Two themes characterise New Zealand’s progress over the last 30 years in working towards a vision of full participation and improved wellbeing for people with disabilities:

• supporting all people with disabilities to lead ‘ordinary lives’ - lives that are the same as other New Zealanders
• building partnerships between government and the disability community, ensuring a ‘nothing about us without us’ approach.

“We are just ordinary people who sometimes have to do things in a different way.”

These themes are evident in government moves towards de-institutionalising disability supports, ‘mainstreaming’ services for people with disabilities and giving consideration to issues affecting them. A basic tenet of our policies, programmes and services today, is the presumption that people with disabilities should be able to live with their family and friends within their community. Therefore, every policy, every decision, must build inclusion for people with disabilities in all aspects of family, working and public life.

This is a journey begun 30 years ago in response to calls for greater self-management and participation in society by New Zealanders with disabilities. Increasingly, public funds have transferred from institutions to local community-based homes and supports. Particularly during the eighties and nineties, large numbers of people with disabilities moved from large residential facilities to smaller family-style accommodation. These changes required a major attitudinal shift for communities, professional staff, family caregivers and, in some cases, for people with disabilities themselves.

Case Study: The Closure of Kimberley
De-institutionalisation in New Zealand was completed in 2006, when the last of the 13 major residential facilities for people with disabilities and mental illness, Kimberley, was closed. After their individual support needs were assessed, all 379 residents moved into family-style community accommodation where 24-hour support is provided. The Kimberly deinstitutionalisation project exemplifies the major changes needed to empower formerly institutionalised residents to live lives that are more 'ordinary'. Residents and their families were involved in all major decisions. While a small group of family members were deeply concerned by the changes, almost all issues were worked through by the date of closure.

As the shift to mainstreaming has evolved, so has an acceptance of the value of people with disabilities, an acceptance of who they are and the abilities they have.
Legislation has played a supporting role in this shift:

• the Accident Compensation Act 1972 introduced entitlement to individuals whose disability was caused by injury through accident. Support services and funding are delivered separately on a case-by-case basis through the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC)
• the Disabled Persons Community Welfare Act 1975 gave people with disabilities who were not ACC claimants access to services specifically to support them to live within the community
• an amendment in 1987 to the Education Act reinforced community-based support, providing children with disabilities the right to be educated in ordinary state school environments.

Policies have increasingly reflected this attitudinal shift, especially around access to employment. People with disabilities are included in government-funded and government-delivered training and employment services. Similarly, vocational service programmes for people with disabilities expanded throughout the eighties and nineties. In 2001, Government released a strategy document, Pathways to Inclusion, setting out a five-year plan for vocational services. Current policies being implemented to realise this vision are focused on ensuring people with disabilities have opportunities to gain skills and jobs with the same rights and conditions as other workers.

Case Study: Workbridge
The Workbridge story demonstrates the evolving character of government and disability sector relations over the past 80 years. Workbridge is an employment agency funded through a government contract to provide dedicated services for people with disabilities. The agency began life in 1930 as the Soldiers' Civil Re-establishment League (Inc.) supporting returned servicemen. This was later expanded by government to include civilian rehabilitation, with a strong focus on running sheltered workshops for people with disabilities and providing vocational assessment, work preparation and training.

Today Workbridge supplements the employment assistance provided to New Zealanders with disabilities by the Ministry of Social Development, the government’s social assistance agency. A very strong focus of its current work is supporting people with disabilities into open employment.

In 2001, Workbridge established new constitutional independence from government. Once appointed by government, the Board is now selected by a council of representatives of people with disabilities, and Maori and Pacific Islands peoples. These new arrangements demonstrate a further step in the pathway to inclusion of people with disabilities in decision-making about the policies and services that impact on their lives.

As this progress has been achieved, both government and the disability sector have become aware of the need to tackle the negative perceptions that underpin the social and economic barriers to participation faced by people with disabilities. Counteracting measures have included awareness raising and information sharing by a number of disability community and provider organisations, and government departments. Proactive social marketing strategies aimed at changing perceptions about people with disabilities have been used. Specific groups have been targeted through some of this activity - an employers’ summit held in 2005 encouraged employers to broaden their recruitment to include workers with disabilities.

Case Study: ‘Like Minds, Like Mine’ Awareness Campaign
The innovative and highly regarded social marketing campaign, ‘Like Minds, Like Mine’ has achieved major success in countering the discrimination experienced by people with mental illness. This campaign initiated in 1997 involves promoting the personal stories of positive role models who also have a mental illness. Evaluations of the campaign provide clear evidence of reduced stigma and discrimination associated with mental illness and positive changes in public acceptance towards people with mental illness. A New Zealand Mental Health Commission stocktake of anti-discriminatory activities completed in 2005 noted that New Zealand is ahead of the rest of the world in acceptance of people with mental illness. In large part this can be attributed to the ‘Like Minds, Like Mine’ campaign. You can read more on their website.

One of the fundamental keys to achieving the progress we have made in New Zealand has been the direct involvement of the disability community in determining the target outcomes. In 2000, the community’s call for a stronger voice and a more strategic approach to advancing disability issues and interests resulted in Government:

• establishing a Ministerial portfolio for disability issues and a supporting Office for Disability Issues within the Ministry of Social Development in 2002, and
• developing The New Zealand Disability Strategy in 2001, by legislating for it and committing significant time and resources to working in partnership with the disability community.

"I believe one purpose of the Disability Strategy is to give value to the lives of people with disabilities and their families as well as to educate in removing the barriers to an inclusive society."