A society in which we all have the chance to reach our potential is good for all New Zealanders. Disabled people and their families aspire to have the sorts of ordinary choices, rights and responsibilities that others expect and experience in their lives.

A fair go for all

Objective 1: Encourage and educate for a non-disabling society

Indicator 1: Level of public understanding and knowledge about disabled people and disability issues.

Disabled people have often identified negative public attitudes and behaviour as a major barrier to their enjoyment of full citizenship. Key components of the Disability Strategy’s tactics for addressing these barriers include public education, promotion of rights and fostering leadership of disabled people. Together these activities should help to improve attitudes and behaviour towards disabled people. Progress towards this goal will be evident when an increasing percentage of the population demonstrates knowledge and understanding of how the infrastructure, systems, attitudes and behaviour within the community can disable people.

…these days I have a lot more self-esteem and confidence, but the biggest thing that impacts on my self-esteem is other people’s ignorant attitude towards me. When I am out there, getting on with my life to the best of my ability, I come into contact with people who say and do stupid things to me, about me, and in front of me... It really makes it difficult, but it is also why I make the effort to get out there and try to do normal things, to show these ignorant people that I’m not actually that different.

My friends, family and boyfriend all treat me like a “normal” human being and, to be fair, there are a reasonably large number of people in society who treat disabled people as they should be treated, with respect and no discrimination.

But there are some people who have no idea how to relate to impaired people, and that is quite sad… It would be great to think that, in the future, society will change and the ignorance surrounding the way people with impairments are treated will disappear and there will be a whole lot more respect for everyone in society.

Anna, Life is for Living, to be published at www.odi.govt.nz

Latest trends and data

Currently there is no baseline information on the general knowledge the public has about disability across all impairment types. However, there is a raft of reports and evaluations assessing the understanding and attitudes in New Zealand towards mental illness and, more specifically, assessing discrimination against people with experience of mental illness. The latest of these include:

• Comprehensive evaluation of the Ministry of Health Like Minds project, including major attitude-tracking surveys, which show significant progress has been made over the last eight years. Evaluation findings can be seen at www.likeminds.govt.nz.

Commenting on some of these [Like Minds project] evaluation findings, Auckland University Director of Clinical Psychology, Dr John Read, said the change in attitudes was … “brilliant news”… “Stigma is such a powerful inhibitor of people’s recovery.” The campaign had succeeded “because they have genuinely involved users of mental health services right from the beginning in planning and delivering it”. This applied to the ads and to the regional work, such as visiting schools and community groups. Dr Read said “contact with those with mental health difficulties breaks down the stereotypes – once you’ve met someone; that tends to change your attitude”.
Johnston, M. 2005

• Discriminating Times? A re-survey of New Zealand print media reporting on mental health published by the Mental Health Commission in 2005. This survey repeated a systematic survey of print media in 1997 and 1998 and found a significant improvement in the way people with experience of mental illness were represented by the print media.

There is some welcome evidence in this survey that attitudes among journalists are changing. Many reporters are beginning to recognise that hostile or unconsidered reporting on mental health issues is as damaging and unbalanced as, say, openly racist or sexist reporting…

Perhaps the most important new influence discussed in this survey is the growing confidence of the users and providers of mental health services. Previously hidden, these mental health advocates are finding their voices – becoming visible and available participants in the public discourse around mental health issues…

(Pattrick Smellie – excerpt from the foreword of Discriminating Times, June 2005)

• Journeys Towards Equality: Taking Stock of New Zealand’s Efforts to Reduce Discrimination Against People with Experience of Mental Illness, launched by the Mental Health Commission in 2004. This report found that anti-discrimination work has grown enormously in the last decade, to the extent that it now makes sense to talk of a mental health anti-discrimination sector. Ten years ago there was no Mental Health Commission, Like Minds project or Office for Disability Issues, but now New Zealand has organisations to enable progress. The report can be viewed at www.mhc.govt.nz
• Respect Costs Nothing, published by the Mental Health Foundation in 2004, reports the findings from a survey of 785 people with experience of a mental illness. This survey reveals that people who have experienced mental illness have often also experienced discrimination in all aspects of their lives – from employment and housing to discrimination by friends, family and the community. The survey also found that fear of discrimination (often based on past experience) is as crippling as discrimination itself. Fear prevents people from undertaking many activities in their lives. Survey findings can be viewed at www.mentalhealth.org.nz.

I have seen a little bit of change in attitudes over the last couple of years, but it will take more than the Disability Strategy to wake up everybody’s minds. There needs to be more information out there, whether it is through media or anywhere else, to help shift people’s ideas and attitudes and to allow disabled people to do their own thing as who they are - not as “so and so with an impairment”.

Matthew, Life is for Living, to be published at www.odi.govt.nz

Public education and anti-discrimination programmes

The most substantial disability-related, anti-discrimination programme in New Zealand is the Like Minds project to counter stigma and discrimination associated with mental illness. This project was initiated by the Ministry of Health in response to the findings of the 1996 “Mason Report”.

It is fundamentally wrong that a vulnerable group in our society should be continually subjected to the comments and actions of those who possess an outcast mentality… We are optimistic enough to believe that a well-informed New Zealand public will realise that [people with a mental illness] are people whom we should nurture and value.

Judge Ken Mason, Inquiry into Mental Health Services, New Zealand 1996

It was clear from the outset that the Like Minds project was breaking new ground and needed to take a long-term view. The initial budget was $12.6 million over five years beginning in 1997, for both nationwide and community-based programmes. The project has since become a core component of public health services and includes mass media advertising as well as a diverse range of advocacy and awareness-raising initiatives.

There is more work to be done to uphold the rights of people with experience of mental illness, and a need to better co-ordinate with the wider disability and human rights sectors. The Mental Health Commission, the Human Rights Commission, the Office for Disability Issues and the Like Minds project have developed a multi-agency plan, available at www.mhc.govt.nz, which identifies complementary and joint activities. This work will not only enhance efforts to address barriers for people with experience of mental illness but will also strengthen and initiate work for the wider disability sector.

Beyond the Like Minds project, some general disability public education is under way, but, it is neither co-ordinated nor comprehensive. During the 2004–2005 year:

• The Department of Labour and Ministry of Social Development worked to improve employers’ attitudes towards disabled people. This work and other government activity to educate particular sectors are described in chapter four of this report.
• The Ministry of Health funded a package of work to promote the Disability Strategy. This included a contract with the Ripple Trust to promote the Strategy in the Auckland and Northland corporate sector.
• The Auckland Disability Providers Network developed and launched a Disability Strategy toolkit, “Kia Rangatu Moving Forward”, to an audience of Auckland dignitaries and business people. The kit is aimed at disability providers and organisations such as councils, or businesses that wish to give their staff a working understanding of the Disability Strategy and help with its implementation.
• Air New Zealand produced a video to train their frontline staff in disability awareness. The video aims to improve staff understanding of the needs of customers with vision or mobility impairments, as well as those of people with learning disabilities or epilepsy.

This list of public awareness initiatives is by no means comprehensive but rather illustrates the range of activities. Most non-government organisations with a focus on disability, such as CCS, DPA, the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind, the Deaf Association and IHC undertake some awareness-raising activities and information-sharing services in relation to the population groups they work with.

The Nelson Hearing Association Inc

The President of the Nelson Hearing Association says that in addition to providing a range of services for people with hearing impairments “the Association focuses on educating the hearing community and facilitating good communication between the hearing and the hearing impaired.

I offer a one-hour training programme for customer service staff on how to communicate

with hearing impaired customers/clients and have trained staff in local stores, in banks, and government departments. Staff at Nelson City Council and the Tasman District Library staff have received the training. We are now looking at condensing this training into a small booklet which smaller organisations can use to provide individual training for new staff.”

The Association has also been active in schools. More than five years ago an anonymous benefactor donated $32,000, which allowed the Nelson Association to develop a kit called “Hear More or Less” to be printed and distributed to schools in the Nelson and Tasman areas and other Hearing Associations in New Zealand.

In 2005 a teacher at a Nelson school commented: “I used the Hear More or Less kit at the beginning of this year. I have a hearing impaired student in my class and although some of the students have been in his class for a while I wanted us all to find good ways to work together.

“We used the equipment and the students experienced for themselves what it was like to lose hearing. Our hearing impaired student related to the situations in the kit and shared his own story with the class. We tested out the sound level of noises in our environment. Our hearing impaired student is always included in the class but now the students make sure that he is looking when they speak to him, and speak clearly, no turning away as they are talking. They are more understanding if he misunderstands them or has to ask a question to be sure he has understood something. It has helped our class understanding – the kids are better equipped to include him, and he knows the kids understand his hearing issues a lot better.”

Gaps and opportunities in awareness raising activity

Most of the activity reported in this section focuses on people with mental illness. This reveals a deficit for the wider disability sector, which arguably has an equal need. There need to be opportunities for sharing knowledge and building on what works.

When I think about how society relates to disabled people the word naivety comes into my mind… I don’t think people are hostile, just ignorant or uneducated. When I see those “know me before you judge me” TV advertisements about mental illness I wish there were a few ads like that about cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy or spina bifida.

I think “disability awareness” is such a cliché – it is more than just making sure places have ramps. It’s about educating and informing people about different types of disability and what they can do to not make people with disabilities feel so alienated.

Red, Life is for Living, to be published at www.odi.govt.nz

We can use the experience of the mental health sector to inform activity in the wider disability sector. Evaluations of the Like Minds project give a good indication of what works best and needs to be further developed. In particular, we need to increase the visibility of disabled people across society and ensure they lead processes for educating the public. We also need to gather better information on the attitudes and behaviour of the public towards disabled people and disabled people’s experience of discrimination.

Objective 2: Ensure rights for disabled people

Indicator 2: Level of knowledge and understanding of the rights of disabled people amongst key decision makers, legal practitioners, advocacy agencies and disabled people and their families.

Good public understanding of rights in relation to disabled people and disability issues helps to ensure the motivation and capacity within society to honour those rights.
Improvements in this indicator would reflect movement towards an intermediate outcome of better public recognition of the human rights of disabled people. This contributes to the long-term goals of an inclusive and non-disabling society.

Latest trends and data

There is no data as yet that indicates the level of public knowledge of disabled people’s rights in New Zealand. However, we now have, for the first time, an assessment of the status of human rights in New Zealand for disabled people. The Human Rights Commission published Human Rights in New Zealand Today: Nga Tika Tangata o te Motu in September 2004 after an extensive process of consultation.

The report concludes that disabled people are among the most disadvantaged citizens in the country. It identifies pervasive barriers to the full enjoyment by disabled people of their rights, and notes that disability is largely invisible at societal and national levels, partly as a result of the status of disability in human rights frameworks.
However, the Human Rights Commission report, along with other recent activity in national and international arenas, is increasing the visibility of the issues and rights of disabled people.

Championing disability rights within the international community

Detailed research and analysis by the international disability community highlighted the need for a disability-specific international convention to ensure that disabled people are able to effectively access the human rights to which they are entitled. In 2001 the United Nations agreed to establish an ad hoc committee to consider proposals for a binding convention to promote and protect the rights of disabled people. New Zealand is playing a lead role in the negotiation of this convention, which began in earnest in 2004.

The national processes involved in preparing for the negotiations generate benefits by increasing the visibility of disability issues and human rights commitments across government agencies. The international negotiating process helps to clarify human rights norms and builds domestic and international legal expertise on disability rights. Once adopted and in force the convention should, as far as New Zealand is concerned, reinforce existing domestic strategies and legislation. It is likely the Convention will establish an international mechanism to oversee implementation of and compliance with it.

The New Zealand Government’s strong support for these negotiations has been recognised by national and international disability organisations. In April 2005 New Zealand’s (then) permanent representative to the UN in New York, Don MacKay – who had been acting as co-ordinator of the negotiations since 2003 – was appointed Chair of the ad hoc committee. This is a significant honour and achievement for New Zealand.

"This major human rights convention represents a shift in the way governments interact with persons with disabilities… Many have said that the rights of persons with disabilities are already guaranteed in existing human rights treaties, but the reality is that persons with disabilities have been deprived of those rights."

…Don MacKay, Chairman of the ad hoc committee on a Comprehensive and Integral International Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities, highlighted the importance of the draft instrument not only for some 600 million people with disabilities around the globe, but also for the United Nations, which had an opportunity to demonstrate, once again, that it could come up with a convention that would directly impact people’s lives.

A large number of States were participating in the negotiations, he continued. The convention enjoyed support from civil society groups. Some 400 civil society representatives had registered for the meeting – the biggest number ever. Their active participation in the drafting process had given “a very unusual flavour” to the negotiations. The participants had been very focused on the issues, and there had been genuine interaction on the text and proposals. It had not been a United Nations meeting where “people are sitting there reading prepared statements at each other”.

Excerpts from United Nations press release and press conference in February and August 2005 www.un.org/News/briefings/docs/2005/

The Office for Disability Issues, in association with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and in partnership with representatives of disabled people, co-ordinates New Zealand’s involvement in the negotiations.

Consultation with government agencies and disability NGOs was undertaken during July and December 2004 and June to August 2005. This informed the development of instructions for delegations to three separate two-week negotiations at the United Nations.

Over the last year, New Zealand has made numerous and influential interventions. These are recorded in summaries of the proceedings posted on www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable. In particular, New Zealand’s interventions have addressed a non-institutional approach to disability services, the legal capacity of all disabled people, minimisation of forced treatment, recognition of sign languages and the separation of the concept of equal access to health services from ideas around rehabilitation and participation of disabled people in all activity that affects them.

New Zealand delegations to the United Nations have continued to model partnership between government officials and disabled New Zealanders, and have included representatives from the Human Rights Commission, the Mental Health Commission and the Disabled Persons Assembly. The Human Rights Commission has also participated in the Asia-Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions, which continues to contribute to the development of the convention.

Negotiations on the first draft of the convention are now complete. The ad hoc committee is ready to move to a second stage of negotiations on an updated draft prepared by the New Zealand Chair. This phase will be focussed on achieving agreement on a final text for adoption.

Promoting the rights of disabled people within New Zealand

Mana ki te Tangata: The New Zealand Action Plan for Human Rights was launched by the Human Rights Commission in March 2005. It has a dedicated section on “Getting it right for disabled people”, while the overall plan has more than 40 proposed actions directly related to disabled people. It is a significant milestone in terms of raising the profile of disability rights and knowledge of their neglect.

The government has welcomed the plan and is in the process of developing a detailed response. Many of the proposed actions relating to disability are already under way.

The Office for Disability Issues has asked government agencies to include information related to the action plan in their annual Disability Strategy plans and progress reports. This will help streamline future national or international reporting on the human rights of disabled New Zealanders.

The Human Rights Commission has also piloted resources for people with experience of mental illness to provide rights education. The resources include a facilitators’ manual and participants’ handbook. Three networks of trainers, known collectively as Korowai Whaimana, have been recruited and trained. Ways to support and develop trainers are now being investigated and trialled.

Gaps and opportunities to improve legal expertise about disability rights

Most non-discrimination provisions are about what not to do rather than requiring positive action. However, non-discrimination in relation to disability sometimes requires some positive provision. Avoiding discrimination against disabled people will not only involve treating them equally but taking steps to ensure they have equal access to a service. Employers can make changes to ensure a disabled person can do a job, or providers can provide ramps to ensure disabled people can access a service. Making such changes to accommodate a disabled person is known as “reasonable accommodation”. There are exceptions from human rights law if it is not reasonable to expect employers or providers to provide an accommodation.

However, interpretation of what is considered “reasonable” is not always agreed and law in this area is evolving here and overseas. Better realisation of human rights for disabled people will require further articulation of what provisions or accommodations are reasonable to expect. This work will occur through the UN convention as well as through evolving jurisprudence. The challenge for government is to use these developments to provide a framework to change expectations across society.

Improving access to personal advocacy services

Over the 2004–2005 year the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) worked to improve their advocacy service. Telephone advocacy services are now available through an 0800 line, and an advocacy liaison co-ordinator has been employed to enhance working relationships with community advocacy groups.

The Office of the Health and Disability Commissioner also reports a number of initiatives to improve access to their advocacy services. These include:

• an audio version of key information, available on CD from public libraries
• an accessibility checklist for staff to use when organising off-site events
• disability awareness training for staff
• three think tanks with the disability sector to identify initiatives for raising disabled people’s awareness of rights
• the development of a co-presenter/co-facilitator package for presentations to disabled persons. A group of disabled people, including Māori and Pasifika persons, were identified to deliver it.

The Office for Disability Issues has initiated work to develop options for the provision of personal advocacy and communication services for people with an intellectual disability in the context of wider work on advocacy for disabled people. Initial work has included a literature review and consultation.

I used to be very good at advocating for others, and for myself, but I am realising that when you are fatigued and not well it is a real struggle to get access to service providers and have them listen and deliver services.

Max, Life is for Living, to be published at www.odi.govt.nz

Gaps and opportunities to improve advocacy services

A range of advocacy services is available to disabled people in New Zealand:

• the Health and Disability Commissioner and the Human Rights Commission provide advocacy services bound by a legislative framework for longer-term dispute resolution (rather than immediate support with an issue)
• complaints processes attached to particular services or sectors, such as the Tenancy Tribunal, district health boards and work and income services
• community law centres.

However, these services are sometimes provided by people who do not have particular expertise in, or understanding of, disability issues. Moreover there are significant gaps for some advocacy needs and some impairment types. Work is needed to improve advocacy services, including capacity building initiatives for people currently working in advocacy roles.

Objective 5: Foster leadership by disabled people

Two indicators for this objective focus on leadership in the public service and government boards and bodies. The government has a commitment to ensuring balanced representation on Crown bodies and in the public sector to reflect wider New Zealand society, and to strengthen connections with stakeholders.

It is also important to recognise successful disabled people in all parts of society. The increased visibility of successful disabled people provides positive role models for the disabled and non-disabled population and helps to raise community expectations.

My vision for our society 10 years from now is that people will realise that yes, we are all different; not just in our hair colour, country of origin and values, but that some of us have an impairment and can be different too. However we all have skills and can make a contribution to our communities in our own way. Hopefully we will see more people with impairments out and about in the community, taking leadership roles and taking part in everyday activities, going to work and being able to make choices about their lives.

Gail, Life is for Living, to be published at www.odi.govt.nz

Promoting disabled leaders in government and state sector governance bodies

Indicator 3: Number of disabled people appointed to government boards or bodies.

To assist appropriate representation of disabled people at governance levels, the government allocated in its 2005 Budget $568,000 over the next four years for the Office for Disability Issues to establish and maintain a nominations service to promote the appointment of disabled people to Crown boards and committees. The funding will also provide appropriate training to develop the skills and experience of potential nominees.

Once this project is up and running there should be data available to measure trends.

Indicator 4: Number of disabled people in governance or management roles in the public sector.

The government should be a role model for other employers and ensure disabled people are represented in the public service at a similar rate to their numbers in the population. Moreover, they should be represented at management and governance levels. The government is in a good position to lead the way in making better use of the often untapped potential of disabled employees.

The latest trends and data

In 2002, the State Services Commission published a report on the Career Progression and Development Survey, 2000.

The survey found that within the public service:

• disabled people had similar jobs and similar earnings to other staff
• disabled public servants tended to be older than other public servants
• 18% of disabled staff (compared to 11% of others) cited a lack of support from their manager as having deterred them from applying for a promotion
• 38% of disabled people (compared to 26% of others) rated their access to high-profile work as “poor”
• 34% of disabled people (compared to 19% of others) reported having experienced unfair treatment on the basis of a personal characteristic.
  The report also provided information on the public service workforce. As at June 2000, based on the Human Resource Capability Survey data, this showed that:
• 10% of public servants reported having a disability
• 9% of public sector managers reported having a disability.

The State Services Commission is repeating the Career Progression and Development Survey in 2005 and findings will be reported by the end of the year. The 2002 report and findings from the new survey will be available on www.ssc.govt.nz.

Some government agencies reported on the number of their staff who identified as disabled for the 2004-2005 year. This information is not reliable, however, as it is based on self-reporting and there are disincentives to identifying as disabled. Also, the data are not often updated after someone has joined a department.
The State Services Commission is concerned about the usefulness of the disability data collected via the Human Resource Capability Survey. Concerns initially arose because this data showed a steady decline in the representation of disabled staff, from 11% in the public sector in 1998 to 7% in 2002. This was well below the 15% that Statistics NZ reported which is likely to be due to differences in definitions between Statistics NZ post census Disability Surveys and the State Services Commission surveys.

In July 2005, the State Services Commission completed a review of disability data collection across the public sector with recommendations to improve the situation.

Activity to support the recruitment and promotion of disabled public servants

A number of departments reported activity during the 2004–2005 year designed to develop and support their disabled staff. For example:

• the State Services Commission continued to promote the “Mainstream” supported employment programme to 147 eligible state sector organisations. The programme supported over 200 placements. The Commission also held a seminar for all state sector human resource managers to promote good practices for disabled staff
• the New Zealand Police, National Library, Ministry of Education and the Department of Internal Affairs have established and supported networks for their disabled staff
• the Police actively promoted their disability network and developed articles for their disability intranet on the benefits of employing disabled people
• the Ministry of Health updated their database on the recruitment of disabled people, access to equipment and workplace support strategies and services
• several agencies reported that appropriate ergonomic equipment and software is available for disabled staff.

Gaps and opportunities to support participation and leadership by disabled people in the public sector

While there has been increased activity aimed at building the capacity of disabled employees in the public service, there is a lot more to be done. In particular, a proposal to develop a disabled staff network across all agencies may be a useful initiative.

Promoting leadership in the disability sector by disabled people

An underpinning principle of the Disability Strategy is that the voices, experiences and wisdom of disabled people and their families should play a larger role in informing policy decisions. This will help ensure barriers to participation are not ignored or created, and that opportunities for positive change are recognised.

If implementing the Disability Strategy means making service providers accessible and accountable, and it means disabled people are given more opportunities to advocate for themselves, and the solutions they propose are adopted, then there will be a constructive way forward for disabled people. I’ve spent a good part of my life advocating for services, but I never raise an issue without offering a workable solution. I’m sure most consultation with disabled people is like that, focused on practical, workable solutions to real problems.

Max, Life is for Living, to be published at www.odi.govt.nz

Government agencies reported an array of initiatives seeking to better engage with disabled people and families for the 2004 -2005 year:

• The Office for Disability Issues established the Disability Advisory Council in May 2005. Its primary function is to provide advice to the Office on progress in implementing the Disability Strategy and any emerging issues. The Council is made up of disabled people and their families selected by consumer organisations nominated by the Office. It does not include representatives from professional bodies, providers or funders.
• A Consumer Outlook Group meets every two months with ACC senior managers to promote an understanding of ACC claimants, help ACC gather information on matters related to effective delivery of services and give ACC the chance to share relevant information with key organisations that represent consumers.
• ACC appointed one of their disabled employees to the Social Commission of Rehabilitation as Chair and consulted with disability groups in the development
  of a health purchasing strategy for 2005-2006.
• The Health and Disability Commissioner developed a database of disabled individuals and disability networks available for consultation.
• Statistics New Zealand established a reference group, including representatives of disabled people and families, to inform the development of the next post-census Disability Survey.
• The Ministry of Health held nine forums with disabled people as the first stage of implementing their Consumer Participation Project, which aims to increase the involvement of disabled people and whānau in Disability Services Directorate activities.

It is very pleasing to see a number of local authorities have set up disability reference groups. In particular, Whangarei, Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch councils provide welcome role models for other councils to follow.

Reference groups ensure that issues affecting disabled people are heard by the council, that workable solutions are developed and future planning considers them. Some councils have also appointed disability liaison officers who work with the reference groups to progress initiatives.

Key elements of creating Absolutely Positively Accessible Wellington

• The council holds an Accessible Wellington Forum attended by all senior council managers. It is an opportunity for the community to discuss disability issues in the city.
• In 1996 a Disability Reference Group was established as an avenue for community issues and information to be brought to the council and as an expert advisory group. Kaeti Rigarlsford has been on the Group for five years and has served a term as rotating chairperson. She says: “WCC has taken on board a commitment to an accessible Wellington. The value of our disabled community inputting into city planning is recognised. The fact that the Disability Reference Group is paid a meeting fee values and respects the views of disabled people. It acknowledges that we are visible, skilled, accountable and knowledgeable in our field. It puts the responsibility on us to be out in the community listening to people’s needs and issues, and working with council to reflect solutions to these issues in policies and actions. We have the responsibility to present council’s proposed initiatives to the disability community and the council welcomes consultation feedback. WCC is contracting members of the disabled community to carry out research, provide advice etc. People are being paid at contract rates and their expertise is recognised and valued.
• In 2001 a part-time disability liaison officer was appointed. The position soon became full time to support the reference group, raise awareness of disability issues within council and support the council in implementing the Disability Strategy. The position allows council officers to take regular opportunities for formal and informal consulting.
• A key to ensuring that disability issues are considered when all council decisions are made is for the disability liaison officer and reference group to work with an informed and committed councillor who is pro-active in placing awareness of disability issues before other councillors.

There is commitment from the CEO to addressing disability issues.

See information about results of the WCC approach to disability.

Building the leadership and capacity of disabled people and family organisations

Over the past four years the Ministry of Health contracted for Disability Empowerment Advocacy and Support (DEAS) services in the Auckland and northern region. Various providers and initiatives evolved from these contracts to deliver services for disabled people by disabled people. For example, the Ripple Trust, a not-for-profit organisation governed by disabled people, has held a number of disabled person forums in the last year. Other organisations have focused on the specific needs of disabled Māori, disabled Pacific people, families and different parts of the region. The Ministry of Health no longer funds DEAS services. However, four organisations that evolved from the DEAS contracts are now contracted to provide an information and advisory service.

Walking the talk

Te Tai Tokerau DEAS Trust was formed in 2003 to implement the disability empowerment advocacy support service in Northland. Manager Jonny Wilkinson says: “We want to foster and demonstrate leadership by disabled people. We can still see examples of disabled people employed in organisations and not given full responsibility, given token roles and not valued for their participation. We want to demonstrate a functioning organisation where disabled people are not a reference group, and are not junior administrators but are fully participating in all roles, and everyone is valued for their contribution and paid appropriately. All our trust board members are disabled, and so are all our staff bar one. Our trust board members are widely experienced people with management experience, and provide quality governance and management.

“We want a single person or an organisation to know they can come in here and discuss an issue and it will result in appropriate and professional action, either on a personal level or in a meeting, hui, or in consultation with a service provider, the community or a local council. Where possible we are promoting self advocacy and have supported a number of individuals as they have worked through issues with government agencies or service providers. We have worked in longer term mentoring with individuals who were either working and needing mentoring to establish what they wanted from their career and how to achieve this or were transitioning from home to independent living.

“We are able to share our knowledge of working in the sector, of governance and management, of communicating effectively at political and local government level and in running community events. Of course all our staff are members of DPA.”

The Office for Disability Issues aims to help develop the capacity and leadership of the disability sector. As part of this policy the Office supports the attendance and participation of disabled people and their families at conferences and funds capacity building and leadership initiatives. During 2004–2005 the Office provided funding to:

• DPA for development of regional leaders
• Standards plus and Parent to Parent to support participation by disabled people and their families in their Coming of Age Conference
• the Carers Alliance to support carers to attend the Caring for the Carers Summit
• Inclusion International New Zealand to help ensure a New Zealander with an intellectual disability participated at the United Nations ad hoc committee meetings on the Convention on the Rights of Disabled People in New York
• Standards and Monitoring Services (SAMS) to part fund the first Partners in Policymaking course for family members and disabled people
• People First to train leaders and assistants and for development of resource material to support their local groups
• Global Entrepreneurs Network for “Blindness: Dare to be Entrepreneurial”, a UNITEC SIFE project for blind entrepreneurs.

Gaps and opportunities to improve the funding security of disability organisations

Several not-for-profit disability organisations provide advocacy, advice, awareness promotion, peer support and information services, which are central to the effective implementation of the Disability Strategy. However, the funding arrangements are often not appropriate or adequate. They do not often allow for capacity building or for security to maintain an organisational infrastructure.

The Office for the Community and Voluntary Sector is working to improve cohesion across government funding schemes and funding security for community organisations, to enable them to focus on their core activities rather than constantly seeking funding. The Ministry of Social Development is also looking at this issue in relation to contracts for vocational services. However, there is still a lot yet to do, particularly in relation to appropriately and adequately funding disability advocacy and leadership.

The right to vote and activity to improve participation in the electoral process

The Chief Electoral Office developed an action plan to improve the level of service for disabled voters. This included:

• contracting the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind to produce information in Braille, large print, audio cassette and email
• making information available at the Chief Electoral Office website in New Zealand Sign Language
• contracting the Barrier Free New Zealand Trust to develop accessibility checklists for voting facilities and polling places, and providing training for Returning Officers
• providing disability training for Returning Officers and national office staff by trainers with lived experience of disability.