3. THE PREVELANCE OF TRANSPORT DIFFICULTIES AMONGST DISABLED NEW ZEALANDERS
Introduction
3.1 
There is no authoritative data available in New Zealand about how many disabled people have difficulties using public land transport services as they are currently offered, or about the nature of these difficulties. The absence of specific data in part reflects the limitations of official data sets. It is, however, a symptom of the invisibility of disabled people and their struggle for a voice in the planning and provision of public land transport, so that it better serves the public.
3.2 Incomplete information is a major hurdle to accurate cost/benefit analysis of the social and economic costs of both the barriers to accessible public land transport, and the opportunities inherent in the removal or reduction of barriers. It also partly explains the lack of a marketing orientation to the potential customer base of accessible public land transport. This lack was evident during the Inquiry process across the spectrum of submissions.
3.3 What is known from currently available information is how many people have a disability, what kind of disability they have, and some of the effects of that disability. At the top end of estimates, as many as one in five, or 20 percent of New Zealanders, could have difficulty in using one or more public land transport services. However, it is clear from the information presented that some disabled people are able to use public land transport services, even if it is more difficult than it could be or should be.
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3.4 The following demographic profile of disabled people and their transport patterns is available from existing secondary sources, from other reports and studies undertaken by the Human Rights Commission, and from other agencies and advocates for disabled people. The chapter looks first at the available statistical information about disabled people in New Zealand, and then examines in more detail the prevalence of transport difficulties among disabled New Zealanders.
Disability among New Zealanders
3.5 Statistics New Zealand (SNZ) carried out national disability surveys in 1996-1997 and 2000-2001, associated with the national census.
3.6 For the disability surveys, SNZ used a functional definition of disability, adopting a World Health Organisation definition:
“any restriction or lack (resulting from impairment) of ability to perform any activity in the manner or within the range considered normal for a human being.”
3.7 On this basis, a disability was defined by SNZ as “any limitation in activity resulting from a long term condition or health problem”. The disability must have lasted more than six months, and the limitation not be completely removed by the use of remedial means, such as glasses, a walking stick or a hearing aid.
3.8 In 2001 one in five New Zealanders had a disability, with a total of 743,800 New Zealanders reporting some level of disability. Disability increases with age. Overall, 11 percent of children aged 0-14 years had a disability, compared with 13 percent of adults aged 15-44, 25 percent of adults aged 45-64, and 54 percent of adults aged 65 and over.
3.9 Within each age group, the disability rates for Māori were higher than the national rates, at 15 percent of Māori aged 0-14, 34 percent of Māori aged 45-64, and 61 percent of Māori aged 65 and over. Disability rates for Pacific children were lower (eight percent) than the national rates for children. Gender differences are apparent, with boys more likely to have a disability (13 percent) than girls (eight percent).
3.10 Physical disabilities are the most prevalent: 65 percent of adults (405,000) with disabilities living in households reported some kind of physical disability, involving some restriction of movement or loss of agility. Sensory disabilities, including sight and hearing disabilities, were the next most prevalent at 41 percent (256,400) followed by speaking, learning or remembering disabilities at 39 percent (245,400). About 15 percent of disabled people indicated that they suffered from psychiatric or psychological disabilities, and five percent were affected by an intellectual disability (28,900).
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3.11 About 60 percent of disabled adults living in households reported more than one disability, and 96 percent of disabled adults living in residential facilities had more than one disability. Disabled people are more likely to live alone: 18 percent (nearly 121,000) of disabled people do so, compared with seven percent of non-disabled people (195,000).
3.12 The most recent, relevant information about disabled people and public transport outside this Inquiry comes from Living with Disability in New Zealand, a Ministry of Health report published in 2004. It comprehensively describes the results from two national disability surveys conducted by SNZ in 2001. The Household Disability Survey examined the day-to-day living arrangements and activity restrictions of 7,256 adults and children with disabilities living in households. The Disability Survey of Residential Facilities gathered a smaller range of information from 928 adults with disabilities living in institutions, such as homes for older people and hospitals.
3.13 The report examined the travel patterns of people with disability living in households, and their access to, and use of, different forms of transport, such as private motor vehicles, taxis, buses, trains and ferries. It also describes the kinds of disability-related modification to vehicles that people had or needed.
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3.14 Key findings relating to private motor vehicles include the fact that 11 percent of adults (around 63,400) and seven percent of children (around 5,500) with disability live in households without a car, compared with four percent of adults and five percent of children without a disability. An estimated 6,000 adults had not been able to purchase an appropriate vehicle for their own condition or health problem, usually because of the cost. Approximately 1,200 parents or caregivers of children with disability were not able to purchase an appropriate vehicle for their child because of the cost.
3.15 Key findings relating to public transport included proximity and ease of access to public transport, the difficulty of getting on and off public transport, and the limitations of inaccessibility. A total of 76 percent of adults with disability indicated that they could easily get to a bus stop or a railway station from where they lived. The remaining 24 percent (an estimated 139,300 adults) indicated that they could not. Other difficulties included having to stand in a moving vehicle; identifying the right vehicle and the right stop; getting route and timetable information; transporting a wheelchair or other aids; and unhelpful staff.
3.16 Overall, 12 percent of the adults and seven percent of the children with disability who were able to make short trips indicated that they would have difficulty travelling short distances on public transport such as buses, trains, trams and ferries, because of disability-related problems. The most common difficulty for both adults and children was getting on and off public transport.
3.17 Around 46,000 adults who had access to a bus service, but had not made any short trips by bus in the previous 12 months, said they would travel on buses if they were easier to use. Parents or caregivers of 22 percent of children (an estimated 1,500 children) who had access to a bus service, but had not made any short trips by bus in the previous 12 months, indicated that their child would travel on buses if they were easier to use. Of the employed adults who had not used a bus to travel to work the previous day, nine percent (an estimated 19,100) said they would travel to work more often in buses if they were made easier to use.
3.18 Two key findings relating to transport subsidies and grants show the extent to which disabled people who had modified private vehicles used their own finances (77 percent had acquired these vehicles without government help); and the large number of disabled people (70 percent of disabled adults and 78 percent of parents or caregivers of disabled children) who had no knowledge of the Total Mobility scheme.
3.19 Around eight percent (an estimated 6,000) of children with disability aged 8-14 living in households needed special transport or help to get to school because of disability. This includes 3,100 children who used specially modified private motor vehicles to get to school, and 2,100 who used specialised transport services or taxis. The report does not say whether there is any unmet need or partially met needs.
3.20 Living with Disability in New Zealand shows that transport difficulties compound the structural disadvantages of many disabled people in relation to education, employment, household income and living standards. Adults with disability are less likely than adults without disability to have a post-school qualification. They are less likely to be employed, and more likely to have lower personal incomes, than adults without disabilities, even when they have similar educational attainments. Disabled people are more likely than people without disability to live in the five most deprived areas in New Zealand.
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3.21 Public land transport difficulties differ for individuals and groups according to the nature of their disabilities. For adults with physical disabilities, getting on and off public transport, standing in buses and finding the stops were major concerns. Blind and visually impaired people had some of the same concerns and different issues relating to audio announcements, while deaf and hearing impaired people regarded visual identification aids as a fundamental need. For people with psychiatric and psychological disabilities the issue may not be physical accessibility, but the attitudes and behaviours of drivers and fellow passengers, which can in fact affect all disabled people.
Intellectual disability and public transport
3.22 The New Zealand Disability Surveys have been criticised for their data on people with intellectual disabilities. In the report To Have an ‘Ordinary’ Life: Kia Whai Oranga ‘Noa’, the National Advisory Committee on Health and Disability stated:
“In terms of information on intellectual disability, however, the data gathered can only be regarded as indicative … due to significant problems in definition and ascertainment.”
3.23 The report was critical of the way in which people with an intellectual disability were particularly disadvantaged by the Ministry of Health's policy that mobility equipment outside the home is funded only for those in paid employment or formal education:
“The nature of an intellectual impairment can make it difficult to access the community independently. Learning to drive and using public transport both require complex cognitive skills. Some adults with an intellectual disability are able to learn these skills with the assistance of training, support and plain language information, others are not.”
3.24 It recommended that the Ministry of Health “ensure that the needs assessment processes identify individual requirements for assistance with transport, and training or support to use transport”, and that the Minister of Transport “encourage public transport providers to develop information in plain language formats”.
3.25 As a companion to the Living with Disability in New Zealand report, the Ministry of Health has published Living with Intellectual Disability in New Zealand. The report summarises key information from the Household Disability Survey 2001 and the Residential Facilities Disability Survey, both conducted by Statistics New Zealand.
3.26 Key findings relating to use of public transport services include the fact that 35 percent (6,300) of adults with intellectual disability had used public bus services in the last twelve months, while 27 percent (7,200) had difficulty using public transport for short trips. Among children with intellectual disability, 67 percent (5,500) had used public bus services for short trips, while 33 percent (1,700) had not used public transport in the previous year, and would have difficulty doing so.
3.27 In relation to the Total Mobility scheme, 31 percent (8,100) of adults with intellectual disability had heard of the scheme, as had 24 percent (3,000) of children with intellectual disability.
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3.28 To Have an ‘Ordinary’ Life: Kia Whai Oranga ‘Noa’ showed that the cost of transport is often a barrier to full participation for people with intellectual disability. A total of 13 percent (3,400) of adults with intellectual disability said they needed help with the cost of transport, while 17 percent (2,000) of parents/caregivers needed financial assistance for their child’s transport, but had not been able to get it.
Age and disability
3.29 The prevalence of disability increases with age. The predicted ageing of New Zealand’s population suggests that transport policy, planning and practice will have to incorporate new understandings about the inter-relationship between age and disability. The Office for Senior Citizens recently released a study of 28 couples and 43 single people aged over 80 who had coped without a car for at least six months. It states:
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“It cannot be assumed that public transport will easily substitute for private transport once access to a car is lost. However, public transport could become a more attractive and viable transport option for older people if access and safety are improved, if routes and timetables are made more flexible to fit the needs of older people, and if services are better coordinated.”
3.30 A key condition for effectively improving the accessibility of public land transport is to know the extent and nature of the barriers faced by disabled people, and to broaden the knowledge base about what might work to increase accessibility for disabled people.
3.31 While some detailed work has been undertaken in New Zealand about living with disabilities, the available data provides a partial picture only. Difficulties with defining some disabilities also confuse the picture. What is known, however, supports the evidence submitted to the Inquiry about the systemic barriers to the accessible journey faced by disabled people, and by parents and caregivers of disabled children. More work needs to be done to gather valid, reliable, regular and comprehensive data that can be disaggregated effectively to provide a foundation for transport planning, funding and implementation.
3.32 The lack of clarity about how many disabled people have difficulty using public land transport services as they are currently offered in each region limits the extent to which transport providers, funders and regulators can measure the benefits and costs of the provision of fully accessible public land transport. Both the social and economic costs of removing or reducing the barriers, and the opportunities inherent in improving the accessibility, affordability, availability and acceptability of public transport for disabled people, remain future research challenges for those involved in statistical information and policy analysis.
3.33 Despite the limitations of the research information available, there is clear evidence that the cost of transport is a significant barrier to participation for disabled people on low incomes, including those with a welfare benefit as their main source of income. This has a profound influence on how much social interaction disabled people are able to have, at work, in education, or in the community generally.
