types of support needs, and real before-and-after examples so you can see exactly what a strong description looks like.

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Why Description Quality Drives Funding Quality

Under the NDIS Act 2013, the NDIA is required to fund supports that are reasonable and necessary as defined in section 34. The I-CAN v6 assessment is the mechanism by which your support needs are identified and rated. The assessor's functional ratings feed directly into what appears in your NDIS plan.

Here is what that means in practice: a participant who describes their showering routine as "it's a bit difficult" may receive a very different functional rating from a participant who says "I need my support worker present for the full 45-minute process because I have lost my balance twice in the shower this year, and my fine motor difficulties mean I cannot use a standard tap or shampoo bottle independently."

Both participants may have identical functional impairment. Only one has described it in a way that an assessor can act on.

This is not about exaggeration — it is about specificity and completeness. Assessors are trained to work with what they hear. They rate what is presented to them: what the participant says, what they observe, and the supporting documentation they review. Your words matter.

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The Core Formula: What, Why, How Long, How Often

Before examining specific domains, here is a four-part formula you can apply to any support need:

Applying the formula to a complete description: "I need support worker assistance to shower six out of seven days. The process takes approximately 45 minutes because fatigue means I cannot stand for extended periods, and fine motor difficulties mean I cannot manage a standard tap or shampoo bottle independently. On days I do not have support, I skip showering entirely."

Notice what this includes that "I have difficulty showering" does not:

• A specific frequency (6 out of 7 days)
• A specific time requirement (45 minutes)
• A functional reason (fatigue and fine motor difficulties)
• A specific consequence of not receiving support (skipping showering entirely)

That final element — what happens without support — is some of the most powerful information you can provide. Assessors are measuring the impact of your disability, and that impact is most visible in what does not happen when support is absent.

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Describing Self-Care and Daily Living Needs

Self-care is often the domain where participants have the most significant support needs — and where descriptions vary most dramatically in quality.

What the I-CAN assessment considers in this domain:

• Showering, bathing, and personal grooming
• Dressing and undressing
• Eating, drinking, and swallowing
• Continence management and toileting
• Medication management
• Managing personal health needs

Common mistakes:

• Describing what you can do on your best day rather than what you need help with on a typical day
• Omitting how long tasks take ("I can shower" — but it takes an hour and causes significant exhaustion afterwards)
• Not mentioning safety risks ("I can cook" — but you have left the stove on unsupervised and caused minor fires)

Strong description examples:

Dressing: "Getting dressed takes approximately 30 minutes on most mornings. I cannot button shirts or manage zips independently due to hand tremors. My partner must assist with fastenings every day, and on high-fatigue days I cannot dress without someone physically assisting me throughout."

Eating: "I cannot safely prepare hot meals independently. I have left the stove on unsupervised on multiple occasions. My support worker prepares meals for me five nights per week. On days without support, I eat only cold or pre-packaged food, which is significantly affecting my nutrition."

What helps most: Specificity about frequency, duration, level of assistance required, and what happens when support is not available.

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Describing Communication and Cognitive Needs

Communication and cognitive support needs are among the most consistently under-described, because their impacts are often invisible to outside observers — and because participants frequently underestimate them.

What this covers in the I-CAN assessment:

• Word-finding difficulties and expressive language challenges
• Processing delays — the time needed to understand and respond
• Decision fatigue and cognitive overload
• Memory impacts (short-term memory, prospective memory — remembering to do things)
• Literacy challenges
• Using AAC or other communication devices
• Difficulty understanding written or spoken instructions

Common mistakes:

• Describing the diagnosis rather than its functional impact ("I have a brain injury" rather than "I need instructions repeated three times and written down before I can follow them")
• Not mentioning the effort involved ("I can hold a conversation" — but doing so for more than 20 minutes causes significant cognitive fatigue that takes hours to recover from)
• Downplaying difficulties because "I manage" — managing something with enormous effort and real consequences is still a disability-related support need

Strong description examples:

Processing delays: "I need extra time to process verbal information. In conversations, I frequently need people to repeat themselves or rephrase questions. In high-pressure situations like medical appointments, I cannot retain what I have been told and need someone to take written notes on my behalf. After complex appointments, I am unable to make decisions for the rest of the day."

Memory: "I cannot reliably remember appointments, medication times, or daily tasks without prompting. Without my support worker setting reminders and checking in three times a day, I regularly miss medications and medical appointments. Last month I missed two scheduled appointments during a week when my support was reduced."

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Describing Mobility and Physical Needs

Physical and mobility support needs often seem straightforward to describe — but the secondary and cumulative impacts are frequently left out.

What the I-CAN assessment considers:

• Walking, standing, and transferring (between chair, bed, vehicle)
• Climbing stairs and navigating uneven surfaces
• Using mobility equipment (wheelchair, walker, prosthetic)
• Physical stamina and post-exertion fatigue
• Pain and its functional impact
• Community mobility and public transport access

The secondary impact problem:

Many participants correctly describe their primary mobility limitation but omit what happens afterwards. An assessor needs to understand not just that you can walk 50 metres, but that doing so means you cannot function for the following two hours. This is critical information.

Strong description examples:

Post-exertion fatigue: "I can walk approximately 50 metres on flat ground, but after doing so I need to rest for at least two hours before attempting any further activity. This means that if I walk to a medical appointment, I cannot manage the return journey the same day. I require transport assistance and cannot use public transport independently."

Transfers: "I cannot safely transfer from my wheelchair to a standard chair or toilet without physical assistance. My support worker assists with all transfers — approximately eight per day. Without this assistance I would be unable to leave my wheelchair for any activity."

Equipment dependence: "Without my ankle-foot orthoses I cannot walk safely. When the equipment is being repaired or adjusted, I require full wheelchair use and need additional support worker hours to manage basic mobility around the home."

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Describing Social and Community Participation Needs

This domain is frequently under-prepared because participants do not always recognise their community participation limitations as disability-related support needs. They see themselves as simply "not going out much" rather than unable to access the community without specific support.

What this covers:

• Participating in community activities, events, and recreational venues
• Using public transport
• Managing community environments — crowds, noise, unfamiliar settings
• Maintaining social connections
• Isolation and its impacts

Strong description examples:

Anxiety in community settings: "I cannot enter shopping centres or other crowded environments without experiencing severe anxiety that causes me to leave before completing my tasks. In the past three months I have abandoned shopping on six occasions. I require a support worker to accompany me on all community outings. Without this support, I do not leave the house for days at a time."

Transport: "I cannot use public transport independently. I become disoriented on unfamiliar routes, cannot manage stairs or platform gaps, and have become lost on two occasions when attempting to travel alone. I require either a support worker escort or specialised transport assistance for all travel beyond my immediate neighbourhood."

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Describing Mental Health and Emotional Regulation Needs

Mental health impacts on daily functioning are consistently the most minimised category of support need. Participants frequently describe their experience in clinical terms ("I have depression") rather than functional terms ("on my low days, which occur approximately twice per week, I cannot get out of bed, cannot manage personal care, and require a welfare check to ensure basic safety").

Common mistakes:

• Using diagnostic labels without describing the functional impact
• Describing only severe crisis episodes while omitting the cumulative daily impact
• Minimising because "others have it worse"
• Failing to mention how mental health affects other domains — depression affects self-care, social participation, and daily living, not just mood

Strong description examples:

Depression: "On approximately two to three days per week, I experience significant low mood that prevents me from completing personal care, preparing food, or engaging with others. On these days I do not shower, do not eat regular meals, and do not respond to communication. My support worker calls me every morning to assess whether a same-day visit is needed."

Anxiety: "I experience significant anxiety when my routine changes unexpectedly. When this occurs, I am unable to complete planned tasks for the rest of the day and require two to three hours of regulation support before I return to baseline functioning. This happens approximately three times per week."

Emotional regulation: "I have significant difficulty regulating emotional responses to perceived criticism or unexpected events. When dysregulation occurs, I require one-to-one support for the duration of the episode — typically 30 to 90 minutes. Without support available during these periods, I engage in self-harm behaviour."

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Before and After Examples

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Writing It Down vs Saying It Out Loud

For many NDIS participants, articulating support needs in an assessment setting is genuinely difficult — due to cognitive load, communication challenges, anxiety, or the emotional weight of describing one's limitations to a stranger under pressure.

Written preparation documents are powerful tools precisely because they allow you to do the hard work of description in advance, in your own environment, at your own pace, with access to your notes, diaries, and supporting documentation.

When you arrive at the assessment with a well-prepared written document:

• You do not have to rely on memory under pressure
• You can hand the document to the assessor as supporting information
• You can refer to it if you get nervous or forget things mid-conversation
• The assessor has specific, written evidence to incorporate into their ratings

A written preparation document does not replace the verbal assessment — it supplements and anchors it. The assessor still asks questions and makes their own observations. But having a document in hand means that even on a difficult day, the key information is captured.

For a complete step-by-step guide to structuring your preparation document, see How to prepare for your I-CAN v6 assessment. If your support coordinator is helping you prepare, see How support coordinators can help clients prepare for I-CAN v6.

Tip for carers: If you support a participant who struggles to self-report accurately, you can prepare a carer statement that describes the support you provide across each domain. This is valuable evidence the assessor can incorporate directly into their ratings.

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Prepare for Your I-CAN v6 Assessment with ICANReady

The hardest part of describing your support needs is knowing what the assessor needs to hear — and making sure you say it clearly, specifically, and for every domain that matters.

ICANReady is a document preparation tool built specifically for NDIS participants and carers preparing for the I-CAN v6 assessment. It guides you through all 12 I-CAN domains in plain language and generates a structured preparation document you can bring to your assessment — available at launch for AUD $29.

Join the ICANReady waitlist — it's free →

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Frequently Asked Questions

What if I find it hard to describe my needs out loud?

Write them down beforehand and use a preparation document. Many people find it significantly easier to describe their support needs in writing — at their own pace, without the pressure of a live conversation with a stranger. You can prepare the document at home and give it to the assessor at the start of the assessment, or refer to it throughout as a memory aid.

Should I use medical terminology when describing my needs?

No — describe your daily experience in plain language. Assessors are trained to interpret everyday descriptions and map them to the I-CAN domains. Medical terminology can sometimes obscure the functional reality: saying "executive dysfunction" is less useful to an assessor than "I cannot plan or start multi-step tasks without step-by-step prompting from another person."

How specific do I need to be?

Very specific. Vague descriptions like "I have difficulty with self-care" are far less useful than "it takes me 45 minutes to shower because of fatigue and fine motor difficulties, and I need someone nearby in case I lose my balance." The more concrete your description — including frequency, duration, level of assistance, and what happens without support — the more accurately the assessor can rate your needs.

What if my needs are different on different days?

Describe the pattern honestly. Explain which days are difficult and why, how often difficult days occur, what triggers them, and what a difficult day looks like in functional terms. You do not need to describe only your worst days — describe your typical experience, including the variability. Assessors understand that disability-related functioning varies and are trained to account for this.

Can I bring examples or notes to the assessment?

Yes, and it is strongly recommended. Written examples, a daily diary, or a structured preparation document can anchor the conversation, ensure nothing important is forgotten, and provide the assessor with written evidence to review. There is no restriction on preparing and sharing written materials at your I-CAN v6 assessment.

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Sources: NDIS website — Support needs assessment, NDIA Assessment Framework, Disability Advocacy Network Australia, Centre for Disability Studies