Briefing to the Incoming Minister for Disability Issues 2005 - Making a World of Difference
Key Messages
- Many disabled people are unable to reach their potential or participate fully in the community because of the barriers they face in doing things that most New Zealanders take for granted. The barriers range from the purely physical, to the attitudinal.
- Disabled people are over-represented in lower-paid occupations, and are likely to have fewer financial and family resources than the general population. This economic disadvantage is compounded by the financial cost of disability.
- As a group, disabled people generally have poorer general health status, and poor access to support services and other arrangements that might allow them to move from a marginalised position in society.
- Government can make a key difference in reducing the debilitating experience of disability and the comparative disadvantage suffered by many disabled people.
- Disabled people can enjoy increasing work opportunities, through access to the right education, equipment and environmental accommodations, and promotion of positive employer attitudes.
- The everyday needs of disabled New Zealanders can be met, and their personal potential realised, through the tailoring of support services to meet the diversity of individual circumstances.
- Society’s understanding of, and attitudes towards, disability can be transformed through the raising of public awareness and the promotion of disabled people as leaders in business and the community.
- Overall, the quality of disabled people’s lives can be improved through sound investment guided by the New Zealand Disability Strategy, and by disabled people and their families having a say in the policy and service developments that affect them.
- As the Minister for Disability Issues your role, in government and established in legislation, is critical to making this difference for disabled people possible.
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