About us

Independent Living Centres Australia [ILCA] is a collective network with member ILC's from each Australian state. Each state organisation assists a wide range of people from all walks of life.

Each ILC provides a permanent and changing showroom of commercially available products and equipment suitable for people with special needs and the older person.

The Independent Living Centre (Tas) Inc. was founded in 1990 and opened its doors in Launceston in 1991. The organisation is indebted to the efforts of the founding members and volunteers who helped establish the Association.

ILC (Tas) Inc. mission was to provide information and advice for the community, training for sector staff and community focused health promotion activities to help increase awareness of the role of assistive technology for those with a disability or impairment.

In 2013, the emergence of the NDIS changed the way people with disability were able to access support and assistive technology. ILC (Tas) Inc. saw this as an opportunity to share the knowledge and expertise across sectors and initiated a community based Occupational Therapy service under the name ‘Equipify’.

The service continued to evolve and respond to the changes in the health and community services space. ILC (Tas) Inc. embraced the possibilities of Smart Home Technology and undertook several projects as ‘Smart AT’.

In 2018, ILC (Tas) Inc. opened a small service in Hobart and later in Ulverstone. This gave greater access to people across the state who may not have had the opportunity of accessing the service outside of our Mobile Outreach Service.

In 2020, ILC (Tas) Inc. opened a permanent office and showrooms in Hobart and Ulverstone, able to demonstrate the potential of the latest in assistive technology to the whole Tasmanian community.

ILC (Tas) Inc. also undertook a brand change in 2020. All separate names (Equipify and Smart AT) are now included as separate services but under the new umbrella brand Independent Living Centre Tasmania [ILCT].

ILCT continues to provide unbiased information and advice to the Tasmanian community regarding assistive technology. The organisation is grateful for the support of its members, partner organisations and healthcare suppliers around the state which enable ILCT to continue its mission.

ILCT is committed to quality services. ILCT Head Office holds ISO 9001:2015 quality standards certification.

ILCT passed the National Disability Insurance Scheme [NDIS] audit in August 2024.

ILCT is a member of:

• Council On The Ageing [COTA] Tasmania
  
• Tasmanian Council of Social Service Inc. [TasCOSS]

ILCT staff may be members of other professional organisations, such as:

• Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency [AHPRA]
• Occupational Therapy Australia [OTAUS]
• Speech Pathology Australia [SPA]

Independent Living Centre Tasmania Inc. (ILCT) is funded by the Tasmanian Government’s Home and Community Care (HACC) Programme to support younger people (less than 65 years) and their carers living in Tasmania, including it's islands. Our information and advisory service is partly funded by these means.