To participate in society as full and equal citizens, disabled people need access to the things that other people take for granted, such as information and transport. They also need easy access to disability-specific supports that help them to participate in society. Disabled people want to lead ordinary lives, similar to those lived by other New Zealanders.

We need to make more progress on disability issues

New Zealand has made real progress towards increasing the participation of its disabled citizens over the last 15 years. For example, it is no longer generally accepted that disabled people should be housed, educated or employed separately from other people. Disabled people are more likely to live in the community and to support themselves through employment than was the case in the past.

Despite these achievements, a review of progress after six years of implementing the New Zealand Disability Strategy (2001-2007)⁸ found that disabled people feel that progress is not rapid enough and fundamental barriers to their participation still exist. While the disability survey conducted by Statistics New Zealand after the 2006 Census shows some improvement in important outcome areas, disabled people still continue to do significantly less well than the general population.

The key challenges to be addressed if we are to improve outcomes for disabled people are:

• ongoing discrimination
• a range of issues around improving access
• the changing expectations of disabled people and their families and whanau around the nature of disability support services
• supporting people's growing aspirations for themselves
• ensuring the needs of future generations of disabled people are planned for.

Participation requires access

At all life stages, disabled people face particular challenges in achieving commonly-shared goals. Everyone wants to be successful in education, finding and retaining employment, having an adequate income, staying healthy, supporting oneself and leading an independent life. To do this, everyone needs access to information, communication, transportation, buildings and environments and, for disabled people, appropriate disability supports. Disabled people, however, still face barriers accessing these basic necessities.

Improving outcomes for disabled people is not just about getting specialised disability supports right - it is also about effecting change at much broader levels (like town planning) and ensuring government initiatives that affect the general population cater for the access needs of disabled people from the outset. As Minister for Disability Issues, you have the opportunity to influence your colleagues in this regard.

Good transitions to employment are vital for disabled people

One of the biggest issues facing disabled young people and their parents is the need for planned transitions from school to work, tertiary education or training and other meaningful day-time activities. With the right assistance, disabled young people can make better transitions from school to adult life. To be successful, transition planning needs to start around the age of 14 years. Young people and their parents can experience uncertainty as they move out of compulsory education where their son or daughter has an entitlement to the support they receive into an adult world where there is no such entitlement (employment services are discretionary).

The challenges around employment include discrimination in the labour market and workplace and low expectations and assumptions about what disabled people can and cannot do. For example, employers often say the workplace is not a safe environment for disabled people. This means people with valuable skills and strong motivation can struggle to participate as fully as they are able to.

Many people find their first job (and subsequent jobs) because of family, whanau or other social connections. This can be harder for people when their social networks are small, as is often the case for disabled people. Once people are working, they can face challenges in understanding the culture of the workplace and in 'fitting in'. Retaining work can be as problematic for these reasons as finding it in the first place.

Some disabled people need equipment and workplace modifications for them to be effective and to work to their full capacity, or to retain a job following an accident. Accessible transport to and from work and accessible workplaces are also critical factors in ensuring people can work.

Where disabled people are unable to work full-time, finding meaningful voluntary or leisure activities is another challenge for them and their families and whanau. Finding quality work that pays a decent wage can also be difficult.

Details of government's current provision of services supporting people to move from school to work and other options, and other employment services, are provided in the Appendix.

Transport needs to be accessible

Living an ordinary life means being able to get from place to place, whether it's from home to school or work, to friends' places, to social and community events - in your neighbourhood or beyond.

Despite the considerable progress made in improving the accessibility of the public transport system, there are various barriers that prevent many disabled people getting from place to place so they can fully participate in society. At the same time, there is a growing appreciation that the benefits of improving the accessibility of public transport are not limited to disabled people - people with temporary injuries or illness, parents with children and buggies, people carrying groceries, people who are getting frailer, all benefit from improved accessibility.

An approach to urban design that is comprehensive and takes into account how transport and the built environment connect and work together would address some of these accessibility issues.

Buildings and the physical environment need to be accessible

Disabled people want to be able to live and move about independently. This means carrying out ordinary domestic tasks in their own homes as well as undertaking ordinary social, economic and civic activities in their communities.

Currently, New Zealand's housing stock is not meeting disabled people's housing needs. There is a considerable unmet need for accessible, safe, warm, comfortable housing that works well for young and old people with impaired mobility. This unmet need is likely to increase as disability and impaired mobility increases in the ageing population.

Disabled people and the government spend considerable amounts on housing modifications. Much of this expenditure is on basic home alterations such as widening doorways and installing wet area showers - modifications that would be easier and more cost-effective if they were routinely integrated into newly built and renovated housing.

An accessible, well-performing housing stock that meets the needs of people as these needs change would be 'future-proofed'.

The New Zealand Housing Strategy¹⁰ includes mechanisms to encourage the use of universal design principles in state and private housing to make housing more usable for everyone.

The countries most successful in engaging the private sector in providing accessible housing for the general population (that is, Japan, Norway and the United States of America) either offer financial incentives and/or have strong legislative or regulatory frameworks.¹¹

People want modern, appropriate disability supports

For some disabled people and their families and whanau, support alone is not enough. Getting access to the supports they need, where and when they need them, and in the right 'amounts' and quality is one of the longest-standing battles disabled people face. We have to make sure we have a workforce trained and equipped to deliver high-quality rehabilitation and habilitation services.

As noted earlier, the expectations and aspirations of disabled people and their families have been changing. Institutional models and forms of care are no longer acceptable to them. People want to have more say over what support they receive and who provides it.

Carers, (like disabled people) want to be involved in the decisions that affect them. A Carers' Strategy and five-year action plan has been developed to address these issues.¹³

Demand for disability supports will continue to increase as the population ages, and medical advances mean people with significant disabilities are living longer. Technological innovations also mean there is a greater range of ways to improve disabled people's lives - bringing with them additional costs. A third driver of costs in the sector is the demand by disability support workers (who are historically among the lowest paid workers in this country) for better pay and conditions. This factor has implications for service quality.

Managing the increases in demand for disability supports is one of the biggest challenges facing government in the disability sector. Achieving sustainable funding is an outcome currently exercising different funding agencies, in particular the Ministries of Health, Education and Social Development and the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC).

Part of the challenge of leading an ordinary life involves making sure services for the general population are accessible to everyone, including disabled people (as well as other people who might have particular needs, for example parents with young children, and older New Zealanders).

Some argue that people in comparable situations should be treated similarly

That people in comparable situations receive different services, supports and levels of financial assistance has been a contentious issue in the disability sector for some time. Government provision in two different situations has recently been challenged in Court. The first case related to differential provision based on the cause of disability (ACC versus other government provision). The Court found in this case that, while the differential provision of supports was clearly discriminatory, it was legal under current New Zealand law.

The second Court case relates to families who care for a disabled family member. The families involved are seeking to receive a carers' payment equivalent to that received by people providing those services on behalf of the state. A decision has yet to be made in this case. Irrespective of the Court findings, the issue is likely to remain contentious and a source of grievance into the future.

We need to plan for the future

Future-proofing for coming generations is a major challenge. This will involve focusing more on early intervention so needs can be met and managed before they become acute or secondary disabilities arise. Early intervention is particularly important in providing support to children with disabilities and their families, and for people who experience mental illness. Future-proofing also involves influencing designers, town planners, architects, engineers and others to make sure we do not miss opportunities to modify our built environment and technologies at the right (initial) stage. That way we avoid the need to do expensive 'retro-fits' later to meet the needs of an ageing population. Everyone benefits from this sort of future proofing - not just disabled people.