Jordon Milroy is a 22-year-old student of social sciences at the Auckland University of Technology who will be climbing up the Sky Tower last week (17 April).  For many non disabled  people it would be a challenge but for Jordan it’s even more so as he has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair. (View this article in NZSL.)

“I’m doing it to raise awareness for people with disabilities and to challenge society that people in wheelchairs can reach their goals.”  Jordan plans to discard his wheelchair and climb 1 267 steps in the country’s tallest building.  When he gets to the observation deck he will take the fast route down via the end of a bungee jump to terra firma.

“It’s not just about raising awareness – it’s also to raise money for wheelchairs in Samoa.”  Jordan was brought up in Samoa and had first-hand experience of the difficulty in getting around on the island terrain in a standard wheelchair. The donations will fund off-road chairs for disabled Samoan people.  “I want to be able to send five ‘rugged’ wheelchairs to Samoa.  People donate their wheelchairs to Samoa all the time but they never last because they are standard and they need off road ones.”

Jordan has been training his mind and body for the challenge. “Believing in yourself is the most important thing.  I have also been training for the past year by climbing 14 levels of steps in my apartment building most days as well as going to the gym.”

View this article in NZSL.

Rachel looks forward to working with similar organisations internationally, including the rich network of people pivotal in the development of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.  She originally trained as a food technologist and then as a high school teacher after which she spent two years teaching at Wainuiomata College in Wellington before heading to Auckland to train as a teacher of Deaf people.  Rachel then completed a degree in advanced Deaf education.  “However it is the real life experiences and conversations with a range of people that help to form how I see the world too.”

She sees her job as building bridged. “The disabled community has become extremely fractured and there are many voices crying out for attention.  We are yet to appreciate the full value and benefits that take place when real engagement takes place with disabled people.  Having moved from the medical and social model to the current rights based model we are seeing some very positive changes take place.  However we need to keep working on this.”

She says real and meaningful partnerships need to be in place with the right people and organisations.  “When it doesn’t happen things become so complicated and less relevant.  I am looking forward to the development of more real and positive partnerships so we become more active members within New Zealand’s landscape,” she says.

View this article in NZSL.

New leader for Disabled Persons Assembly

Rachel Noble has been working as the DPA’s chief executive for just a few weeks and says it’s a privilege to be in her new role.Rachel is Deaf and was previously the CEO of Deaf Aotearoa for more than five years.She comes from a background of Deaf education and says it’s an exciting time to be part of the disabled community with new opportunities emerging so people’s aspirations can be realised.“After focusing within the Deaf sector I really enjoyed working with other disabled person’s organisations so this role provides me with the opportunity to continue.Each group is diverse yet at another level we are all so united by our shared experiences in this world.Celebrating our diversity and unity is important as we advance as a community.”

Rachel looks forward to working with similar organisations internationally, including the rich network of people pivotal in the development of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.She originally trained as a food technologist and then as a high school teacher after which she spent two years teaching at Wainuiomata College in Wellington before heading to Auckland to train as a teacher of Deaf people.Rachel then completed a degree in advanced Deaf education.“However it is the real life experiences and conversations with a range of people that help to form how I see the world too.”

She sees her job as building bridged. “The disabled community has become extremely

New leader for Disabled Persons Assembly

Rachel Noble has been working as the DPA’s chief executive for just a few weeks and says it’s a privilege to be in her new role.  Rachel is Deaf and was previously the CEO of Deaf Aotearoa for more than five years.  She comes from a background of Deaf education and says it’s an exciting time to be part of the disabled community with new opportunities emerging so people’s aspirations can be realised.  “After focusing within the Deaf sector I really enjoyed working with other disabled person’s organisations so this role provides me with the opportunity to continue.  Each group is diverse yet at another level we are all so united by our shared experiences in this world.  Celebrating our diversity and unity is important as we advance as a community.”

Rachel looks forward to working with similar organisations internationally, including the rich network of people pivotal in the development of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.  She originally trained as a food technologist and then as a high school teacher after which she spent two years teaching at Wainuiomata College in Wellington before heading to Auckland to train as a teacher of Deaf people.  Rachel then completed a degree in advanced Deaf education.  “However it is the real life experiences and conversations with a range of people that help to form how I see the world too.”

She sees her job as building bridged. “The disabled community has become extremely fractured and there are many voices crying out for attention.  We are yet to appreciate the full value and benefits that take place when real engagement takes place with disabled people.  Having moved from the medical and social model to the current rights based model we are seeing some very positive changes take place.  However we need to keep working on this.”

She says real and meaningful partnerships need to be in place with the right people and organisations.  “When it doesn’t happen things become so complicated and less relevant.  I am looking forward to the development of more real and positive partnerships so we become more active members within New Zealand’s landscape,” she says.

fractured and there are many voices crying out for attention.We are yet to appreciate the full value and benefits that take place when real engagement takes place with disabled people.Having moved from the medical and social model to the current rights based model we are seeing some very positive changes take place.However we need to keep working on this.”

She says real and meaningful partnerships need to be in place with the right people and organisations.”When it doesn’t happen things become so complicated and less relevant.I am looking forward to the development of more real and positive partnerships so we become more active members within New Zealand’s landscape,” she says.

The Green MP in her first term was at the centre of a furore earlier this year when the Speaker of the House turned down her request for funding to cover electronic note takers to allow her to take a full part in Parliamentary debates and process. Mojo was told to find funding from her existing Green Party allowances.   It resulted in outrage from the public and many other MPs. The Speaker Lockwood Smith later decided to okay funding from Parliamentary Services. 

Mojo says the decision provides genuine equity for treatment for people with disability who get elected in to Parliament.  “The move to introduce captioning on Parliament TV was particularly welcome as well. It would greatly increase access to the political debate and Parliament to the 700,000 New Zealanders with a hearing impairment.”

Mojo Mathers was born in London and emigrated here with her family when she was 14. She is Deaf because of a difficult birth and a lack of oxygen during her delivery but it hasn’t impaired her education.  “I have an honours degree in Mathematics (1st class) and Masters in Conservation Forestry (Distinction) from Canterbury university.” Mojo has also been a Green Party strategic policy advisor and a parliamentary advisor on water issues in 2005. She was the joint owner of a small business offering forestry management services from 2001-2006.

“My community connections include being a committee member of the Disability Inclusion Group; founding member of Malvern Hills Protection Society, which successfully opposed the Central Plains Water scheme; secretary/spokesperson for the Dam Action Group (2001-2004).  I am also a mother of three and a former play centre committee member.”

Despite her achievements it has not been an easy road. “As a child I experienced rejection and bullying from many of my hearing peers. Later on when I had an honours degree I was turned down from a job at a research organisation because they didn’t want to employ someone who couldn’t use a phone. At the time I didn’t have the confidence to challenge that attitude and point out how I would get around that.”

She says that when she first joined the Green party and stood as a candidate, many members assumed that she wouldn’t be able to cope with the pressures of being an MP because ofher hearing impairment.

“In fact I have coped very well indeed and nothing has come up yet that I haven’t had to deal with as part of managing the day to day pressures of being Deaf in a hearing world.  But there was no way of convincing people that beforehand.”

She says hearing loss is very much an invisible disability and general awareness of just how much it impacts on everyday life is low.  “The Government could help by including awareness training around hearing loss in public sector induction courses and continuing education. There is a need for legislation to be enacted similar to the UK Disability Discrimination Act to close existing loopholes in our legislation. We need full funding of specialised workplace equipment and note-taker and transcription services.”

As for her Parliamentary responsibilities, Mojo is still waiting to ask a question in the House. This is partly due to the need to work through a number of technical and process issues related to the note taking service.

View this article in NZSL.

Voice Thru Your Hands is a voluntary organisation set up by a Palmerston North mum Alison Attwell to bring the benefits of NZSL to those with delayed speech and other disabilities. (View this article in NZSL.)

Her daughter Tarryn has Down’s Syndrome and her speech was slow in developing so Alison went to a night class to learn and then teach NZSL to her daughter so they can communicate more effectively.

“It is our vision that all children − whether they are Deaf, have a hearing impairment or are non-verbal are given the chance to have a voice,” Alison says.

Voice Thru Your Hands was founded in 2007 after Alison heard a speech therapist say children needed speech to communicate.  “I was furious as that’s not true and that’s when I went on the mission of making NZSL accessible for not just Deaf children but for those in the non-verbal community.”  More children, such as those with autism and delayed speech are finding the benefit of learning NZSL.

“People don’t realise that sign language is an official language of the country so we should have more people using it.” The foundation has worked with about 25 children in the Manawatu and received funding from the Office of Disability Issues to run workshops throughout the country.

“We also hold children’s visual communication classes every fortnight in town.  It is a great opportunity for people to be able to access a language,” says Alison.

Tarryn can now go to a movie and describe it to Alison in sign language when she gets home. A recent boost has come from a contract with the local Special Education department. The foundation can now visit schools or early childhood centre for six weeks and show teachers how easy NZSL is to use as a way to communicate.

“Usually teachers say ‘Oh no – we have 30 other students in the class and we can’t do that. But it’s not that hard.  Just go to an airport and watch how people use gestures.”

Tarryn goes to Whakarongo School near Palmerston North and that was after about 15 other schools turned the family away due to Tarryn’s use of sign language.  Now a lot of the students at her primary school who don’t have a hearing impairment or a disability use sign language to communicate with her.  “The teachers do as well and they all use sign when they are singing.  She is just part of the school like everyone else,” says Alison.

View this article in NZSL.

Speech not the only way to communicate

Voice Thru Your Hands is a voluntary organisation set up by a Palmerston North mum Alison Attwell to bring the benefits of NZSL to those with delayed speech and other disabilities.

Her daughter Tarryn has Down’s Syndrome and her speech was slow in developing so Alison went to a night class to learn and then teach NZSL to her daughter so they can communicate more effectively.

“It is our vision that all children − whether they are Deaf, have a hearing impairment or are non-verbal are given the chance to have a voice,” Alison says.

Voice Thru Your Hands was founded in 2007 after Alison heard a speech therapist say children needed speech to communicate.“I was furious as that’s not true and that’s when I went on the mission of making NZSL accessible for not just Deaf children but for those in the non-verbal community.”More children, such as those with autism and delayed speech are finding the benefit of learning NZSL.

“People don’t realise that sign language is an official language of the country so we should have more people using it.” The foundation has worked with about 25 children in the Manawatu and received funding from the Office of Disability Issues to run workshops throughout the country.

“We also hold children’s visual communication classes every fortnight in town.It is a great opportunity for people to be able to access a language,” says Alison.

Tarryn can now go to a movie and describe it to Alison in sign language when she gets home. A recent boost has come from a contract with the local Special Education department. The foundation can now visit schools or early childhood centre

Speech not the only way to communicate

Voice Thru Your Hands is a voluntary organisation set up by a Palmerston North mum Alison Attwell to bring the benefits of NZSL to those with delayed speech and other disabilities.

Her daughter Tarryn has Down’s Syndrome and her speech was slow in developing so Alison went to a night class to learn and then teach NZSL to her daughter so they can communicate more effectively.

“It is our vision that all children − whether they are Deaf, have a hearing impairment or are non-verbal are given the chance to have a voice,” Alison says.

Voice Thru Your Hands was founded in 2007 after Alison heard a speech therapist say children needed speech to communicate.  “I was furious as that’s not true and that’s when I went on the mission of making NZSL accessible for not just Deaf children but for those in the non-verbal community.”  More children, such as those with autism and delayed speech are finding the benefit of learning NZSL.

“People don’t realise that sign language is an official language of the country so we should have more people using it.” The foundation has worked with about 25 children in the Manawatu and received funding from the Office of Disability Issues to run workshops throughout the country.

“We also hold children’s visual communication classes every fortnight in town.  It is a great opportunity for people to be able to access a language,” says Alison.

Tarryn can now go to a movie and describe it to Alison in sign language when she gets home. A recent boost has come from a contract with the local Special Education department. The foundation can now visit schools or early childhood centre for six weeks and show teachers how easy NZSL is to use as a way to communicate.

“Usually teachers say ‘Oh no – we have 30 other students in the class and we can’t do that. But it’s not that hard.  Just go to an airport and watch how people use gestures.”

Tarryn goes to Whakarongo School near Palmerston North and that was after about 15 other schools turned the family away due to Tarryn’s use of sign language.  Now a lot of the students at her primary school who don’t have a hearing impairment or a disability use sign language to communicate with her.  “The teachers do as well and they all use sign when they are singing.  She is just part of the school like everyone else, ” says Alison.

for six weeks and show teachers how easy NZSL is to use as a way to communicate.

“Usually teachers say ‘Oh no – we have 30 other students in the class and we can’t do that. But it’s not that hard.Just go to an airport and watch how people use gestures.”

Tarryn goes to Whakarongo School near Palmerston North and that was after about 15 other schools turned the family away due to Tarryn’s use of sign language.Now a lot of the students at her primary school who don’t have a hearing impairment or a disability use sign language to communicate with her.“The teachers do as well and they all use sign when they are singing.She is just part of the school like everyone else, ” says Alison.

A unique nationwide online sign language translation service promises to open a raft of ways for Deaf people to better connect in their work and life.

Seeflow, based in Auckland, offers a new service for Deaf people who need documents, emails, contracts, articles and so on, translated into New Zealand Sign Language.   Creative director Sonia Pivac says NZSL is New Zealand’s third official language and it should be more common and accessible. (View this article in NZSL.)

“For various reasons a lot of Deaf people leave school with a reading age that is well below average and it means they have more difficulty finding employment. We are hoping that through Seeflow a Deaf person who has very strong sign language as a first language can use that to advance their career,” she says.

How does it work? A Deaf person emails Seeflow a document, or uploads it to the secure Seeflow website, where it is translated into NZSL video and returned to the sender.

Seeflow also offer a grammar checking and proof reading service, as well as “NZSL Letter” which enables organisations and government departments to send translations of public information, or private correspondence.  It has been developed by Deafradio, a Deaf-led company with other services including Multichannel Media who have worked on a number of large translation projects, including the NZSL Curriculum project.  Sonia says, “During our work on the larger translation projects, we realised access issues for Deaf people are mostly to do with smaller items of written material – letters from the hospital, newsletters from a club or brochures about government services.  This is a problem when your first language is NZSL.”

She says up to 8000 people are totally Deaf and there is a legal and moral obligation to supply information and access in sign language.  “We are proud of what we have done and delighted with the end product.”  Ms Pivac says there’s some funding that Deaf people can access through the Government’s Workbridge programme which supports the Seeflow service, meaning that MSD Job Support funds can be used by Deaf people to purchase the service in the same way that they would purchase an interpreter for a staff meeting.  “It is quite a new concept for Deaf people and we are enjoying that these Deaf people are starting to realise what they can use it for – particularly in the work place and it opens up a whole raft of opportunities for what Deaf people can do.  Deaf people can even go into the contact page on our website and record a video of what they want to comment on and send it to us and we can respond in the same way.”

Ms Pivac gives an example:  ”We had a query the other day from a Deaf person who wanted to submit a letter to the editor’s page of the Dominion Post and asked us if the newspaper would cover the cost of translating their signed letter or simply refuse it because it is in sign language.  The more organisations that agree to pay for support translation services the better, as it gives Deaf people real access to the community.”

The Human Rights Commission contracted Seeflow to enable people to make submissions on its draft discussion paper on accessibility The Wider Journey, to do so in NZSL.

View this article in NZSL.

At 5am on 6 February 2012, Aotearoa New Zealand celebrated its founding day in its three official languages. (View this article in NZSL.)

Amongst the dawn chorus of priests, politicians, and protesters preaching, the trees shifting in the breeze, the bagpipes whining, and the wisest of interjections from a ruru (morepork), the noise was only broken by the silence of the signing of Te Tiriti.

Seven generations on from the original signing, the Waitangi dawn service was literally signed, in New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL), an official language of New Zealand for the last six years. We now expect events of national importance to celebrate and acknowledge our three official languages. We also expect such events to be accessible to everyone, including Deaf New Zealanders.

The first week of May is NZSL week, a time to connect, celebrate, and learn. Sign language is not just a means of communication for interpretation to and from other languages. It is a positive cultural expression of what it is to be Deaf; to be connected to a community with a unique way of “seeing” the world and a rich and distinct history and culture.

Despite NZSL’s official status, and positive technological advances such as Seeflow, phone and video relay services, Deaf people still face many infringements to their human rights, barriers to accessing NZSL, to freedom of expression and access to information, to accessing education, and to the availability of professional interpreting services. This all results in the social and economic inequalities experienced by Deaf people. Other disabled people whose impairment affects speech and who don’t have access to NZSL are also denied their rights.  Behind these issues are deeply embedded attitudes within most of society that struggle to understand diversity of function in the same way it has come to understand diversity of gender, ethnicity, or anything else we inherenently are that makes us different.

The Deaf community have a strength-based perception of who they are. They do not see themselves as disabled but as a minority linguistic group with a distinct and rich culture and heritage. The Deaf community’s pride in culture is not unique amongst impairment groups, but is probably the best expression of a strength based approach to impairment in a world that defines disabled people by inherent deficits. Evidence suggests that for disabled people, the key to a good life is for you, your family, and the people close to you, to be able to positively integrate the experience of what makes you different, unique, into your understanding of who you are: your identity and culture.

NZSL has mana with its official status. To assist in fulfilling NZSL’s potential, the Human Rights Commission will begin in July to use its powers of inquiry to strengthen NZSL as an official language, and recommend how it can be used to reduce the infringement of human rights of Deaf people and other potential beneficiaries of NZSL.

Any vision of a future New Zealand must involve us being more multilingual and inclusive.

To make a start toward this vision, a call to action for NZSL week, get involved in a taster class, teach or learn a little basic NZSL, learn to introduce yourself − it’s fun!

Paul Gibson
Disability Rights Commissioner

View this article in NZSL.

Disability groups who audited the new facility say despite the promises of universal accessibility, in practice the new building completed this year failed some basic accessibility tests.

BJ Clark, who audits buildings on behalf of CCS Disability Action says the building was completed on the understanding it was totally accessible but his audit showed many of the doors were not wide enough for wheelchair users and the ramp leading down into the pool had steps at the bottom.

“We were assured that access was part of the plans and widely discussed by local authorities, but it’s obviously not.  We were assured before it was built that there would be ramped access into the pool. You can imagine our disappointment when I completed the audit and briefed the complex managers.”

Named after a former city councillor Graham Condon, who was killed while riding his wheelchair bike in the city, the new centre would have been inaccessible to the man who provided its name.

A disability advisor for the Christchurch City Council Cam Scott says there are no quick fixes to create universal accessibility and unfortunately that is making some people angry.  Scott, who is a wheelchair user, says there is a true commitment by the council to make the city an accessible place for everyone and the council sees the opportunity for public spaces to be barrier free by applying best practice design standards.

“Barrier free audits will be included in all major projects in the city re-build and accessibility checks are included in the building consent process in both design and facilitation of all projects.” 

Mr Scott says the failures at the Graham Condon Sport and Recreation Centre are being remedied.  A fibreglass ramp is being put over the steps at the bottom of the ramp into the pool. “As a facility it is great and we have had a lot of negative comments from people who are always keen to skip over all the good stuff.  All the bad publicity makes me sad.”

He says every time there is a shake it puts the rebuild back a little. “I would love to have the central city back.  But in reality it is a 25 year process.  There is a real commitment for people with disabilities to be included – a lot of people just don’t realise that.”

B J Clark says the Council needs people involved with wide expertise and experience to be part of the planning sign off process. “Barrier free trained people need to be part of their discussion group.  They need to get it right first time and to do this the right people need to be involved.”

Despite several attempts to get a spokesperson from the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority to discuss the above issues including sending a list of questions no one was available.

One year on she is exhausted and worn out.  “I haven’t been able to find someone since then. My son was stressed out and wouldn’t move as was worried he would be tipped out of his wheelchair.  He wouldn’t shower and was afraid to even transfer onto the loo in case there was quake.”

She says many health services did ring to see how the family was after the quake, but no one actually stepped in and did anything. 

“I am a bit shattered due to lack of sleep.  The worst case scenario is that Tyler would be institutionalised.  But there is nothing out there for people with just physical disabilities.  The respite places suit people with intellectual disabilities and that’s not the right place for Tyler to be.  Some days I fall to pieces and my friends pick me up, and it upsets Tyler.” 

Ms Lamont lives alone with her son who weighs at least 30 kilos more than his mum and she does all the lifting and caring for him.   “Tyler used to go to the mall and around the neighbourhood on his own but now he won’t.  He is scared.  Also he gets car sick when in the back of the van because of all the bumps from quake damage on the roads – it’s like being sea sick.  The physical stress of it all makes us feel ill and nervous – or on edge all day.”

Ms Lamont says Tyler has not coped well and experiences severe anxiety attacks. “Sometimes I have to give him something to help him sleep but didn’t used to have to do that.  We just take it one day at a time.”

Andrea Lamont and son Tyler

While disability rights frameworks are quoted within the report, there seems little connection with how to realise these rights, and disabled people’s voices go unheard.

Minutes after the report’s release on 22/2, Ruamoko rumbles, grumbles and growls from below the ground of the Canterbury Plains.  Buildings fail, land liquefies, homes are lost, lives are shattered, people become newly disabled, and most tragically, many die.  As the shaking subsides, citizens of the city that aspires to the name Christchurch emerge from under desks, doorframes and dust to witness the iconic cathedral spire crumble.  Ruamoko tattoos the face of the city into different coloured zones.  People already at the margins are at greater risk of having their rights further compromised, disabled people face compounding disadvantage. Some of their stories are in the articles that follow.

While from outside Canterbury we taunt that the city is home to more one eyed-ness, conservatism, even complacency, than other major  cities , we actually do concede its proud heritage of buildings and people, we  all know people living there who are directly affected by the quake, and we are all affected ourselves.  We also acknowledge it is home to more than its fair share of sporting successes and genuine leaders. 

These leaders included Graham Condon and John Stott.  John worked for Christchurch City Council up till his death in 1998.  He led DPA NZ, and went on to be the first disabled person to lead the world’s most influential political disability organisation, Rehabilitation International.  He was directly involved in the UN work that led to the development of the UN disability rights convention. He became disabled as the result of an accident. I once heard him say how this provided more opportunities and positive challenges for him than someone living a complacent, non-disabled life might get.

Perhaps the same could be said of the late Graham Condon.  As the result of illness as a child, he used a wheelchair. He was a gold medal paralympian, and competed at a record six successive Paralympics.  He later became a Christchurch city councillor.  Mistakes have been made that led to the sports centre bearing his name built post quake to be non-compliant with existing building access standards, compromising the rights of disabled people.

The rights of people in Canterbury are a priority for the Human Rights Commission.  As well as my disability program leadership, Christchurch based Commissioner Richard Tankersley’s Canterbury leadership, and the work of Commission’s staff, the Chief Commissioner David Rutherford, who has legal, building industry, and disability sector experience will take a lead in this work.  We cannot afford the mistakes of the Graham Condon centre to be repeated.  Building accessibility failures, like leaky building failures and catastrophic structural failures, are unacceptable.  With the will and priority to do something different, these failures are easily avoidable.

Christchurch in crisis mode is a city disabled. Many of its temporarily non-disabled citizens for the first time in their lives experience some of the realities disabled people have always faced. As the second year post earthquake begins, the city is at a point on a journey many of us will recognise from our own past personal disability journey.  Catch cries of resilience seem trite, ongoing support isn’t as forthcoming as expected, incidents shake you relentlessly. While many doors of a disabling society slam shut it can be hard to notice the doors of disability rights that open up, it is hard to work out and live with what will be the new normal, let alone aspire to success.

But like for John and Graham, this is possible for Christchurch.   They achieved more in their lives than they otherwise would have with impairment, and they achieved because of impairment, not despite impairment. Christchurch has the opportunity to be a better, more inclusive, more accessible city than it would have otherwise been, and potentially it could be more accessible than anywhere in the world if it chooses to heed a call to action.

Public buildings, private and social housing can all be built to new improved accessibility standards.  .  More opportunities exist in Canterbury to modernise disability supports, consistent with the disability convention’s inclusiveness focus and government’s disability action plan.  There is no need for the poverty, isolation, mini institutions and group homes. 

Many good things happened post earthquake.   A rejuvenated sense of community and common ground was found.  Armies of Students and farmers shovelled silt.  Neighbours who had never met had conversations over the back fence.  NZ sign Language information was available to the Deaf community, and the hearing community gained rare exposure to and appreciation of it.  Suicide rates dropped.  People felt they had a purpose in doing good for others.  Harnessing this good will and trust is part of modernising support systems which translates into realising disabled people’s rights.  Imagine a 21^st century city where we all knew our neighbours and watched out for each other.

Disabled people as a group are and will be more directly affected by the success of the recovery and rebuild than any other group.  Listen to the wisdom we collectively possess.  To ensure success, we begin with a call to action framed around four themes

Call to action:

Voice

Decision makers must pay more attention to the voices of Disabled people and families. Disabled people need to tell their stories, share their expertise, offer compliments on what has worked and is working, and formally complain about what isn’t, including to the Human Rights Commission.

Accessibility

Interested parties need to get together, recognise new learnings and past mistakes and commit to the accessible city including new housing public buildings and landscapes, and finding the path to achieving this.

Inclusion

More attention must be paid to the short and medium term needs of older people, people who experience mental illness, people requiring disability support.  Longer term, a regional discussion will begin, with the Commission leading, on the right to live independently and be included in the community. 

Power and people

The earthquake minister must become part of the Ministerial coordinating committee on disability issues; and all decision makers must be more open to targeted disability responsiveness training.

Paul Gibson, Disability Rights Commissioner, Human Rights Commission

She works with disabled and non-disabled people through her consultancy Kanohi ki te Kanohi in Christchurch.  Ms Jones, who has cerebral palsy, says she is worried that there may be new assumptions in the region that disabled people may need to be housed in larger groups again, rather than their own homes as they will be ‘safe’.  “But that doesn’t mean they are part of communities and society.” 

Ms Jones says she is aware of a severely disabled young woman who is still in a rest home as her home was so badly damaged.  “I don’t think she can communicate so can’t speak out about being forced to live on an old people’s home.”

 She says a lot of young disabled children were moved to Hamilton or Auckland institutions and is unsure if some have not yet been returned to Christchurch.  “There are a whole heap of people that need to be able to take part in decision making about the city and it’s more than access.  It’s about having information they can understand and being included in general meetings.” 

She says even getting to the dairy for milk is an issue for many disabled people in Christchurch as they have had to move to another area.  “We feel safe where we know our local community – it’s the hairdresser, the butcher and the neighbours.  The Council needs to focus on people as well as the city’s structure.  I hope that the well-being of disabled people is as important as well as building designs.” 

Ms Jones says people who need a carer in their home have been unable to get the help they need.  “Safety and reliability are issues for many disabled people who need carers.  More structure is needed and plans that involve us – this is part of what the UN Disability Convention states.  Life has changed for all Cantabrians but even more so for disabled people. Disabled people aren’t usually the squeakiest wheel so they aren’t getting much attention.” 

When approached for comment the Canterbury District Health Board referred questions to the Ministry of Health. Group Manager Anne O’Connell says, “Unfortunately, we are not aware of the cases as described. We are aware that a number of people with disabilities were evacuated after the February earthquake but all those that wished to return have done so or have plans in place.  The situations, as described, do not sound ideal and if there is some way in which the Ministry can re-establish the support that is required we would be keen to consider it.

“Our own check with home care support services in Christchurch reinforces our view that there are difficulties when support is required at short notice and for getting help at difficult times of the day but usually this only arises when setting up support. Immediately after the February earthquake it is possible that carers were less available than usual due to the overall disruption caused in the region but again this should not be an on-going issue.”

An initial concern the Commission held was for the more than 500 elderly people moved to rest homes elsewhere in New Zealand.

At the moment the Commission is advocating for wide and full inclusion of views for the rebuilding work underway.   He says, “There is evidence that the planning for permanent repairs to buildings and city areas haven’t taken into account needs of disabled people.  If you design for all citizens at the start – parents with prams, older people and disabled people – it will last and you won’t have to do retro fitting and such further down the track.” 

Mr Coleman reiterates the view that disabled people, particularly those in wheelchairs, have still to regain the autonomy and self-direction in care they had before the quake. 

“Some people were taken out of their homes and put in institutions while others lost caregivers and lost the dignity of proper care.  It is quite difficult to get a sense of how large this issue is and what will happen.” 

Mr Coleman says the concern the Commission hears is that insurance companies and businesses are having more say about the city’s future than disabled people.  “During the original ‘Have a say’ process there was an initiative to ensure they did get to be involved but that has dropped off.  People have come to us about these issues and we have also been having meetings about it.” 

He says the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority have acknowledged there are a number of issues for disabled people but their consultation has only been with service providers such and the district health board and Ministry of Health. 

“There has not been any real contact with the people they are talking about and that’s wrong as primarily CERA needs to talk directly to these people.  The message to authorities is that their check lists need to include accessibility and those who know what’s needed have to be consulted with – that seems to be a no brainer.”

The Commission has published a report on accessibility issues, “The Wider Journey: The rights of disabled people.” The paper provides information about accessibility for disabled people in the built environment, access to information and independent voting.

December 3 is the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.  This year the United Nations has decided on a theme of “disability and development”.  NZ’s main international development target area is the Pacific, so the film provides a timely  opportunity for learning across cultures on human rights and disability.

My personal experience is that when open to the understandings of disability in Māori and Pacific communities, I have learnt more from them, and benefited more, than I have been able to offer or teach.  There is much to learn in disability in the cultures where, in the balance of considerations, family, whanau, and aiga connectedness play a greater part than individualism

I hope it can start conversations in NZ’s Pacific communites about realising the rights of disabled people within those communites, and amongst disability communites about understandings of disability in Pacific cultures.  Ultimately this will help our role in supporting the development of disabled people in Pacific nations.

Tom, reflecting on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the commonality within our global village, himself an orator whose ancestors were playwriters and shakers of spears, loved The Orator and now takes Pacific understandings of disability rights back to his homeland.

Another case was a wheelchair user who went to an agency for work but couldn’t reach the counter to fill out forms.  The Commission discussed this with the agency and a national re-fit of all the company’s reception areas included making sure wheelchair users could access the counters.  Ms Walker says it was pleasing to see such a profound and systemic change.  Of all the complaints the Commission received surrounding discrimination during the last year, 63 per cent  were resolved and 25 per cent were discontinued.

Dr Shakespeare says disabled students should be encouraged and having leadership positions held by disabled people needs to be a priority.  He says the obvious aim of this is to improve the lives of disabled people, not just creating careers for disabled academics.  He says proper research needs to be conducted and not just based on theory and it needs to be wherever possible in partnership with disabled people and their organisations. Also it’s important to take into account differences between disabled people.  (And yes –Dr Shakespeare is a direct descendent of William Shakespeare the English poet and playwright who died in 1616.)

Organisers say the conference’s aim was to provide a forum for people from diverse backgrounds to share their knowledge and research.  It’s also hosted a trade exhibition showcasing new technology.  Donna-Rose McKay, Otago University’s Head of Service for Disability Information and Support, said people came from England, Australia, Korea, Indonesia and the United States. Mrs McKay said one topic to be covered is how the current focus on disabilities is medical rehabilitation, it is about the community being ready to include these people in every-day life.  ‘One of the biggest challenges is that most disability funding is about health – but there is a desperate need for more research into disability in society.  The key thing is collaboration.’  She says the overwhelming response for registration shows there is a need for this to be talked about and people attending the conference came from a wide range of disability-related areas – lawyers, policy makers, clinicians, school teachers, academics, community groups and service providers.

The expected outcomes were:

• The development of a disability studies community/interest group in New Zealand.
• To establish and consolidate linkages between university & the disability community.
• The formation of research alliances among local, national & international researchers, and the identification of new research initiatives.

‘So they stay at home and struggle with every-day life as well as their disability.’

Which is why on the International day there will be a focus on Pacific people who are achievers.  ‘We are going to highlight and celebrate Pacific people operating in a mainstream environment who contribute with their talents.’

Meanwhile a spokesman for Te Papa says The Orator’s dialogue is Samoan  and is subtitled. For information on this event or to see if there are any spaces available please email Naomi Taylor at the Commission naomit@hrc.co.nz.  Filipo Katavake-McGrath says leading up to 3 December actors from the movie have been coming into the museum, reading out parts of the script and talking to the public about the movie and disability in the Pacific islands.  ‘We have had sessions with our Pacifica curators about it and the aim is to create respect for disabled people living in communities – especially Pacific people.  We value physical strength in Pacific culture and this movie challenges that view.’

Ms Noonan said, “By incorporating principles of universal design from the start, there is a wonderful opportunity to ensure the new Christchurch will be a world leader in terms of its accessibility and support for all those who live there.”

The Cabinet approved the disability action plan last month and it is now being promoted by the Office of Disability Issues. The plan arises as part of the country’s responsibilities under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities ratified in September, 2008.

The plan has three priorities, supports for living, mobility and access and jobs.

By putting the plan in place as part of the rebuild of Christchurch the plan will help to ensure that the rebuild achieves better accessibility for disabled and older people, a more livable city for everyone and inclusive support and services for disabled people.

Work will focus on redesigning disability supports and services and improving accessibility in the built environment. Responsibility rests with a range of government agencies, including the ministries of health, education transport, the Office of Disability Issues and the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority.

Progress will be reported on every six months to the Ministerial Committee on Disability Issues. Under the framework for the Disability Convention, the Human Rights Commission, the Office of the Ombudsmen and the Convention Coalition have the role of independent monitoring of progress on the rights and responsibilities of people with disabilities.

Click here for details of the Disability Action Plan focused on Christchurch.

“It means we often cannot analyse where disabled people are working, where they get jobs, how many hours they work and which jobs they want. We also don’t know enough about employers’ attitudes.”

For this reason the Human Rights Commission has produced a new report Tracking Equality at Work for Disabled People.

The report confirms that disabled people find getting a decent job is one of their most significant challenges.  That is confirmed by Anne Hawker, Board Secretary of the Employers’ Disability Network Trust. She says, “The report provides important information that helps demystify the pre-conceptions held by employers about the costs and inconvenience of employing disabled people.” She says it highlights the role employers’ play in enabling disabled people to be fully included in society through employment.

The report includes:

• a detailed overview of issues faced by disabled people in the labour market
• promotion of Article 27 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities relating to work and employment
• an examination of international obligations and New Zealand legislation that impacts on disabled people at work
• the first set of Equality at Work Indicators with disability measures developed in New Zealand to track progress towards equality at work
• a detailed overview of labour market participation and what this means for disabled people
• a set of recommendations for the Human Rights Commission and the Government to push on with strengthening equality at work for disabled people and others.

The Disabled Persons Assembly supports the Commission’s report. CEO Ross Brereton says more leadership from large employers, local bodies and the public sector in promoting the merits of employing disabled people is critical for positive change.  He says, “We still have some way to go.”

Click here for the report Tracking Equality at Work for Disabled People.

New Zealand’s ratification of the Disability Convention requires the creation of an independent monitoring mechanism. The monitoring agencies are the Office of the Ombudsmen, the Convention Coalition and the Human Rights Commission. The Commission coordinates the work of the monitoring agencies. Acting Disability Commissioner Dr Judy McGregor told the meeting the three organisations would be presenting a joint report on disabled people’s rights to Parliament later this year.

The Ministerial Committee included eight ministers or associate ministers representing portfolios ranging from Disability Issues to Health, Social Development, Justice, Education, Transport and Senior Citizens.

The Commission will be producing a leaflet to explain the work of the monitoring agencies and the role they share in making progress on issues raised by the Disability Convention. At the meeting the Human Rights Commission noted that disability remained the most common ground for complaints to the Commission. The Commission would focus on the accessibility of government information for disabled people and access to the built environment, with a focus on accessible public transport.

The new resource is in multiple accessible formats and the Commission encourages communities to share it with their networks.

David is presently the managing director of Special Olympics Asia Pacific and based in Singapore. A former chief executive of the New Zealand Rugby Union and commercial lawyer, David Rutherford’s involvement with the Special Olympics movement has brought him a strong understanding of disability issues. He has strong community links with young people and education.  David’s first approached the Commission as spokesperson for a group of parents following incidents of serious bullying in a Wellington region high school. From that grew an important stream of the Commission’s work: a human rights approach to deal with bullying and abuse in schools. David’s appointment begins in September.

Human Rights Commission

Senior Policy Analyst (Disability), Strategic Team

Fixed term to June 2013, part time (0.6 or 0.8 FTE)

Auckland, Wellington or Christchurch

The Human Rights Commission advocates and promotes respect for an understanding of human rights in New Zealand society, and encourages the maintenance of harmonious relations in New Zealand.

The Commission is seeking a Senior Policy Analyst who is a disability specialist to contribute to the Commission’s enhanced responsibilities to promote, protect and monitor the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.  The Commission particularly welcomes applications from people with lived experience of disability.

This role is being recruited alongside a Policy Analyst (Disability) role, with location and FTE to be agreed once both this and the other position have both been appointed.  One of the two positions will be Wellington based.  The preference is for the larger portion of the FTE to reside with the senior role.

Key responsibilities:

• contribute to strategic thinking, development & planning and provide strategic advice to the Commission in disability legislation, policy and practice, particularly regarding the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities
• lead the delivery of assigned projects, submissions on draft legislation and other policy interventions, primarily but not exclusively on disability issues, and maintain an overview of the Commission’s disability programme
• provide high quality policy advice to Commissioners, the Executive Director and Managers and respond to ‘broader human rights matters’ that are brought before the Commission primarily but not exclusively on disability issues.
• undertake mentoring of staff and peer review, participate as a member of the Commission’s Senior Staff Forum and deputise for the Manager Strategic Policy if required

Person Specification and Position Competencies:

• a relevant University degree (and higher degree is desirable)
• knowledge of and extensive experience in government and parliamentary public policy issues and processes and experience in the provision of policy advice
•  understanding of and an ability to effectively operate in the dynamic and challenging political environment in which the Commission operates
• knowledge of the human rights legal framework, race relations,  human rights and the Treaty of Waitangi with  particular expertise in the area of disability. 
• excellent writing skills and ability to prepare logical and persuasive written material to support policy advocacy, and to advocate and communicate effectively in a range of policy environments
• highly developed strategic capability with an ability to maintain a focus on long term goals, and leadership, staff supervision and peer review skills
• an strong understanding of research, monitoring, intervention analysis, and evaluation methodologies with strong knowledge of and experience in project management and information management

Full position details are provided within the job description available from the Commission. Contact Louise to request a copy, details below.

The position is located within the Commission’s Strategic Policy team.  The team’s purpose is to deliver high quality strategic advice, advocacy, information, project work, and the monitoring of legislation, policy and practice in order to protect and promote respect for human rights, harmonious race relations, equal employment opportunities and the Treaty of Waitangi.

To express your interest in this role please send your CV and covering letter to:

Email:      humanresources@hrc.co.nz

Phone:    Louise Flemming, Human Resources Officer, on 09 309 0874

Post:        PO Box 6751, Wellesley Street, Auckland, 1142

Ref:          GY2856

Applications to be received by 5pm on Monday 18 July 2011

The Human Rights Commission is a member of the Equal Employment Opportunities Employers Group, which obliges the Commission to adhere to EEO principles in operations, including all aspects of recruitment.

Judy McGregor EEO commissioner

Disabled people continue to have to fight for their rights because society denies them justice, respect and a fair go.

Recently at the fantastic DPA Conference held in Invercargill (congratulations, DPA!) I was asked whether the Human Rights Commission thought it was acceptable that disabled people should have to struggle through mediation and litigation, often for many years with added emotional stress and financial hardship?

Of course, the Human Rights Commission does not think this is acceptable. We acknowledge the amazing sacrifice of  those who fight for the rights of disabled people and offer as much support as we can in the process.

Without those truly courageous disabled people who are prepared to fight, societal attitudes will never change, remedies will not be available to those who have suffered human rights abuses, and government responses and service delivery will never improve.

In this edition of Manahau we feature a disability rights and accommodation case in which Justice was done. It relates to Article 9 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). This states that State Parties shall ensure that “private entities that offer facilities and services which are open or provided to the public take into account all aspects of accountability for persons with disabilities”.

Can I wish all Manahau readers and their families and supporters very warm Christmas greetings on behalf of staff, managers and Commissioners of the New Zealand Human Rights Commission. I would like to especially thank Victoria Manning for her great work writing Manahau in 2010.

Nga mihi mo te Kirihimete.

 Judy McGregor

Justice, the puppy

Tauranga woman Laura Eitjes found herself in the limelight last year when she set out on an unintended journey towards justice. While holidaying in 2007, Laura and her friend’s stay at a North Island holiday accommodation was cut short when Laura (legally blind since the age of 17) was told her guide dog could no longer stay in her room.

Although Laura had informed the owner about guide dog Rua when booking, on the second day of their stay, she found Rua’s bed had been removed from the room and placed on the deck. In spite of further explanations of her rights and the owner’s responsibilities, the matter was not settled and the group moved to alternative accommodation.

The accommodation owner, by not allowing Rua to stay with Laura, breached the Human Rights Act. Mediation by the Human Rights Commission did not resolve the issue. The matter was later settled before it was heard by the Human Rights Review Tribunal.

Laura received $8000 compensation with an unreserved apology. Her case was reported widely, including a feature in the Bay of Plenty Times.

However, the case did not end there. Laura donated $5000 of the settlement to the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind’s Guide Dog Services. The money will help towards the expenses of training a guide dog puppy.

Laura is well aware of the difference a guide dog can make to the life of a person who has lost their sight. “The impact of a guide dog is so wide ranging it is difficult to know where to begin. Together we have the confidence to do things sighted people take for granted.”

With no government funding, it costs over $22,500 and, on average, two years to breed and train a guide dog. Laura’s generous donation will contribute to the training of puppy Justice, from the “J” litter, who she named earlier this year. Justice is a Labrador retriever/golden retriever cross, currently living in Auckland with his puppy walker. Laura will be updated on his progress every three months.

Looking back, Laura says, “I hope by making this stand for Rua and myself, business owners and managers will be better informed about their responsibilities so this situation need not occur to someone else in the future.

“Justice was done in this case!”

Rosslyn Noonan, Chief Human Rights Commissioner

The Government has announced it will establish a full-time Disability Rights Commissioner within the Human Rights Commission. It also announced that the Commission will be part of the independent monitoring of the Disability Convention.

Chief Commissioner Rosslyn Noonan said the Commission is working with the Minister of Justice to make the necessary changes to the Human Rights Act to establish a full-time Disability Rights Commissioner. Once the Human Rights Act is amended to formally establish the new Disability Rights Commissioner, the role would be widely advertised and an appointment made as soon as possible. The Minister has not stated a timeframe, but disabled people’s organisations might assist by putting pressure on the Government to progress this.

The Government has given the Commission additional funding to carry out its responsibilities as part of the independent monitoring of the Disability Convention. The Commission has temporarily increased its staff working on disability issues. When the Disability Rights Commissioner is appointed more permanent arrangements will be put in place. The Commission has appointed Nicola Owen as Disability Programme Coordinator (see next article). The role will assist the Commission in preparing its independent report to the United Nations on the Disability Convention.

Until a full-time Disability Rights Commissioner is appointed, Ms Noonan and EEO Commissioner  Dr Judy McGregor , will share responsibility for disability rights in the Commission. Richard Tankersley, a part-time South Island Commissioner, will assist Ms Noonan and Dr McGregor.

The Commission has strongly advocated for the establishment of a full-time Disability Rights Commissioner with the Government since the ratification of the Disability Convention.

Ms Noonan said, “This is a sign of real progress in measures to promote, protect and monitor the implementation of the Disability Convention.”

This new role will mean a greater focus on ensuring disabled people can take an equal place in New Zealand society without discrimination.

Nicola Owen (right) and Shae Ronald

Nicola Owen, from Auckland Disability Law, has started work at the Human Rights Commission on a six-month secondment (short-term contract). Ms Owen will be supporting the Commission’s disability programme work, including organising community meetings on the Disability Convention. Information from these meetings will then be used for the Commission’s independent report to the United Nations on the Disability Convention, due in 2011. 

Auckland Disability Law and the Commission want to make sure disabled people’s experiences are reflected in this report.

Ms Owen is a disabled person with a background in disability rights, community engagement, and project coordination. She has had disability advisor and management jobs in universities both in New Zealand and in the United Kingdom.

A New Zealand Sign Langauge sign for "talk"

The Human Rights Commission wants to meet with disabled people to hear their stories and to make sure disabled people’s voices are included in its work. This work includes updating the Human Rights Action Plan and the Commission’s independent report to the United Nations on the Disability Convention.

Meetings with disabled communities and organizations around the country will seek information on disabled people’s experiences and the barriers they face. The Commission is beginning to have individual meetings now and is preparating for larger community meetings in March/April 2011. The Commission is planning to have separate huis with whānau hauā (Māori disabled people) and Pasefika disabled people. 

The Commission’s work on disabled people’s rights is supported by the Commission’s Disability Experts Group. This group assists the Commission in analysing and prioritising all the information.

If you would like to be included on the Commission’s disability contacts data base, please contact Victoria Manning VictoriaM@hrc.co.nz; Bruce Coleman BruceC@hrc.co.nz, ph: 03 353 0952; or Nicola Owen NicolaO@hrc.co.nz, ph: 09 375 8649.

The report reveals that in the recent economic downturn, disabled people have experienced high levels of unemployment and redundancy.  

One disabled person in Southland said, “You have to work harder to prove your worth. At work, I find that I try to keep one step ahead of everyone, always planning and preparing in advance so that, in my role, I don’t appear to be incompetent, needy or different from anyone else.”

Disabled people reported that employers often made incorrect assumptions. A group of blind people in Wellington said interviewers did not ask how guide dogs behaved at work. They assumed the guide dog would be like their family pet and would run around distracting everyone.

A difficult issue for some people is whether to tell a potential employer about a mental illness. A group in Auckland believed disclosing their mental illness on a job application means you are less likely to get a job interview. However, not telling an employer about a mental illness means there is a risk they will not provide accommodations if you become unwell. There might also be a risk of being dismissed for dishonesty.

Unemployment is highest among Māori and Pacific people with disabilities. Their rates are more than three times higher than those of other disabled people (2006 Statistics NZ Disability Survey).

“Access to work for people with disabilities is one of the most common themes that emerged from the National Conversation about Work”, says EEO Commissioner Dr Judy McGregor. “We have to urgently find ways to help disabled people to be able to work productively. That’s why the Employers Disability Network is such an important initiative.” (See next article.)

The Disability Convention “Human Rights – Yes!” resource highlights how the subtle nature of disability discrimination at work can make it difficult for disabled people to challenge the violation of their rights.

Violation of the right to work can trap disabled people in a cycle of poverty. For example, a disabled person who is unable to work and earn a fair wage may be unable to attain an adequate standard of living. This situation can force that person to become dependent on others, restricting choices and limiting the ability to live independently in the community.

The National Conversation report recommendations include: increasing the number of disabled people in work, promoting inclusive employment practices, clarifying the minimum wage exemptions, and providing guidance on telling employers about having a mental health issue.

Information from the National Conversation will be used to develop a new framework for changing legislation, policy and practice to improve equal employment opportunities.

As New Zealand’s largest employer and signatory to the Disability Convention, the Government should serve as a good model for private-sector employers.

The research document Journey to Work identifies the need for more leadership from the public sector in the recruitment, support and career development of disabled people. It calls for a strategy and targets to increase the number of disabled people in work.

The State Services Commissioner has a responsibility to promote and monitor equal employment opportunities in the public sector, including for disabled people. Data collection on disabled people employed in the public sector ceased in 2006, because of problems with the data quality.

Many countries have quota systems for employing disabled people, particularly in the public sector, according to the Disability Convention’s Handbook for Parliamentarians. A quota system is where agencies must hire a target number of disabled people. Overseas, these quota range between two and seven per cent and normally apply to medium to large agencies. Agencies who do not meet these targets are usually fined. These fines have not always improved employment rates, but funding from the fines is often spent on employment-related programmes for disabled people.

The Disability Convention puts an obligation on the Government to ensure equal employment opportunities for disabled people. Equal opportunities can include things like affirmative action programmes (such as a quota system), incentives, reasonable accommodations, supported employment services and support to employers.

In New Zealand, there are supported employment services, reasonable accommodation provisions and initiatives to support employers. However, there has been little consideration of affirmative action programmes and government incentives for employing disabled people.

The Disability Convention’s promotion of the right to work covers persons with disabilities at all stages of employment, including those seeking work, those advancing in employment and those who acquire a disability during employment.

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. The Journey to Work document calls for a national transition planning process for young disabled people.

A recommendation of the National Conversation about Work report was that every young New Zealander should have an individual youth-to-work plan. The report found that services are failing too many young people who are not well prepared for their first job.

The Government provides some initiatives aimed at supporting disabled young people’s transitions to employment. This includes services and support provided by the Ministries of Social Development and Education. However, the 2006 Disability Survey found that only 17 per cent of disabled adults had used career guidance or information services.

Employment rates for disabled people are strongly linked to educational attainment. The 2006 Disability Survey found that 78 per cent of disabled children with high support needs and 50 per cent of children with medium support needs have experienced some kind of limitation in their school activities.

The Journey to Work and National Conversation reports both highlight the need for more nationally consistent and coordinated plans for young people, beginning in their school years.

Anne Hawker

A new network to promote best practice in employing disabled people needs to define actions and targets to ensure it can be effective.

The Employers’ Disability Network aims to assist employers to become confident at hiring disabled people, and to recruit and retain disabled people in jobs.

The Network is holding their first strategic meeting early in 2011 to identify their next steps and priorities. Some clear data and targets are needed to help get more disabled people into work and make sure disabled people retain their jobs.

The Network is designed by employers for employers. Its board is chaired by John Allen, the Chief Executive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Other board members include top executives from ANZ bank, Westpac bank, Fletcher Building, the Accident Compensation Corporation, the Ministry of Social Development and the Department of Corrections. The Network is administered by Anne Hawker, Principal Disability Advisor at the Ministry of Social Development.

The Network has been focusing on providing employers with information and resources through their website, which was launched in Parliament on 24 September. These resources include publications and research on promoting the participation of disabled people in employment.

The Employers’ Disability Network supports employers’ understanding of people with disabilities, helps more people into work and improves services to disabled customers.

It provides a forum to:

• connect employers with services and expert advice in the disability area
• address strategic issues
• develop solutions to common barriers
• promote the economic and social inclusion of disabled people.

Rosslyn Noonan Chief Human Rights Commissioner

EEO Commissioner Dr Judy McGregor will be leading the Human Rights Commission’s work on the rights of disabled people for the year ahead. This is a priority area for me as Chief Commissioner. I will be working alongside Judy and continuing to be actively involved. We will be supported by Commissioner Richard Tankersley. We have asked him, as a first priority, to assist with the establishment of a network of Maori disabled people to ensure a strong indigenous dimension to the Commission’s work on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Richard will also work on the establishment of a Pacific Group.

A further signal of the priority the Commission places on this work is the high level staff involvement, including Executive Director, Joanna Collinge; Manager Strategic Policy Susan Freeman Greene; Manager External Relations, Shae Ronald; Kaiwhakariti Hemi Pirihi; and of course, Senior Monitoring & Evaluation Advisor, Bruce Coleman and Victoria Manning, Advisor.

We will keep you up to date as we develop plans for engagement throughout New Zealand.

Rosslyn Noonan

Dr Judy McGregor EEO commissioner

Congratulations to People First NZ and the other members of the public who fought and won a battle over broadcaster Paul Henry calling singer Susan Boyle a “retard”. The Commission is delighted that the Broadcasting Standards Authority’s (BSA) very strong decision recognised that people with intellectual disabilities deserved respect and dignity. That’s the good news.

Television New Zealand broadcast a prepared statement on the Breakfast programme on Monday 26 July. And that’s the bad news. In my opinion, the nature of the statement was profoundly disappointing. Television New Zealand abandoned its celebrity status promotion of presenters and referred throughout to an unnamed “presenter”. There was no apology and nor was the statement available on its website content.

The Commission is providing Manahau subscribers with the full text of the statement so that members of the disability community can promote it widely among their networks. We have taken the liberty of adding the presenter’s name [Paul Henry] in brackets.

Last year during ‘What’s In The Mags’, Breakfast screened comments about the singer Susan Boyle. The comments were made by a Breakfast presenter [Paul Henry] and concerned Ms Boyle’s intellectual disability.

TVNZ upheld viewers’ complaints that the comments breached the broadcasting standard requiring Good Taste and Decency. The presenter [Paul Henry] also made a public statement saying he had not intended to cause offence.

Eleven complainants were not satisfied with the action taken by TVNZ, and referred their complaints to the Broadcasting Standards Authority.

The Authority agreed with the complainants, finding that TVNZ had taken insufficient action to remedy the breach of standards. It noted that no statement or apology had been made on the Breakfast programme, and that the presenter’s [Paul Henry's] public statement was inconsistent with his comments and behaviour in the item.

The Authority said that to mock and belittle a person on account of her intellectual disability was contrary to common decency and a clear breach of the Good Taste and Decency standard.

The Authority ordered Television New Zealand to broadcast this statement.

While the broadcast statement was weak, the BSA decision is a landmark decision and is worth reading in full. Here it is at http://www.bsa.govt.nz/decisions/2010/2010-001.htm

Judy McGregor

Professor Ron McCallum

A visiting United Nations expert wants disabled people to put pressure on the Government to implement the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Governments are responsible for making sure the Disability Convention is implemented, but government action depends on disabled people voicing their desires. “We are each responsible to make sure the Disability Convention happens,” said Professor Ron McCallum, the Chair of the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, on a recent visit to New Zealand hosted by the Human Rights Commission.

The UN Committee is the body of independent experts that monitors implementation of the Disability Convention by States Parties. Ron McCallum is also professor at the University of Sydney Law School and is the first totally blind person to be appointed to a full professorship in Australia.

During his New Zealand visit, Professor McCallum met with government officials and community people to share information and discuss issues around monitoring the Disability Convention.

He said no country yet had a robust and comprehensive system of collecting information and statistics about disabled people’s rights. This information is essential to knowing how the Disability Convention is working.

Professor McCallum believes the most important aspect of the Disability Convention is its reliance on the social model of disability. This model states that people who have impairments are a natural part of our human diversity and that society creates barriers by not considering all people when designing buildings, websites, policies, etc. This view clarifies that government and society must commit to removing the barriers they create, so that all people can participate.

Asked about his hopes and aspirations for the Disability Convention, Professor McCallum said, “It’s my hope that all nations ratify the Convention and fully implement it to improve the lives of 650 million persons in our world with disabilities”.

Hon Tariana Turia Minister for Disability Issues

The Human Rights Commission will receive an extra $300,000 per year to promote, protect and monitor the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The Minister for Disability Issues, Tariana Turia, attended a disability community meeting at the Human Rights Commission to make a special Budget day announcement on 20^th May.

The extra funding will enable the Commission to increase its advocacy for disabled people’s rights. It will help enable the Commission to act as an independent, public advocate to promote awareness of disabled people’s rights and help monitor the Disability Convention.

The Commission’s extra funding is part of the Government’s investment of $2.34 million over the next three years to help promote, protect and monitor the rights of people with disabilities.

The Disability Convention, which was ratified by New Zealand in 2008, recommends a framework for promoting and monitoring disabled peoples’ rights. This framework must include at least one mechanism independent of government. The Minister’s announcement stated that the Human Rights Commission and the Office of the Ombudsmen will have an active role as part of this independent mechanism, along with disabled people’s organisations.

The Government has also committed $750,000 to resource a network of disabled people’s organisations to monitor disabled people’s experience in living their life and the difficulties they encounter, such as with accessing government services (including disability supports). A qualitative research and monitoring programme will be established, overseen by the Disability Rights Promotion International Project based at York University in Canada.

The Commission is currently meeting with the Office of the Ombudsmen and the Disability Convention Coalition of disabled NGOs to coordinate the respective monitoring roles. The Commission is also developing internal proposals for how the Commission will undertake this additional work.

New Zealand’s first report to the UN on Convention implementation is due in October 2010.

Read Minister Turia’s Budget day announcements about disability funding: “$93 million more for disability support services” and “$6.8 million to improve the lives of disabled NZers”, and a fact sheet about funding to improve attitudes to disabled people.

Robyn Hunt

Robyn Hunt’s term as a part-time Commissioner finished at the end of June. Over the years, Robyn has made a huge contribution to the Commission and to improving rights for disabled New Zealanders.

“As Commissioner over the last eight years, I have been very lucky to have taken part in the ground-breaking development and New Zealand’s ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with disabilities,” Robyn says. “I was privileged to have this opportunity and it was an amazing experience.”

There were many other highlights, including working on the Accessible Land Transport Enquiry and nationwide consultations to develop the 2005 Action Plan for Human Rights. “I’ve been paid to do what I love to do and to work with a fantastic bunch of people,” says Robyn.

I’ve also had the pleasure of seeing the disability community grow in strength and confidence”.

Robyn believes that while there have been huge advances in the rights of disabled people in New Zealand, there are still bigger battles ahead. “We need to change people’s attitudes about disability, ensure a decent standard of living and address issues for disabled women and Māori and Pacific peoples who have disabilities.”

The Commission retains disability as an important priority in developing the next human rights action plan and implementation and monitoring of the Disability Convention.

And, what’s next for Robyn Hunt? “I will still be working in human rights as I continue to chair the Commission’s Disability Reference Group. I’ll still be involved in disability advocacy. I’m looking forward to working full-time on my communications company AccEase, that works to increase access to information for disabled people.”

The Commission is now checking on progress. Where has New Zealand done well and where could the country do better to ensure a fair, safe and just society?

Draft chapters on specific issues have been released for public feedback. Each draft chapter concerns a major human rights issue in New Zealand as identified by the Commission and concludes with recommendations to address the issues.

The Human Rights Commission received 29 submissions on its draft chapter on the rights of disabled people. Submissions were received from a diverse range of organisations and individuals with an interest in improving human rights for disabled New Zealanders.

Submissions on the draft disability chapter are being considered by the Commission and the Commission’s Disability Reference Group.

The Commission will provide updates and progress in developing the action plan that will be developed from the review report.

If you would like more information on the disability chapter, please contact Bruce Coleman BruceC@hrc.co.nz or Victoria Manning VictoriaM@hrc.co.nz.

You can read about the other draft chapters on the Commission’s website, including the Right to Education, the Right to an Adequate Standard of Living and Human Rights and Women.

The Human Rights Commission made a submission on the Ministry’s Deaf Education Discussion. The Commission supports Deaf Education Aotearoa New Zealand’s view that current education services are not integrated and equitable.

The Commission consulted with Deaf community organisations and civil society groups in developing its submission. The Commission recommended changes that will fulfil aspirations of those most involved in ensuring any new options work.

The Commission’s submission called on the Ministry to implement the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities – the Education Article and the wider sign language and Deaf culture provisions.

If you are interested in this work or would like to be added to the Commission’s Māori Disabled contact list, please email Bruce Coleman BruceC@hrc.co.nz or Victoria Manning VictoriaM@hrc.co.nz or phone Bruce on (03) 353 0952.

Expressions of interest are sought from people who have proposals to contribute to the conference. This could include showcasing work, organising a presentation, or being part of a panel discussion. For more information, go to the OutGames website: www.wellingtonoutgames.com.

Proposals are due by 30 September 2010. The conference will be held at the Wellington Town Hall, which has wheelchair access. Sign language interpreters will be booked. Please let the conference organisers know if you need them or if you have any other disability access requirements.

The New Zealand Human Rights Commission is supporting the conference and will be participating and running a forum on making human rights a reality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, fa’afafine, trans and intersex people. This forum is based on the Yogyakarta Principles, a universal guide to sexual orientation and gender identity human rights.

To register for the forum, register for the conference then contact Naomi Taylor at the Human Rights Commission (naomit@hrc.co.nz) to state you are interested in the Commission’s forum. You can also register for OutGames email updates on the conference website.

This is a unique opportunity to meet people working in human rights and sexual orientation and gender identity in the Asia Pacific region. Come along and take part! We hope to see you there.

Review discussion document

The Government’s Review of Special Education began last year. Hon Heather Roy, the Minister responsible for Special Education, released the Terms of Reference for this review in August 2009.

On 3 February 2010, the Minister published the review discussion document, saying, “The Special Education Review document proposes a vision for students with special education needs, outlines how the system works currently and asks what needs to change. I urge parents, families, teachers, students, and the education and disability sectors to submit their views”.

The discussion document looks at six aspects of special education: successful schools, changing the way schools work together, improving interagency cooperation and transition, allocating and using funding and other resources, improving the quality of services and improving accountability.

The discussion document is available in PDF and HTML. Braille copies may be requested (follow link above to the Discussion Document). The discussion document summary and questions can be viewed in NZSL on the Deaf Aotearoa NZ website.

Submissions can be made online, by post, email or fax. Submissions are due by Friday 19 March 2010.

Submitters can request to give their submission in person to a review panel in Auckland, Wellington or Christchurch. If you wish to present to the panel, clearly state this in your written submission and provide contact details. Let them know if you require any support, such as a NZSL interpreter.

The Commission encourages people to look at the UN Convention (particularly Article 24) when making submissions.

The review will report to Cabinet in July 2010.

The Office of the Ombudsman, the Office of the Children’s Commissioner, the Auditor-General and the Education Review Office have all made various findings, some of which are summarised here.

The Office of the Ombudsmen states that education remains a high priority for their office. They continue to receive a large volume of education related complaints, many related to concerns about access to education for “special needs pupils”. The Ombudsmen is concerned about the plight of teachers and pupils in situations where children with special needs are not adequately supported in the classroom. The Ombudsmen will keep monitoring this.

The Office of the Children’s Commissioner says enquiries and complaints to their advice line indicate students with disabilities are most at risk of exclusion from school.

Statistics from the Ministry of Education (released on 23 September 2009 under the Official Information Act) indicate that during 2008 30 per cent of suspensions were disabled students. Of all students excluded from school, 38 per cent were disabled students. Statistics New Zealand indicates 10 per cent of the school-age population have disabilities. Thus, disabled students are grossly overrepresented in suspensions and exclusions.

The Office of the Auditor-General (OAG) released a report in November 2009. This report assessed how well the Ministry of Education manages its support to disabled students with the highest level of need. This included looking at the Ongoing and Reviewable Resourcing Schemes (ORRS).

OAG staff found that assessment and allocation practices across regions varied. This risks variation in the level of support provided to students with similar levels of need and in similar circumstances. Their report states that the Ministry needs to improve how it identifies students with high special educational needs to ensure that those students eligible for support receive it in a consistent and timely manner. In addition, the support they receive and the progress they make needs to be appropriately monitored.

The OAG’s report made 10 recommendations, including encouraging the Ministry to:

• continue to improve its information about the level of need for support
• provide students who have similar needs and circumstances with similar support, regardless of where they live
• better assist and explain the initiatives to educators and parents/caregivers
• put in place more effective systems for collating information about the Ministry’s support for students.

Since the release of this report, the Ministry stated work is under way to improve their practices and systems, and that the Review of Special Education focuses on many of the issues identified in the OAG audit.

The Education Review Office (ERO) released a report in September 2009 looking at the governance and management of Resources Teachers Learning and Behaviour (RTLB). This report found wide variability in governance and management practice.

ERO found evidence of Ministry staff giving advice or making decisions that were inconsistent with the stated RTLB policy. This was particularly in relation to decisions about employment practices and RTLB training.

Accountabilities for the use of funding and management of RTLB remains an issue. A similar evaluation in 2004 reported the same findings demonstrating that there has been no real improvement since 2004, despite increased guidance and support from the Ministry of Education.

ERO reported that as a result the current model for governing and managing the RTLB service does not ensure all students referred to the RTLB service are well served. ERO recommends that the existing governance and management model should be reviewed to ensure a more cohesive and consistent approach to the service that RTLB provide for schools.

The Human Rights Commission released a report in 2009 on Disabled Children’s Right to Education, providing evidence about the extent to which disabled children are denied the right to education. “When compared against international human rights standards, there are significant outstanding issues about the availability, accessibility, acceptability and adaptability of education for disabled people in New Zealand.”

The Review of Special Education Discussion Document states that reports such as these mentioned here will help inform the review.

Paul Gibson

Paul Gibson has his work cut out for him. Working at the policy and strategic level, he’s tackling two of the biggest areas affecting disabled people’s lives: health and education.

Paul is the Senior Disability Advisor at Capital and Coast Health. He works to ensure DHBs, hospitals and health services are responsive to disabled people. “Some disabled people have health issues related to their impairment. When these are accounted for, disabled people have significantly worse health outcomes than non-disabled people,” says Paul.

His involvement in advocating for disability rights can be traced back to his university days. Here Paul met other disabled students at a time when disabled people were becoming more politicised. “We started naming discrimination when it existed and we were increasingly defining ourselves in social, rather than medical, terms.” In 1993, Paul was involved in setting up CAN DO at Victoria University, a group run by disabled students.

Paul is now working in a medical environment and meeting some challenges. “This is a largely clinical workforce and getting them to understand disability in social terms is not easy.”

Paul has a wealth of experience and skills to draw on. He went through the school system as a vision-impaired child. After a few stints at university, he gained a Masters degree in public policy. Paul has previously worked for two key disability organisations in New Zealand, the Disabled Persons Assembly and CCS Disability Action.

In connection with Paul’s position at Capital and Coast Health, he is one of five people who advise the Minister on the Review of Special Education, Hon Heather Roy. “All five of us come from very diverse backgrounds, but we each bring our knowledge and passion for education.”

In providing advice to the Minister Paul see his role as bringing a “perspective of a disabled person who has direct experience of the education system and knowledge gathered from years of working with disabled people and their families.

The Review of Special Education discussion document proposes a vision for education for disabled people. This vision includes what the disability community want, such as:

To be “continually learning, having friends, real jobs and enough money, things to do that are meaningful or of interest, a place to call home, loving relationships, and leaving behind a world better for our being here.”

Reflecting on his experience, Paul says, “New Zealand has been great at developing visions but struggles to implement these. Disability issues have not been given priority.”

Paul strongly encourages everyone to read and respond to the review discussion document.

Hon. Tariana Turia

E hari katoa ana te ngākau o Tariana Turia i te putanga mai o te whakamaoritanga o te Te Kawenata a te Kotahitanga o ngā Whenua o te Ao mō ngā Tika Tangata ā te Hunga Hauā.

Last month, the Minister for Disability Issues, Hon Tariana Turia, announced the release of two te reo Māori translations of the Disability Convention. One is the official English text and the other is an easy read version.

“I’m really pleased that there is a te reo Māori version of the Convention, as it recognises the status of te reo Māori as an official language of Aotearoa,” said Mrs Turia.

“The documents are also significant in supporting Māori disabled people’s self-determination, which is a key concept enshrined in the Convention.

“Such access to information, means that disabled people should also be better placed to advocate for change in removing barriers to their participation in society and living a good life on an equal basis with others”.

Download the Māori translation of the Disability Convention and the Māori Easy Read translation of the Disability Convention.

The Convention is also available in New Zealand Sign Language, as audio files, Braille, and English easy read on the Office for Disability Issues website.

Ross Brereton

A new chief executive officer has been appointed to lead the Disabled Persons Assembly Inc (DPA) – Ross Brereton.

Some people in the disability sector will be familiar with Ross from his 30 years of involvement in disability issues. “I’ve been part of the disability community all of my life, as I have a congenital visual impairment.”

Ross says, “From my secondary school and university days, I have always had a strong belief in justice and equality of opportunity. The ability to advocate for this is important.”

Ross’s experience includes being the National Manager of Member Services for the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind, Assistant Chief Executive of New Zealand CCS and Human Rights Commissioner. More recently, Ross has been running a consultancy business from his home base in Christchurch.

Ross is looking forward to taking up his new role. “I welcome the opportunity of leading and managing DPA. The disability community has made some good progress but there is still much to do. Physical and attitudinal barriers still exist.”

“Our opportunities include the Disability Convention and DPA must have a recognised partnership role in monitoring implementation in New Zealand.”

Ross officially starts his new role on 22 March. Before then, he will be available on a part-time basis. Ross is Christchurch based so he will be commuting from Christchurch to the DPA office in Wellington.

• what are human rights?
• what is a convention?
• how does the convention work?

The resource is available in HTML and PDF on the UNESCO website.

Commissioner Robyn Hunt

We are nearly three months into 2010 and already there is a lot happening. I hope everyone had a pleasant holiday break, although it probably seems a long time ago now.

A new year brings a new CEO for DPA. I am looking forward to working with Ross Brereton and warmly welcome his appointment.

Readers’ feedback has suggested that each edition of Manahau could have a focus on one Article of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. We liked the idea and have begun with a timely focus for this edition on Article 24 – the Right to Education.

You can find out about the status of disabled children’s right to education and the Government’s Review of Special Education and other reports on the right to education. Have your say and join the discussions and consultation forums taking place around New Zealand.

Māori disabled people will be glad to be able to read the CRPD in te reo along with all the other formats and versions of the Disability Convention. It is significant that the Convention is now available in all three of our national languages, so everyone in the disability community can know about their rights.

There are 50 Articles (sections) in the United Nations Convention on the Right of Persons with Disabilities. Article 24 is about disabled people’s right to education. It’s not surprising that this Article is one of the longest in the Disability Convention.

The first part of the Article (paragraph 1) affirms that disabled people have the right to education and to all the benefits that come with that. The second part of this article explains ways to make sure disabled people get their right to education. It sets out a framework for equal opportunity and equal access to education for disabled people. This includes providing inclusive education, supports, reasonable accommodations, teaching in sign language and Braille and teachers qualified in sign language and Braille.

Simply providing access to education is not enough to ensure the right to education for disabled people. Other things must be provided – equal opportunities to succeed, quality education and education for the full development of the human potential.

Four broad international standards are often used for assessing the right to education. They are the concepts of availability, accessibility, acceptability and adaptability. Availability means educational opportunities meet the needs of all learners; and ensures the availability of skilled and qualified teachers and support staff. Accessibility means education opportunities must be available to everyone equally, ie, barriers to education are eliminated. Acceptability involves quality standards in the curricula, teaching methods and environments, eg, being relevant, culturally appropriate and of good quality. Adaptability means education has to be flexible. It promotes equitable outcomes for all learners and it can respond to the diverse needs of students.

Taken together, the right to education means equipment and teaching materials match needs, teaching methods, and curricula suit the needs of all children and promote acceptance of diversity. Reasonable accommodations and supports are provided to give disabled people equal opportunities to succeed. This includes providing accessible transport, accessible physical environments, appropriate books, resources and other material in appropriate formats (Braille, sign language, etc). All teachers are trained in teaching disabled people and specialist teachers are appropriately skilled and qualified. Teachers’ attitudes and expectations encourage the abilities of disabled people. Opportunities are provided in all subjects and extra curricula activities.

This is not impossible, it is as it should be, no less and no more than for other New Zealanders. Full access to, and equal opportunities in, education is a right. The Disability Convention spells out very clearly how to make this real for disabled people.

Everyone is responsible to help ensure the right to education for disabled people happens. The Government is responsible for making sure legislation, policy, practice and monitoring processes enable the right to education for disabled people. The Human Rights Commission advocates for the right to education, deals with complaints and provides independent monitoring. Non-government organisations, parents, teachers and peers need to be involved in the design and delivery of policy and practice and help with monitoring and raising awareness of issues.

The Government is currently reviewing “Special Education”. A discussion document (see article in this newsletter) is seeking feedback on 10 key questions about the best way to support students with special education needs. The Disability Convention can go some way in helping to answer these.

Chief Human Rights Commissioner, Rosslyn Noonan

The Chief Human Rights Commissioner Rosslyn Noonan has called on the Government to begin carer payments immediately to a group of parents looking after severely disabled adult children after they were victorious in a human rights case.

The long running case was between nine parents and their severely disabled adult children and the Ministry of Health. The Ministry pays for carers to look after severely disabled adults, however if the carer happens to be a family member, they are not eligible for the payment.

In the landmark decision the Human Rights Review Tribunal decision has found the parents have been discriminated against by the Ministry of Health because “they are not allowed to be paid for the services they provide to their child (or children) while anyone else providing the very same care to their child (or children) is able to be paid.”

The Tribunal did not accept that the support given by family members to “heavily dependent persons”, particularly when they reach adolescence and adulthood can be considered as “natural” support.

Ms Noonan said the decision was important because it is clear that the Ministry’s policy was discriminatory and that Government policies must now take account of human rights law. It also extends the choices a severely disabled adult can make about his or her care

The Chief Human Rights Commissioner has requested meetings as soon as possible with the Minister of Health Tony Ryall and the Minister for Disability Issues, Tariana Turia.

“This is an opportunity for the Government to allow this group of parents, and those in a similar situation, support and dignity for what is for many of them round the clock care for their disabled adult children.”

The Ministry of Health has 30 days to decide on an appeal to the decision. Ms Noonan said,” Any appeal would constitute a further unconscionable delay in ensuring these long suffering families -both parents and the disabled adults – can finally receive justice.”

Some of the parents involved in the case plan to contact their local members of parliament to ensure they are fully informed about the f the decision and the unlawful discrimination they have experienced since 2002.

They will ask the MPs to support immediate action by the Government to stop the discrimination and to start paying them what anyone else doing the same work would be entitled to receive.

The Tribunal found:

• The Ministry of Health has been discriminating against this group of parents and they should receive the same allowance they would be eligible for if the carer was not a family member
• The care the parents have provided was not “natural support” but met the criteria for disability support
• There was no evidence to show that the financial impact would be unsustainable for disability sector funding. The Tribunal said, “Our own intuitive view is that the impact is not likely to be great, within the disability sector.”
• The Ministry of Health’s action in this case “acts against several of the accepted objectives of the NZ Disability Strategy.”

To read the Commission’s media release and download a copy of the Tribunal decision go to: Landmark victory in human rights case

The United Nations recognises the Human Rights Commission as the official National Human Rights Institution (NRHI) for New Zealand. This means the Commission will provide the Government, the United Nations and others with independent advice on progress made in implementing the Convention. To do this well, the Commission is establishing partnerships with all disabled people.

A group of Māori disabled recently met with the Commission. Discussions focussed on the need for:

• promoting the Disability Convention and it’s relevance to Māori disabled people
• organising a larger hui to discuss the partnership with the Commission
• discussion about the appropriate te reo words and phrases for talking about disability issues and the Convention
• incorporating the Convention into the work of NGOs and reporting on experiences to the group
• incorporating the principles from the Declaration on the Rights of Indigeneous Peoples’ into the implementation of the Disability Convention.

The next meeting of this group will be on 19 February 2010 in Auckland. If you would like more information or would like to be involved in the discussions, please contact Bruce Coleman BruceC@hrc.co.nz or Victoria Manning VictoriaM@hrc.co.nz.

Dr Huhana Hickey

Ko Karioi toku maunga
Ko Whaingaroa toku moana
Ko Pukerewa me Weraroa marae
Ko Ngati Tahinga toku hapu
Ko Waikato toku iwi
Ko Tainui toku waka
Ko Huhana Hickey toku ingoa

Dr Huhana Hickey is a lawyer and works at Auckland Disability Law Services. One of her passions is teaching disabled people about the law so they can feel empowered to advocate for themselves. Her job gives her an excellent opportunity to do this.

Huhana knows what it’s like to experience discrimination and the hard work involved in climbing over the barriers society puts up. She was told she was not bright enough for university, but she went anyway. Huhana went on to gain a bachelor degree, a masters in law with distinction, and then a PhD. While studying, Huhana managed a progressive disability, multiple operations, a brain injury and raising a disabled son.

One of Huhana’s favourite mottos is “never give up”. “My experiences help me to understand my clients,” she says. Huhana’s job involves educating both disabled clients and lawyers about the law and disability.

“We make sure the lawyers can do their job appropriately. We also make sure the disabled client is able to understand what is happening.”

Building relationships is an important part of this job. “Sometimes we find that clients and service providers have had a communication breakdown and we work hard to try and repair these relationships.”

“Some cases are very sad. We do the best we can to get at least some sense of dignity and justice for the disabled person.”

As a Māori disabled person, issues for Māori disabled people are also close to Huhana’s heart. “I notice that for Māori disabled clients, the issues are often about trust in service providers and providing clients with a feeling of being understood.”

Huhana was involved in lobbying for indigenous disabled people issues to be included in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Huhana says, “There are many opportunities for Māori disabled people to use the Convention to advance our issues.

“The Convention gives Tangata Whenua with disabilities the chance to take charge of their lives. We need more opportunities to explore what it means to be Māori and disabled, and to discuss what needs to happen for us.

“We need to be involved in the monitoring of the Convention. I’m pleased to see the Human Rights Commission has started working with us to make sure this can happen” (see previous article).

The Auckland Disability Law service is a free community legal service in the Auckland region. This service aims to help disabled people access legal services, and to increase awareness of disability law.

Auckland Disability Law website: click here.

Of all complaints received by the Commission over the last year, a total of 30.6% were about disability discrimination. This is slightly higher than the previous two years (28.7% in 2006-7, and 26.8% in 2007-8). Disability discrimination is the single largest category of complaints received by the Commission.

The annual report also talks about progress on priorities in the Commission’s 2005 Action Plan for Human Rights. This showed little improvements in relation to disabled peoples’ participation in New Zealand society.

There has been some work done to achieve a fully accessible public land transport system. However, this progress has been small and there is a lot more work needed if all New Zealanders are able to use public transport in future.

The Commission is concerned at presistent bariers that prevent disabled children and young people from accessing education. The Commission’s National Conversation About Work is looking at employment issues in New Zealand. It shows disabled people are being hit hard by the recession and are experiencing serious discrimination in finding and keeping work (see other article in this newsletter).

Because the Commission is concerned about improving human rights for disabled people, the Commission has made 13 recommendations for immediate action by government. These recommendations include disability issues, such as:

• implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, with accessible transport, education and employment as priorities
• development of a national plan to combat poverty, focusing on children, disabled people, and Māori and Pacific people
• committement to the full realisation of the right to education.

The right of disabled people to participate fully in New Zealand society continues to be a major focus of the Commission’s work.

The Commission’s annual report was tabled in Parliament in October 2009.

In October, Commission staff visited the Hawke’s Bay region, where they met members of the Deaf community and disabled people.

At a meeting with Deaf community members, only three of 12 were in full-time work. Two Deaf people had professional qualifications but said this did not help them overcome the many barriers Deaf people experience, including:

• job advertisements giving only a phone number
• not having a New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) interpreter in Hawke’s Bay
• employment rights information not in accessible formats
• a lack of employment support services that are appropriate for Deaf people
• employers misunderstanding that deafness created a higher level of risk for workplace health and safety.

Deaf people also said that at job interviews a NZSL interpreter was often seen as a “support person”.

Some people mentioned disabled people were not supported in doing seasonal work in Hawke’s Bay, where there is a high demand for seasonal work. People said that employment support services for disabled people focus only on sustainable employment options.

Commission staff have also visited Northland, Nelson/Marlborough, Manawatu-Wanganui, Taranaki, Wellington, and the West Coast. Reports from these regions show disabled people are some of the worst affected by the recession. Disabled people say they face major barriers and discrimination in employment:

• part-time work is hard to find and keep
• employers are not interested in employing disabled people
• wages are very low, including for support people who work with disabled people
• a sense of having to work harder and better than non-disabled people
• transport and buildings are often not accessible
• people on sickness and invalids benefits are not getting the same support to find work as those on the unemployment benefit
• discrimination in career progression.

You can contribute to the National Conversation About Work through face-to-face meetings, or on the website.

The Commission’s EEO team have visited 12 regions and have four more visits planned. These are

Auckland (all year)

Canterbury 15-19 February 2010

Otago 8-12 March 2010

Southland 19-23 April 2010.

If you would like a Commission representative to meet with your community in Auckland, Canterbury, Otago or Southland, contact Sue O’Shea SueO@hrc.co.nz.

The results of this work will contribute to a new EEO strategy to overcome barriers at work for all New Zealanders.

The first Global Report on discrimination published by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) stated that:

“the workplace, be it a factory, an office, a plantation, a farm or the street is a strategic entry point from which to combat discrimination in society. People who are denied equal opportunities, equal treatment and dignity at work often suffer discrimination in other spheres as well. In the workplace, however, discrimination can be tackled more readily and effectively.”

Wheelchair basketball

The Human Rights Commission is starting work on a new Human Rights Action Plan for the next five years.

In 2003, the Human Rights Commission talked to people all over New Zealand to find out what were the most important human rights issues they faced. Human Rights in New Zealand Today was published in 2004, followed by the Action Plan 2005-2010, which included a chapter on disabled people.

The Commission is updating information on human rights in NZ for the new Action Plan 2010-2015.

Last month, the Commission put out two questions for people to answer. These questions asked what is fair and not fair in your life, and what would make things better. Responses will be used to help write a draft update on human rights in NZ today. This draft will be sent out for consultation early next year. It will have more information and questions for people to answer.

If you missed the chance to respond to the questions in November, there will be more opportunity to give feedback early next year. We will send out notice of the draft document and consultation options in March/April next year. Our next edition of this newsletter will have more information on this. If you would like to be added to our contact list, email VictoriaM@hrc.co.nz.

New Zealand Sign Language

Discussions about how to plan for the promotion and maintenance of New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) have been taking place, with the support of the Human Rights Commission.

Deaf community stakeholders have identified serious barriers to language rights for deaf people. Many of these problems are not being addressed by the NZSL Act 2006.

A group of NZSL stakeholders had a second meeting in November. At this meeting Tipene Chrisp was invited to talk about his involvement with the Māori Language Strategy. Tipene shared information about Māori Language promotion and development and offered some helpful advice for similar NZSL work. At this meeting it was agreed to:

• ask Deaf community people and groups/organisations about priorities for NZSL
• use feedback from the Deaf community to develop a strategy/action plan for achieving the NZSL priorities.

The group is developing information and questions to ask the Deaf community about NZSL priorities. These will be distributed widely to Deaf groups and organisations between December 2009 and February 2010. Deaf Aotearoa NZ will put the information and questions in NZSL on their website. There will be a variety of ways to give feedback, for example by writing, in NZSL, or face-to-face.

Feedback from the Deaf community will be used to develop a draft NZSL strategy/ action plan.

Future discussions will work on how to write a strategy and how to make it happen, including how to work with government to achieve the NZSL priorities.

Wendi Wicks, Minister Pansy Wong, Robyn Hunt & Brian Gardner

New Zealand’s first Disability Clothesline project was launched on 25 November, White Ribbon Day. This is a visible statement of the “silent epidemic” of abuse and violence against disabled people in New Zealand.

Pansy Wong, Associate Minister of Disability Issues, launched the project in Wellington. The clothesline is strung with t-shirts that showcase messages by disabled people who have been hurt, or in some cases murdered.

This project complements the White Ribbon Day message that violence against women is not OK.

Disability Clothesline Project co-coordinator Wendi Wicks says, “Disabled people are New Zealand’s largest minority. We’re subject to abuse and violence at shockingly high levels, which is poorly acknowledged. This project is about raising awareness of the issues and taking action to show that violence and abuse is never OK.”

The Disability Clothesline in an innovative partnership between disabled peoples’ organisations and organisations working in the mainstream of family violence services.

Disability Clothesline Project website.

Gary Williams

Ko Marotiri te maunga
Ko Mangahauini te awa
Ko Te Whanau-a-Ruataupare te hapu
Ko Ngati Porou te iwi

Gary Williams is departing after almost 11 years leading the Disabled Persons Assembly (DPA). In this article Gary reflects on one of the highlights of his work as DPA’s CEO and how this is relevant today.

Indigenous disabled peoples’ issues are receiving more and more attention, helped by the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Gary participated in meetings at the United Nations headquarters in New York when the Disability Convention was being negotiated, from 2003-2006. Gary says, “New Zealand worked hard to get the Disability Convention to recognise indigenous disabled peoples’ issues.”

“NZ’s first formal statement on the Convention made specific reference to indigenous people. New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and later Venezuela, were the only Countries (out of 192) that tried to address issues for indigenous disabled people at formal discussions of the Convention.”

The position New Zealand pushed for was to:

• acknowledge and protect the rights of people who experience multiple disadvantage, such as indigenous disabled people, along with other disadvantaged groups and

• address specific issues of access to language and culture for disabled people who belong to minority ethnic or cultural groups, including indigenous people.

“At the UN, there were a lot of complex issues and processes to try and work around. One of the difficulties was that there is no clear definition of ‘indigenous people’, although there were efforts to get one. Even the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples does not provide a definition.”

“There were a lot of strong views about the many different groups who experience multiple discrimination. For example, different ethnic and cultural groups, people living in situations of war, gay and lesbian people and older people, etc. Many people felt that if the Convention talked about one group more than another group, it might look like some groups are less important or that their problems are less serious.”

The UN also had to get unanimous agreement. There were 192 countries at the meetings, all with very different views and priorities. Words can have very different meanings in different countries. “Some world issues are highly political and the UN must be careful and sensitive about these too, for example the tensions in the Middle East.”

“However, despite all these difficulties, New Zealand tried very hard to get the Convention to recognise indigenous peoples’ issues.”

The final text of the Convention mentions indigenous people in the Preamble paragraph. This recognises the “difficult conditions faced by person with disabilities who are subjects to multiple or aggravated forms of discrimination on the basis of … indigenous origin”.

However, Gary points out that some of the references to indigenous people in the Convention are not immediately obvious. “For example, we managed to get Article 30 ‘Participation in cultural life, recreation, leisure and sport’ paragraph 4 to say:

Persons with disabilities shall be entitled, on an equal basis with others, to recognition and support of their specific cultural and linguistic identity…

“While most countries thought that these words only relate to deaf people, we in New Zealand know it also applies to Māori disabled people.”

“From my knowledge of how the UN works, I thought we did very well to have specific text adopted that would otherwise have been rejected.”

“At meetings in New York, I talked with indigenous people from Australia, Canada, and Sweden about indigenous disabled peoples’ issues. I also talked to NZ people who were involved in negotiations on the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People. The Declaration had been in negotiations for many years. The balance that we needed to achieve was having enough references to indigenous people in the Disability Convention without pre-empting the final text of the Declaration. I could imagine that uproar if disabled people from all over the world started negotiating substantive text on indigenous peoples’ issues!”

The Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was adopted by the UN General Assembly in September 2007, almost one year after the Disability Convention. The Declaration mentions indigenous people with disabilities in Article 21, which talks about the right to improvement of social and economic conditions, and Article 22.1, which says:

Particular attention shall be paid to the rights and special needs of indigenous elders, women, youth, children and persons with disabilities in the implementation of this Declaration.

Gary believes “although New Zealand has not yet signed the Declaration, the rights in it are human rights and they still apply.”

“Indigenous people are covered by the Disability Convention. If we use the Declaration as well, we have mechanisms to assert our rights.”

“This is not the perfect outcome. But in a bureaucracy like the UN, there can never be perfection but, rather, a series of compromises that everyone can live with.”

“As human beings we are covered by other international human rights conventions and covenants. The Disability Convention is a way for us to make sure we get these rights. I’m looking forward to seeing Maori disabled people have more involvement in the Convention.”

Sarah Mehrtens & Robyn Hunt

The New Zealand Bankers’ Association has launched new voluntary customer service guidelines to assist banks to provide better service to disabled and older customers.

Human Rights Commissioner Robyn Hunt and Bankers Association Chief Executive Sarah Mehrtens launched the guidelines on 30 November at Deaf Aotearoa NZ’s national office.

Disabled and older people need to be able to access their financial information held by banks and do their banking independently and easily.

The guidelines provide practical advice on:

• disability awareness training to staff
• meeting spaces and queuing aisles wide enough for wheelchairs
• low teller counters
• accessible ATMs
• accessible websites and internet banking services
• information in different formats, e.g. large print, easy to read, etc
• New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) interpreters and NZSL information on their websites.

The guidelines also suggest banks consider reducing fees if a person is not able to use particular services due to disability.

The Human Rights Commission worked with the Bankers’ Association to set up a disabled and older people’s reference group which developed the guidelines with the banks.

To download a copy of the guidelines in Word click here or in PDF from the Bankers Association website.

Robyn Hunt

Today is the UN International Day of Disabled People, a day for celebration, action for change and to promote better understanding of disability issues. In this issue we note both progress and problems.

A Celebration of the launch of the Bankers Association Guidelines for the banking industry on providing service for older and disabled customers began the week on a positive note.

We talk to Maori disabled leaders about their issues, and what the Convention on the Rights of Disabled People means to them. The Commission is building networks with Maori disabled people so our disability human rights work is inclusive

Complaints numbers remain high and we look at issues for Deaf New Zealanders through the National Conversation about work. There are updates on the Human Rights Action Plan, and the development of a New Zealand Sign Language Strategy.

We wish you a happy and safe holiday period and may 2010 be a notable year for human rights progress!

NZSL version of Disability Convention

Produced by Handmade Productions, the translation proved to be challenging due to its length and legal jargon. Paul Wolffram (director/producer) noted, “We were fortunate in securing a skilled team to complete the pre-production translation work. This helped ensure the NZSL translation was as close to the original English text as possible.”

The NZSL translation includes a summary as well as the full translation of each Article. Offering both versions helps to ensure this information is accessible to Deaf people.

English literacy is a barrier to many Deaf people and information can often be understood more clearly if it is translated into NZSL. Translating significant public documents is crucial as it makes information accessible to the Deaf community. It is also an obligation detailed in the New Zealand Sign Language Act 2006, the UN disability convention and the NZ Disability Strategy.

DVD Cover

The NZSL version of the UN Convention is available:

• on the Office for Disability Issues’ website at UN Convention in NZSL
• on DVD – contact either Deaf Aotearoa NZ www.deaf.org.nz or the Human Rights Commission’s Infoline infoline@hrc.co.nz.

The World Federation for the Deaf is producing a translation of the Convention into “International Sign Pidgin”.

The Commission wants to see more resources and public information available in NZSL.

Youth at the Diversity Forum

This year’s Diversity Forum included two workshops looking at disability and ethnicity. Hosted by CCS Disability Action, the sessions provided a space to talk about a subject often overlooked by the disability and ethnic/race relations sectors.

The first workshop, Giving Words Meaning, gave the group a chance to share their stories about disability in relation to their ethnicity.

Through these personal stories, disabled people from different ethnicities told of how they were often hidden in their communities, invisible to disability services, and sometimes,to their own family. Participants felt a strong need to raise awareness of disability and diversity with a particular focus on the family/whanau.

Barbel Winter from CCS presented the second workshop, Responding Effectively to Diversity within Disability Services. She offered an engaging and interactive presentation with the focus of a service provider. Barbel also explained the Diversity Management Framework, a practical tool to help organisations respond positively to diversity. The framework included the development of a long term plan to help services meet the needs of people from different communities. It also offered guidance on how to make organisations’ communications language more accessible and culturally appropriate.

This was the second year the disability sector has been involved in the Diversity Forum and those involved will meet to reflect on the outcomes of the workshops.

Workshops were supported by the DPA, People First, CCS Disability Action, Wellington Pasefika Disability Network and Capital and Coast DHB.

If you are interested in being involved in future workshops and/or discussions on disability and ethnic diversity please email Victoria on VictoriaM@hrc.co.nz.

Robyn Hunt

I’m still feeling excited by the Diversity Forum, facilitated by the Human Rights Commission in Wellington in August. For the second year running disability and diversity workshops made lively contributions.

On the subject of diversity, a new bilingual website focusing on Chinese people and mental health is breaking new ground.

This edition there is news of the eagerly awaited release of the terms of reference for the review of Special Education.

The Commission has just published a paper on the right to education for disabled children and young people and released a survey on disability discrimination.

Those fluent in New Zealand Sign Language should feel pleased that New Zealand is the second country to produce the text of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in NZSL.

Finally, Manahau interviews new Workbridge CEO Grant Cleland.

As always, we welcome your feedback.

Robyn Hunt

Commissioner

Grant Cleland

Creating more jobs for people with a disability, injury or illness is top of the “to do” list for new Workbridge CEO, Grant Cleland.

Grant credits the Mainstream Employment Programme, now run by the Ministry of Social Development, for opening the door to long-term employment for him. It built his skills and facilitated his training as a social worker.

“Getting a foot in the door is one of the greatest barriers to work”, he says. “I was fortunate to have employers who focused on my skills, not my disability, and I want to encourage other employers to do the same.”

“Each year Workbridge assists around 4000 people with a disability, injury or illness into work. I want to look at how we can grow this even further.”

According to Statistics New Zealand disabled people:

• are less likely to be employed compared with any other minority group – the proportion employed decreases with increasing impairment and support needs
• with a tertiary qualification are employed at the same rate as non-disabled New Zealanders with no qualification.

Grant believes there is much mystique around disability, and employers need more help to understand how to accommodate disabled people. Similarly, disabled people need help with issues such as how and when to disclose their impairment to employers and fellow workers. If they have these tools and know how to reduce the impact of their condition at work then disabled people are more likely to stay in employment.

Wide responsibilities come with Grant’s new job, “Workbridge has a key role to play in helping to implement the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities”. This Convention clarifies the rights of disabled people to employment. The Convention’s Article on Work and Employment (Article 27) points to organisations such as Workbridge having an important role to play to “promote employment opportunities and career advancement for persons with disabilities in the labour market, as well as assistance in finding, obtaining, maintaining and returning to employment” (Article 27 1.(e)).

Born with Spina Bifida, Grant uses a wheelchair for mobility, He has worked hard to ensure his disability does not impact negatively on his life. Grant and his wife have six-year-old twins and he enjoys skiing in the winter months. He brings energy and a ‘can do’ attitude to his role heading the country’s largest employment service for people with disability, injury or illness.
“I was lucky enough to have parents who always encouraged me and had high expectations. This helped me to break though barriers I faced in education and employment.”

Grant has spent the past 12 years developing his own business, Creative Solutions. By working with a wide range of organisations he has gained valuable insights into current and potential employers of disabled people.

Disabled Children's Right to Education paper

Disabled Children’s Right to Education has been published in response to complaints raised with the Commission. The paper assesses how well the right to education for disabled children and young people is being realised. The Commission and others will use the paper to advocate for this right and also contribute to the Government’s Review of Special Education.(See article in this newsletter.)

The paper explores what the terms “inclusive” and “special education” mean. It discusses international human rights laws and the context for the laws and policies about the education of disabled children and young people in countries similar to New Zealand.

Education is a basic human right and an essential way to realise further human rights. It gives children and young people a sense of their own dignity and self-esteem and makes possible full participation in community life. Access to a good education offers economically and socially disadvantaged children and young people an escape from poverty by developing skills necessary for quality paid work.

Read Disabled Children’s Right to Education

Hon Heather Roy

A review of Special Education has been initiated by the Hon. Heather Roy, the Associate Minister of Education with responsibility for Special Education.

“We aim to ensure that Special Education policies and processes are fair and consistent, reach those most in need, make the best use of existing Government funding, and that parents have choices,” says Mrs Roy.

The review’s guiding principles outline what the Government views as essential elements of special education. These include:

• choice
• access
• quality
• value
• outcomes.

The Commission is pleased the principles refer to the UN disability convention. Article 24 details actions to ensure the right to education for disabled children is realised. These include learning Braille, sign language, orientation and mobility skills. It specifically mentions employing teachers with disabilities who are qualified in sign language and/or Braille.

The review takes place in two phases, the first has begun and the second ends in July 2010. It includes a consultation document in Phase One and targeted engagement with particular sector groups in Phase Two. Disabled and Deaf people are encouraged to contribute to the review. This will mean that the consultation and engagement processes will need to be accessible and culturally appropriate, for example, providing consultation material in alternative formats and enabling face-to-face consultations.

The terms of reference emphasise the need to ensure the best outcomes for disabled children. To achieve this robust data of disabled children’s educational achievements and outcomes will have to be collected.

The Commission believes this review is timely given recent enquiries and complaints in this area. It has just released the paper Disabled Children’s Right to Education (see article in this newsletter). This paper emphasises that education is a right for disabled children.

The Commission has a relationship with Special Education staff at the Ministry of Education, and will support the Review where it can.

The Terms of Reference for the Review were released in August and can be found on the Ministry of Education’s website.

Debi Leahy & Lynette Pivac

The NZ Police recognise they need to provide services and support that is culturally and linguistically appropriate for Deaf people. Debi Leahy a community constable in Henderson, Auckland, spends 20 per cent of her time working with the Deaf Community.

She has learnt NZSL and works with Deaf Aotearoa NZ to strengthen the Police’s responsiveness to deaf people.

Ensuring disabled people have equal access to the law is detailed in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. It says that countries must provide the support needed to ensure disabled and deaf people can access the law (Articles 5 and 12).

Read more about Debi’s work in the NZ Police’s online magazine TenOne, March edition.

The survey identified an alarming 18 per cent of overall respondents and 28 per cent of disabled respondents had been discriminated against due to a disability or health condition.

“This is a great concern to the Human Rights Commission,” says Commissioner Robyn Hunt. “Disabled people have the same rights as everyone else. The Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities tells us how to achieve equal rights. It is a powerful tool for change. It should be used proactively to promote understanding about disability and human rights and to challenge and eliminate discrimination.”

You can read more about this report by clicking here.

The website www.kaixinxingdong.org.nz was created by the Mental Health Foundation’s Kai Xin Xing Dong (KXXD) project. The KXXD website is bilingual (Mandarin and English) with English content providing insight and context to Chinese beliefs on mental illness.

Read more about this project

Hear people like Anne Hawker and Robyn Hunt speak on:

• The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Human Rights Act

or

• The Health & Disability Commissions’ Code of Consumers Rights including the rights of people living in residential services.

NZSL interpreters will be provided.

Friday 9 October 2009, 2:00 – 6:00pm

Brentwood Hotel, Kemp St, Kilbirnie, Wellington

RSVP: Lorraine Dick

Email: gen@dpa.org.nz

Phone: (04) 801 9100

Reply by: 2 October 2009. Please indicate the Workshop that you wish to attend, and any special requirements.

The Commission’s new interactive newsletter portal enables us to discuss and debate the news presented through this bulletin. What’s more, it is easy to involve yourself in this cyber disability rights network. If you want to share something in relation to an article, simply type it into the “leave a reply” space at the end of each story and press the “submit” button.

To view and keep track of submitted comments, go back to your original electronic version of the newsletter and click on the story. This will take you to the most updated version of the publication (including all comments posted) on the Commission’s website.

And guess what? For any technophobes (like me), this is blogging! So now I can honestly tell my son I am part of the blogosphere.

The Commission wants to hear from as many disabled workers (and those seeking work) as possible, so their voices are included in its National Conversation about Work project.

The aim of the National Conversation is to gather information to advise government and the community on equal employment issues and what would make a difference for people to achieve fairness at work.

The website, Have your say about work, gives people several ways to engage in the conversation – by blogging, writing a submission, filling in a survey or meeting face-to-face.

One of the disabled workers featured in the website video, talks about his experience in the workforce. “If we were to look at people as an investment, rather than look at them as pathology or as a disability … I think we would be in different spot. I’ve had to work harder and prove I was as good as by actually being better in a lot of cases.”

The National Conversation team, led by Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner Judy McGregor and supported by HRC advisors Sue O’Shea and Moana Eruera, is halfway through its two-year consultation.

“Disabled people’s voices are often marginalised around the wider employment debate,” says Moana Eruera. “So it’s particularly important we hear from them.”

He says several themes are emerging:

• fragmented services making it hard to access workplace support
• inadequate level of support to enter employment and remain in it
• lack of accessible transport
• lack of understanding around disability.

To contact the team, email Moana Eruera moanae@hrc.co.nz or Sue O’Shea sueo@hrc.co.nz. Or you can phone the Human Rights Commission and ask to be transferred to the EEO team.

They’re visiting Nelson/Tasman Bays/Marlborough in early June, Manawatu and Wanganui in mid June, Northland in July, and Rotorua and Tauranga in August.

Reports from earlier visits are now available. Regional reports will feed into a national report making recommendations to government next year.

“The only way we’re going to get disabled people using public transport is when they know they can do it as independently as possible,” says Thomas Bryan, a member of the accessible transport group.

He’s also involved at a local government level, representing the views of disabled people on the Greater Wellington Regional Council and Wellington City Council.

“The disability community in Wellington have been consulted about their new trains and that’s a big positive, says Bryan.”

Simon Atkinson, from People First, an organisation led and directed by people with a learning disability, says improvements to Christchurch buses are great pluses for disabled people. “They could be a model for other regional councils,” he says.

As a blind person, Aucklander Lynette Simon says, “There are slight increases in help, such as the ability to have a pole talk to us and tell us what bus is coming along. And some drivers are excellent – they’ll tell us where there’s a seat or wait for us to sit down before taking off.”

The Commission’s Bruce Coleman managed the groundbreaking 2005 Accessible Journey report and is coordinating its review. He’ll be talking to councils, the New Zealand Transport Agency, the Ministry of Transport and other people involved in the journey to accessible public transport.

“Our commitment to achieving a fully accessible public transport service is in line with the government undertaking an implementation plan by July 2009 to respond to the Accessible Journey recommendations.”

New Zealand Sign Language Week logo

Sign language awareness week saw hundreds of people throughout New Zealand “make like a butterfly” when they sampled one of Deaf Aotearoa’s sign language taster classes.

“It was absolutely fantastic,” says Kathryn Heard, Deaf Aotearoa’s Coordinator of New Zealand Sign Language Week. “We had workplaces hosting classes – for example ACC and Middlemore Hospital – and great interest from schools in our sign language tool kit. It’s fun to learn!”

Marissa signing at Takapuna Library.

“We chose the butterfly as the logo for the week because butterflies are deaf, free and independent, Sign language allows Deaf people to be free and independent too. It’s about equality.”

Heard says sign language has come a long way since 1880, when it was prohibited and people were forced to communicate by lip reading.

“Sign language is becoming more and more accepted. It’s one of New Zealand’s three official languages and for the first time it’s been acknowledged as the primary language of Deaf people in an international convention (the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities).”

Robyn Hunt

This month has been exciting for the Deaf community. Sign Language Week is bigger and better each year and the inspired butterfly logo has captured the public imagination. The launch of the international report Deaf People and Human Rights is a milestone on their human rights journey. Good quality information like this will be critical for monitoring the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

For those people who have been able to attend the Human Rights Firm Festival, there has been a lot on offer. A review of NoBody’s Perfect can be found in the newsletter.

As always, we welcome your feedback on human rights issues.

The report brings together the largest knowledge database on the situation of Deaf people to date.

It was conducted by the Swedish National Association of the Deaf and the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD), and showed great variation in Deaf people’s access to education and services.

New Zealand was the only country out of 93 surveyed to have a sign language-specific law (the New Zealand Sign Language Act 2006) and one of only two countries to offer full interpreting services in universities.

Researcher Hilde Haualand said recognising sign language as a first and primary language and enabling people to access it is the core to upholding the rights of Deaf people.

“The World Federation can take this report to the UN to lobby. It needs to be followed up every two to four years and will help to target funding and projects in the future,” says Haualand.

Commissioner Robyn Hunt said the report is an important step. “It was evident during Convention negotiations that the rights of disabled people are often hampered by good quality baseline data. However, there is a lack of data from small Pacific Island nations in the report, indicating where more work needs to be done.”

She also believes the establishment of a New Zealand Sign Language Commission would be a timely move. With similar aims and objectives as the Maori Language Commission, it would address issues still being faced by Deaf and hearing impaired people in this country.

Anne Hawker

As the first woman president of Rehabilitation International, New Zealander Anne Hawker is used to being at the forefront of change.

Nine months into leading Rehabilitation International (RI), an organisation representing disabled people from over 80 nations, she’s getting plenty of opportunity to be involved on both international and local scenes.

“The passing of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the reality of the recession give RI opportunities and challenges,” she says.

“One of our big challenges is helping countries interpret rehabilitation in a human rights based context. In some countries it’s about access to basic equipment, such as wheelchairs. Each country and region has different philosophies and issues.”

Anne Hawker’s extensive background in disability work in New Zealand and overseas makes her passionate about disabled people’s rights.

“There are more voices speaking out about disabled people’s human rights than there used to be and that makes a difference. The legal capacity of disabled people to make decisions about their lives is now enshrined in the Convention (Article 12) and that’s a fundamental shift in the power base.

She says international organisations need to be proactive in the current economic climate. “For example, the World Bank is still conducting projects. We need to ask how we can tap into those.”

In her “other job” as Principal Disability Advisor for Work and Income NZ, it’s also important to be pro-active. “There needs to be a change in attitude. A change in attitude doesn’t cost money. I’m currently meeting with several major employers looking at how we can create a disability confident employment sector.

“For too long we’ve talked to ourselves. In RI we need to make the most of our extensive skill base, but we also need partners like lawyers, unions, employers, and UN agencies. We can be much more powerful if we work closely with the right allies.

“Disability organisations have been good at advocacy, but now we need financial and management skills. We need to be media savvy. And we need to provide alternatives to problems.”

NoBody's Perfect

NoBody’s Perfect recently screened at New Zealand’s Human Rights Film Festival. The movie tells the story of 12 people, all affected by the drug thalidomide, who agree to pose naked for a book and exhibition.

German Director Niko von Glasow is one of the 12. His story and those of the others form the basis of the film. He questions the subjects about their attitude to their body, their mother’s experience of their birth, their childhood and their relationships.

“I wanted to take a series of honest, beautiful photographs. [Along with the others] I had to find the courage to expose myself, look at myself, and accept the truth that nobody’s perfect,” said von Glasow.

“Up till the point in my life where the film starts, I’d been happy to avoid confronting my disability and body image.”

Integral to the story in the film is the drug company who, according to the film, has never issued an apology or fully compensated those affected by the damage thalidomide caused.

NoBody's Perfect

Barry de Geest, who was part of the panel discussion after the movie screened in Auckland, said, “Although my impairment was caused by my mother taking thalidomide, because it couldn’t be proven … and my parents couldn’t afford the lengthy costs involved in going to court, I only received a one-off token payment.”

The drug was made by German company Chemie Grünenthal and was sold in almost every country of the world. The film claims at least 10,000 babies were affected worldwide, with 3000 dying. Germany and the UK were two of the highest-affected countries.

Speaking on the panel after the Wellington screening, Mike Gourley said, “The film was a wonderful lifting of the shroud of embarrassment, shame and secrecy of our bodies and who we are.

“Politically, we’ve always said ‘Who I am is okay – what happens to me isn’t’. I’d like to change the name from ‘NoBody’s Perfect’ to ‘We’re Bloody Perfect!’.”

Commissioner Robyn Hunt

Manahau: Resilience and Celebration is the name chosen for the latest newsletter published by the Human Rights Commission.

Published quarterly, Manahau will build connections between those committed to progress on issues concerning people with disability. For the origin of the name, see the story in this edition.

We have some important work ahead as we turn our energy to monitoring the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. New Zealand’s first report to the International Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities at the United Nations is due in September 2010.

Late last year the visit of Marcia Roux, co-director of the International Disability Rights Promotion Project provided much insight. This year disability law expert and Irish Human Rights Commissioner Gerard Quinn offered his perspective on implementing the convention. Both visits are covered in this edition.

Finally I urge you to read our story about the Hamilton City Accessible Journey trial. The project proves the value of building teams that include all stakeholders to make real our catchphrase, “Nothing about us without us!”

Research by Michael Ungar, Professor at the School of Social Work at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, leads to three attributes of resilience. These concern how well people can:

• navigate their way to resources that sustain their well-being
• use their physical and social ecologies to provide these resources
• the way people, their families and communities negotiate culturally meaningful ways to share resources.

Nigel Mead makes a presentation to Gisborne Mayor Meng Foon

What’s the best way to ensure mobility car parks are available for those who need them?

1. Increase fines for illegal use?
2. Paint mobility parks blue?
3. Place a “pointed” note under a transgressor’s windscreen wipers?
4. Challenge transgressors face-to-face?

A report from CCS Disability Action on who uses and who abuses mobility parks, shows increased fines work but there’s room for further solutions.

In 2008 the fine for abuse of an on-road mobility parking space was increased from $40 to $150. The fine increase received a large amount of media attention and coincided with a national campaign to raise the profile of legal use of the parks. After the campaign, 16 CCS Disability Action offices around the country monitored a sample of parks in their area.

Peter Wilson, National Development Manager at CCS Disability Action, says the report indicates increased fines do have an impact – with 58 per cent of cars parked in the mobility parks doing so legally, compared with only 50 per cent two years ago.

However he says the number of vehicles illegally using a mobility park is still very high at 42 per cent so other strategies besides fines are needed as well.

An initiative begun in Gisborne last year has succeeded by trying something completely different – making mobility parks more visible by painting them blue – and Peter Wilson is hoping other city councils will follow suit.

Gisborne mayor Meng Foon, says that painting the parking spaces was a ‘no brainer’. “Previous research from CCS Disability Action showed that painting mobility parking spaces with vivid colours deterred misuse and that was something that Gisborne District Council wanted to do.”

When mobility permit holders can’t access parks it has a big impact on their life. Peter Wilson says the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities talks of having equal access to the community.

Mary, a mobility permit holder agrees. She raises the issue of how people perceive what is a “valid” disability when using the parks, and the impact this has at a personal level.

“My mobility varies from day to day – some days I’m attached to more ‘apparatus’ – crutches or wheelchairs, than others.

“Even when I’m not using them, I still can’t walk far – yet I’ve been challenged by people for using a mobility park, even though I have a mobility card, and like everyone else who has one, had to get a doctor’s certificate to do so.”

Peter Wilson says, “For people who have a hidden mobility disability, the general public can make lots of assumptions about that person not having a disability. I have a lot of empathy for these permit holders when they are challenged. Challenging people who use these parking spaces without clearly displayed permits is more useful than making judgment calls on who is disabled and who is not.”

Another ad hoc response can involve leaving notes on people’s cars. Peter Wilson says he understands this stems from frustration, and he has seen many self-styled stickers over the years, some of which CCS Disability Action has been approached about mass producing.

“Such stickers can be used well to increase people’s awareness that they’re blocking someone else’s access to the community. However you’ve got to be careful attaching something to someone else’s property – and you’ve also got to be careful about what the messages are promoting. Some might reinforce negative images of disability: ‘You’ve got my park, would you like my disability’. We want to put across positive images and ones that promote inclusiveness.”

Peter Wilson says the key to reduce the level of mobility parking abuse is for councils and private parking providers such as shopping malls to improve signage, road markings and their monitoring and enforcement.

The changes were part of the Disability Act and the Human Rights Amendment Act 2008. The changes were made to bring our laws into line with the Disability Convention. While many of the changes have been described as minor and technical in nature, according to people involved in the mental health area they are anything but.

Prior to the changes John Edwards, District Inspector Mental Health, described the body of legislation which many of them relate to as “statutory discrimination of the mentally ill”. In an article in the New Zealand Law Journal he wrote, “The statute books are littered with apparently justified limitations on the right to be free of discrimination on the basis of being mentally disordered”.

He added”….there are circumstances in which it is necessary to discriminate because of mental illness which, for a time, prevents the person from properly carrying out some function, or participating fully in society. However the approach of the law to date has been crude, and often based on the same kinds of prejudice and misconception of the nature and range and effect of mental illness which blights the acceptance of those who experience mental illness into the community, and which ultimately can slow recovery”.

Human Rights Commission community advisor Sarah Gordon, a mental health consumer, says, “As someone with two young children the Education Act in relation to those who can apply to join School Boards of Trustees is particularly significant to me. That’s an area which is very real every time the form requesting people to put themselves forward comes home from school. I might also have to investigate when the Reserve Bank Governor role will next become vacant!”

Darryl Bishop from the Ministry of Health’s Like Minds, Like Mine Programme agrees. “We know that people recovering from mental illness have to overcome social barriers of stigma and discrimination that are often more of a stumbling block than the illness itself. The changes to the Act mean exclusion based on the myth that people with mental illness can’t do things can no longer happen.

” Given that a Ministry of Health survey in 2006 reported that 47 percent of the population meet the criteria for mental illness at some point in their life, having rules based on individuals’ actual ability to do something rather than a perceived incompetence in almost half the population makes sense.”

John Edwards welcomed the law change. While some of the changes are in areas that may not have affected anyone in the past – for example any aspiring Reserve Bank Governor – changing them also has an important symbolic value.”

Sylvia Bell, the Commission’s Principal Legal Policy Analyst says before the law was amended, reasonable accommodation was not reflected in some of the areas to which the Human Rights Act applied.

These were access to partnerships (e.g. law firms and such like), membership of professional associations, qualifying bodies, residential accommodation and access to some private educational facilities.

She says some of the changes to the Human Rights Act last year have strengthened the rights of disabled people in these areas, but not all.

“In my opinion, they do not strengthen the Act enough. In fact in some cases they actually derogate from the previous protections. If you look at the Commission’s submission what we wanted was a general obligation to accommodate. As it stands at present it still leaves employers, landlords, etc with a defence if it is not ‘reasonable’ to provide certain services.

“I would have preferred a statutory definition of reasonable accommodation – provided it was one that we could have lived with and which meant that the needs of disabled people were really protected.”

Gerard Quinn pictured with Commissioner, Robyn Hunt

Two international experts on disability issues Gerard Quinn and Marcia Roux have visited to help the Commission, government agencies and disability organisations get to grips with the implementation of the Convention.

Gerard Quinn, here in February, is a professor of law in Galway, Ireland and has extensive experience internationally in the field of discrimination law. He was also a member of the United Nations Working Group, convened to draft the treaty on the rights of persons with disabilities.

Marcia Roux, on a visit before Christmas, is a professor at York University, Toronto, Canada and Co-director of the International Disability Rights Promotion Project. They each met with disability organisations, the Human Rights Commission and the Office for Disability Issues (ODI).

Gerard Quinn says “It’s important the Convention transforms into changes in people’s lives.”

He talked about bridging the gap between the theory of law and the practice. “The diminished voice of people with disabilities makes this gap hard to dislodge. We need to force the issue – make people face the truth by exposing the contradiction between the theory and the practice.

“I see the Convention as a mirror reflecting on the outputs of a flawed policy process which has produced bad laws, policies and programmes. I see the primary value of the Convention is that it can transform the process that produces those bad outcomes.”

As Co-director of the International Disability Rights Promotion Project, Marcia Roux focus was on using three indicators (systems and processes, individual experiences, and societal attitudes) to monitor the rights of disabled people.

The Disability Rights Promotion Project attempts to move beyond monitoring government legislation and policy to reach out to capture the experiences of disabled people. For example, access to education may be a right for disabled people enshrined in law, but if this is not available at a person’s local school then the right is not real in practice. Collecting people’s stories also helps to identify patterns of discrimination. By combining information from legislation and government policy, individual experiences, and societal attitudes as portrayed in the media builds a more comprehensive picture of what is happening to disabled people.

Both stressed the importance of establishing a baseline of the situation for disabled people. Such information needs to be different from in the past. It is no longer about asking disabled people what their impairment is, and how or when they got it, but about their status as citizens and the barriers they experience to that citizenship.

The first New Zealand report under the Convention is due in September 2010.

The Government’s response came under the seven major themes that arose from the select committee’s 22 recommendations on quality of care and services provision for people with disabilities. They are:

1. Enhancing leadership and accountability structures
2. Changing the way people access the disability support system
3. Increasing choice and flexibility in disability supports
4. Support for carers and transitional arrangements
5. Improving disability monitoring arrangements
6. Improving advocacy and complaints processes
7. Implementing a cross-sector workforce strategy.

The Government says for the majority of recommendations further work needs to be done before it can make decisions on particular steps it will take “as the [select committee inquiry's] recommendations are wide ranging and have significant implications for a range of government agencies and disabled people.”

The Government said some of the recommendations had already been acted upon and it was expanding and modifying existing work programmes to be consistent with the select committee’s recommendations.

The Human Rights Commission is looking at the government’s response.

The 200^th anniversary of the birth of the creator of the Braille code, Louis Braille, highlights the vital place Braille holds in ensuring access for blind and low vision people.

Lisette Wesseling, Braille awareness consultant for the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind, says access to Braille depends upon:

• adequate funding of educational resources for blind and low vision students
• trained teachers who can teach Braille
• adequate funding to translate information into Braille for adults.

Jane Wells, Acting Principal of the Blind and Low Vision Education Network NZ (BLENNZ) says the funding increase for Resource Teachers Vision (RTVs) is welcome.

RTVs visit blind and low vision students attending ordinary schools to teach Braille and assist in many other ways. The funding increase created 15 new positions.

Jane Wells says: “In the future we also want a resourcing framework for RTVs which stipulates if the number and need of students increase, so will the number of teachers.”

“Receiving an adequate education is very much a human rights issue and Braille provides one of the tools to allow access to the curriculum,” she says.

“It’s not only resources that are important however, but also schools having a “can-do” inclusive attitude and where Braille is given status by the teacher. We want our children to have pride in their medium.”

The Association of Blind Citizens of New Zealand, this country’s largest consumer organisation of blind people, upholds the primacy of Braille.

National president Clive Lansink said,” Even though some blind people for various reasons can’t read it, Braille is our only form of writing. There is something very fundamental about the way people connect with the written word, and for blind people, only Braille can provide that experience. All blind people should have the opportunity to learn it.”

Louis Braille is reported as saying “Braille is knowledge; knowledge is power.”

Unlike the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, New Zealand does not have laws making the provision of Braille mandatory. However last year lobbying from the Foundation and the Association of Blind Citizens of New Zealand paid off.

A rule came into force stating that taxis must display signs in Braille. The new requirement, in the land transport operator’s licensing rule, promotes the safety of blind people and their belongings.

Clive Lansink agrees, “Taxis have had to display a sign with this information for many years, but only sighted people could read it. Now when I get into a taxi, I instinctively read the Braille on the door and make a mental note of the number. This is a practical illustration of equity. Surely this is no more than any other member of the public already enjoys?”

The RNZFB’s commitment to Braille complements the New Zealand Disability Strategy (objectives 3, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 15) and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (articles 9, 21, 22, 26).

The Association of Blind Citizens of New Zealand register of issues “The Great Barrier Brief” is linked to specific clauses and articles of the Strategy and Convention.

Gerri Pomeroy disembarks.

The Hamilton City Accessible Journey trial has begun to influence national passenger transport standards.

As reported last issue, the trial saw two buses serving the inner city modified along with bus stops to ensure they were accessible to disabled passengers.

Staff from the Auckland Regional Transport Agency have visited and travelled on the bus following publication of an evaluation report this year.

New Zealand Transport Agency Hamilton Regional Director Harry Wilson says, “They are particularly interested in the visual displays and the seating arrangements in the bus as they hope to do something similar in Auckland.”

Commissioner Robyn Hunt says the evaluation report formalises what people have said for a long time.

“We recorded many of these issues in the Human Rights Commission’s Inquiry into Accessible Public Land Transport in 2004/2005, but the Hamilton trial puts it into a concrete situation. It says ‘here’s a particular city and here’s what they found’.

“I hope other local authorities and regional councils will use this material, rather than beginning the research phase all over again.”

Findings from the trial were included in a submission for the publication of A New Zealand National Minimum Standard for Urban Buses released in December last year.

Geri Pomeroy, from CCS Disability Action and a member of the project team, says, “This landmark document represents a step in the implementation of the recommendations that came from the Commission’s Accessible Journey Report and will help to ensure that disabled people are guaranteed the ability to use public transport at the same price as other New Zealand taxpayers.”

Meanwhile the Government has made a clear commitment in response to the report’s recommendations.

The New Zealand Transport Strategy which sets transport goals to 2040, undertakes to: “Develop an implementation plan by July 2009 in response to the recommendations made in the Accessible Journey report and a specific accessibility target for inclusion in the next update of this Strategy in 2010″.

Bruce Coleman, who managed the Accessible Journey report for the Human Rights Commission says, “The government has sent a clear message about its commitment to action, which is great.”

The Hamilton trial made seven recommendations in all – most based on specific and technical findings, but one which related to the process used to get to there. It commented on the strong working relationships of key agencies involved in the trial, saying this was due to an “absence of egos and personal agendas….. Non-disabled planners, designers and operators cannot deliver a fully accessible journey alone. Direct input from disabled people is needed.”

Mental Health Poster artwork by sam RB hanna

The Commission always seeks ways to make itself more accessible to people. One of the greatest barriers to accessibility is a lack of awareness and understanding of what the HRC does and how it might be of relevance to particular communities. Recently the Commission has developed some resources about human rights and mental illness.

First there is a poster featuring striking artwork by samRB hanna (Auckland Regional Like Minds, Like Mine Team Leader, Mind and Body Consultants). The poster aims to alert people that discrimination because of mental illness can be unlawful and that the Commission can help.

The other new resource is a dedicated ‘human rights and mental illness’ section on the Commission web-site – Mental illness and human rights // Human Rights Commission. This includes information about:

• how the New Zealand Human Rights Act is relevant to people with experience of mental illness
• what the Commission does and how to make contact
• how the Convention on the Rights of Disabled Persons is relevant to people with experience of mental illness
• the Korowai Whaimana programme which has been developed to help people with experience of mental illness to understand and use their rights
• what various mental health organisations and programmes do in the area of human rights and mental illness.

Any feedback and ideas you have about making it easier to engage with the Commission are welcome. The posters are being distributed to a number of mental health organisations. Contact the Commission for copies of the poster at 0800 496 877 or email infoline@hrc.co.nz