“It would be great to think that, in 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.”

The New Zealand government is proud of the New Zealand Disability Strategy and the systems we have evolved to support it. The Strategy and our systemic response will be instrumental in moving forward and achieving greater integration and participation by people with disabilities.

However, moving forward is not without its challenges. We still have much to do in adapting generic government processes and services to ensure they accommodate all citizens, including people with disabilities. Similarly, we need to continue encouraging the rest of society to welcome and include people with disabilities as community members. We need to continue changing attitudes and building awareness of the lives of people with disabilities.

It is integral to our approach to disability supports that each sector – health, education, social services, transport, environment, building and housing – takes responsibility for considering the needs of people with disabilities in all new policies, programmes and services. This carries the risk, however, of fragmentation, gaps and inequities between sectors. As a current priority, we are working to improve the coherence and equity of government disability support services. Our work builds from the New Zealand Disability Strategy to ensure that disability support services are better aligned across the sectors and are easier to use, more equitable and have a clear focus on outcomes for people with disabilities.

We are also in the early stages of considering universal design principles in developing new products and services. If we design products and services for all New Zealanders then many of the existing barriers faced by people with disabilities will be removed or minimised.

“Home, home of my own, With everything in it I own, Ovens I can reach, And a ramp to the beach, And streets that are easy to roam.”

The building sector provides a key example of the importance of universal design. Houses built using universal design standards (such as wider doorways) and incorporating universal design products (such as lever taps and door handles) benefit other population groups who may face mobility issues – older people and children in particular. Because everyone uses houses and building products, the cost burden of adapting a finished product or existing service is both reduced and also spread across the range of people who use it – rather than carried by one specific group.

This is equally applicable in our increasingly technological society, which provides people with disabilities both opportunities to become more active, but also presents new risks. For example, as increasingly sophisticated technology is incorporated into electronic home appliances, with tiers of visual menus, visually impaired people experience new barriers. We are in discussion with some of our leading appliance designers to try to overcome these challenges.

Similarly, in the government and banking sectors, increasing use of the internet and automatic teller machines to provide information and service access does not always accommodate people with disabilities. While guidelines for government agencies have been introduced to ensure websites are accessible and readable for people with disabilities, new developments mean these need constant review and amendment.