Access Industries has been providing services for people with disabilities for close to 60 years. In fact, we are one of the oldest organisations of our type in Australia.

However, Access Industries for the Disabled Limited was not always the name of our Company. The organisation was originally set up by a group of people with physical disabilities as the Civilian Maimed and Limbless Association (CMLA) back in 1949. As the name suggests, the organisation was established as a self-help group for people within the community whose disabilities were not due to war service. Then, as now, the intention was to be an organisation that was controlled by people with disabilities, for people with disabilities.

One of the earliest aims of the organisation was to help people with disabilites to gain meaningful work and develop their work skills, with a view to increasing their personal and financial independence and enabling them to take their rightful place as productive and valued members of Australian society. Initially, this was done by undertaking sub-contract work in a variety of factory-based locations.

With the subsequent growth in our employment services our organisation began to provide assistance to people with a wider range of disabilities, and also became more commercially-oriented in order to provide a greater range of employment opportunities to suit their differing needs. In 1980 we changed our name to Access Industries for the Disabled Ltd.

In 1989, we became one of the first organisations to receive Commonwealth funding to establish a specialist service to help people who have mild disability to gain employment in open industry, and to provide them with on the job support to develop the skills necessary to hopefully become independent and secure in their work.

Access Industries now has four main operational divisions: Business Services (providing supported employment for around 250 people with disabilities); Equal Access Employment Service (assisting around 150 people who have a mild intellectual disability to get and keep jobs in open industry); Art Union and Fundraising; and General Administration.

The Business Services Division is the principal area of direct employment for people with disabilties within Access Industries. It comprises two sites in Seven Hills within the Sydney Metropolitan Area, one at Newcastle, and one at Lithgow.

All of our sites have the capacity to undertake a variety of general packaging and assembly work. In addition, one of our Sydney sites is TGA/NRA approved for processing health products and pharmaceuticals.

Our Lithgow Division operates as a commercial laundry.

Our Newcastle Division is a major producer of timber products (including pallets), and also manufactures our own outdoor furniture products called 'Parkland Tables and Benches'. The Division has the capacity to provide on-site heat treatment of timber and timber products to comply with export requirments, It also carries out commercial sewing and includes a Light Engineering and Fabrication Section.

Common to all our Divisions is a strong commitment to high levels of Quality Assurance, coupled with a willingness to provide a flexible and wide range of value-added services to meet the many and varied needs of our business customers.

Business Services

Equal Access Employment Services provides assistance to people with borderline to mild intellectual disability to get and keep jobs in open industry at award or award-equivalent rates of pay.

In effect, Equal Access provides a free-of-charge recruitment service for many businesses in the community by matching the skills of our candidates to the job specifications of employers; and providing on the job training and support until such time as the employee is fully trained and competent.

Many employers have learnt to their advantage that people with disabilities have not only the competence but also the motivation to become efficient and loyal employees: often significantly reducing the rate of staff turnover.

Equal Access Employment Services

Access Industries receives only about 20% of the amount needed to operate its services through Government funding. In order to continue to provide high quality services, the organisation must generate the remaining 80% through our own business services, and through fundraising.

Our main fundraising activity is in the form of Art Unions, and we conduct three each year. The Access Industries Art Union is very well known in NSW for offering great prizes: usually including prestige motor vehicles and overseas holidays.

Art Union