Eliminating the barriers to participation and independence of disabled people

Participation is limited by barriers

The New Zealand Disability Strategy promotes changing the way society thinks about disability issues - moving from within a welfare or medical framework to understanding disability within a rights framework using a social model.

The Strategy recognises that disability results from barriers people face when society does not take their impairments into account. Implementing the Strategy requires all sectors of the community to embrace these fundamental shifts in thinking about disability, and to make the consequential changes in their areas of influence.

Disabled people have the right to fully participate in all aspects of society, on the same basis as non-disabled people can do. However, full participation by disabled people is limited by three inter-related barriers:

1. Access - lack of equitable access to opportunities, information, buildings, transport, services, etc.
2. Discrimination and/or attitudinal - prejudice and ignorance resulting in negative discrimination or lack of appropriate accommodations.
3. Economic and social status - a vicious cycle of lower economic, educational and health status relative to the rest of the population.

To remove these barriers to participation or independence, policy makers must identify them in their policy area and remove them. For instance, you will need to identify existing barriers when defining the problem, and make sure you do not create new barriers when you develop proposed solutions.

You may find there is inadequate information about disabled people in your policy area. This is itself a barrier to including disabled people. It will show you there is a need for further research, or modifications to databases and your agency’s information collection in order to remove this barrier.

The three types of barriers and possible strategies to address them are described in the next sections. This is not exhaustive. You will also need to access disability information sources, consult with the disability sector (where appropriate), and possibly invest in research to ensure you have identified all the barriers to participation and independence within your policy area.