Disability Issues News August 2006
The Office can be contacted on ph 04 918 9573, fax 04 918 0075 or email odi@msd.govt.nz.
Life is for Living
Twenty-five disabled people and their families have shared their stories in a new publication published by the Office for Disability Issues.
Life is for Living is a collection of stories of people talking about how they experience disability in living out their lives.
Office Director Jan Scown says Life is for Living is important because by reading these stories people will get a real understanding of the experience of being disabled.
Some of the comments from the stories, both positive and negative, are listed below.
- “The more we are out in the community communicating with people, the easier it is for them to see we are just ordinary people.”
- "I am alive in the present not the past. There’s space for lots of fun in my life. It’s not a bed of roses now, but is anyone’s life truly like that?”
- “The problems Thomas faced were bullying – students and teachers looking at the label first, not the person, and focusing on what he can’t do rather than what his abilities are.”
- “What would be wonderful would be a ‘one-stop-shop’ care provider instead of having to work through a large number of providers. Currently we have dealings with 14 organisations.”
The stories can be viewed online at www.odi.govt.nz. Limited numbers of hard copies are available from the Office for Disability Issues, PO Box 1556, Wellington.
Kathy Strongman and her three daughters feature on the front cover of Life is for Living. Kathy is Deaf as is her partner Mita. One daughter has a hearing loss. She says her life is wonderful and her future is just beginning. She hopes that by sharing her story other Maori Deaf women are not scared to share their own stories.
Building leadership capability
The Office for Disability Issues is helping build leadership capability in the disability sector through a funding programme.
Two organisations receiving funding are DPA and People First. DPA is a key disability organisation whose membership is made up of people from all impairment types. People First is made up of and run by people with learning disabilities.
DPA has used the funding to host regional workshops involving people from 15 regions across the country. Some key themes included finding financial support at local and regional levels and dealing with the media.
DPA National Chief Executive Gary Williams says the workshops explored ways to present the positive experiences of disabilities to the media. “Using creative arts and visually exciting activities were found to attract media attention,” he says.
“We can also learn from People First, including their use of role playing and interactive workshops.”
People First has used its funding to strengthen its regional structure so that the leadership of local groups and their members are well supported. It has used a visual facilitation tool called Planning Alternative Futures with Hope (PATH) in strategic planning meetings.
People First has found this a useful tool for planning and exploring different ways of recording information for members, especially as many have difficulty reading and writing.
Consultation encouraging
The Office for Disability Issues is encouraged that more agencies are consulting disabled people as they develop their implementation plans in line with the New Zealand Disability Strategy.
Two such examples of agencies consulting with disabled people are the Greater Wellington Regional Council and the Ministry of Education.
Council consults on new trains
The Greater Wellington Regional Council has consulted the disability sector on the design of new trains set to replace its Metlink trains used on the Wairarapa to Wellington line.
The trains transport around 500,000 passengers each year.
The new Metlink Wairarapa trains have been designed by Toll Consolidated NZ Ltd and manufactured using the old bodies of ex-British rail carriages. The first of three new Metlink trains for the Wairarapa line are expected to be operating in 2007.
Toll’s design team has worked closely with the Barrier Free Trust – a charitable trust working to improve accessibility standards.
Recently a meeting was held with consumers and various disability sector groups in one of the newly designed carriages. The meeting was designed to check the usability of the new carriages.
Some of the new features include toilets with wheelchair access, space for two wheelchairs per train, access to trains for wheelchairs via an electronic hoist, additional highly visible hand rails, quality seating, electronic visual displays above doorways and an improved public address system to advise passengers of the next stop and any delays in services.
People try out the electronic hoist on newly designed carriages. From left to right: Tony Pepperell (Toll NZ), Ross Livingstone (Mobility Advisor, Community Services for Wellington City Council (back view) on the hoist) and Alexia Pickering (Barrier Free Trust).
Ministry of Education forms internal reference groups
The Ministry of Education has established internal Disability Reference Groups.
The Disability Reference Groups comprise staff members who have a disability or a family member with a disability. They have met in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch and their recommendations have fed into other Ministry sector reference and advisory groups.
These groups will help the Ministry to implement the New Zealand Disability Strategy.
According to Secretary for Education Howard Fancy, there was a recognition that while the views and needs of disabled people were reflected in the Strategy, this wasn’t necessarily the case in the Ministry’s implementation of the Strategy.
“The Disability Reference Groups ensure that disabled people are directly involved and their views and needs are included when implementing the Strategy across the Ministry.”
As a result of the new approach several activities are planned for the coming year.
They include the audit of 80 Ministry of Education buildings across the country for accessibility and the development of a resource guide for managers relating to staff with disabilities.