As always, the Disabled Persons Assembly (DPA) welcomes the increasing number of government departments reporting initiatives that will improve the lives of disabled people. However, our connection to the day to day reality of disabled lives tells us that there is still much to be done in some key areas.

Getting a quality education and the ability to live well in the community are two essential preconditions for achieving a non-disabling society. When it comes to education, schools are where the rubber hits the road. If disabled children and their families struggle to get resources and responsive teachers, schools will remain an area of real concern.

We recognise that schools are relatively autonomous from the Ministry of Education, but believe that schools need to be brought into the New Zealand Disability Strategy implementation and reporting process. Until they are, progress in schools will remain unaccounted for.

The closure of Kimberley is cause for celebration. Its mention in the report from the Ministry of Health could hardly convey the momentous and hard won victory - the end of large scale institutions as a way of ‘housing’ disabled people. The risk is that, if proper and appropriate support systems centred on the needs and aspirations of individuals are not put in place, mini-institutions – with all the same trappings of limitations on choice and control – will arise in the place of the traditional institutions. As stated in To Have an ‘Ordinary Life people want to choose where and with whom they wish to live.

Disabled Maori and Pacific peoples do not seem to have been picked up by the respective government agencies that ought to be involved. We would be expecting to hear of progress after five years of the New Zealand Disability Strategy. Perhaps next year?

We have talked about the need to raise the bar. In many ways, the New Zealand Disability Strategy has raised the bar on the expectations disabled people have of an improving quality of life. In its first five years we’ve demonstrated a good measure of patience as government departments and agencies have come on board.

However, patience may well run thin if significant changes do not occur in the next five years. We would expect, after that time, to be able to choose where, how and with whom we live. Mini-institutions, often referred to as the six-pack approach of group homes, will no longer be an option funded by government. Schools will be adequately resourced to accommodate disabled students, with parents no longer reporting a struggle for their children to attend the local school. Government departments will be employing or contracting disabled people with the expertise in key areas they need, rather than expecting that expertise to be provided on the cheap.

The review of progress in implementing the New Zealand Disability Strategy is timely, in that it will measure the effectiveness of the Strategy as a motivation for departmental activity in promoting the full participation of disabled people. The future success of the New Zealand Disability Strategy in the wider society is dependent on achieving changed outcomes for disabled people in relation to that government activity.

Mike Gourley
President DPA New Zealand