A change of behaviour by everyone is needed to achieve the vision of the New Zealand Disability Strategy.  However, there is an expectation that central and local government have a key role in planning work towards achieving the Objectives of the New Zealand Disability Strategy.

As Minister for Disability Issues, I report to Parliament every year to show progress in implementing the New Zealand Disability Strategy. This report looks in some detail at what has happened over the last year.

This year, 35 agencies have provided reports and they are listed in Appendix One. This progress report is based on the information provided by these agencies, and covers the period July 2006 to June 2007.

Structure of this report

This first part of this report is divided into three sections:

• Leading work that makes a difference – what agencies are doing to change things for disabled people. This is a major part of the reports that agencies give the Office.
• Including a disability perspective – how agencies should be thinking about disabled people in all the work they do and making sure they are included.
• Accessible government – what government agencies are doing to make their information, buildings, and services accessible, and to be good employers of disabled people.

The second part of this report looks at what has been done to implement:

• The New Zealand Sign Language Act – this became law in April 2006 and recognises the language and culture of the Deaf community.
• The “To Have an Ordinary Life” report – this report was released by the National Health Committee in 2003 and looked at how people with intellectual disability are supported to live ordinary lives.

How has reporting changed from last year?

This year, the progress reports for 2006-07 and plans for 2007-08, as provided by agencies, are on the Office for Disability Issues website. Everyone with access to the internet can read them to find out the detail of what is happening in each government agency.

This report provides an overview of what is happening across government in implementing the New Zealand Disability Strategy. It does not list the detail of agencies plans and reports as previous reports have done.

Process for gathering information

Each year, the Office for Disability Issues (the Office) invites government agencies to provide information on what they are doing to implement the New Zealand Disability Strategy.

In 2007, the Office sent agencies a template to complete, asking them to report what they have achieved in the 2006-07 year, and on what they plan to do during 2007-08 in the following areas:

• leading work that makes a difference
• including a disability perspective
• accessible government
• the New Zealand Sign Language Act
• the ‘To Have an Ordinary Life’ report.