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A family’s story
Andrea Lamont’s 19-year-old son Tyler has cerebral palsy and is a wheelchair user. He is also visually impaired and autistic. Since last February’s quake his caregiver has been his mum as employed...
View ArticleNew recreation centre fails first test
If the newly-completed Graham Condon Recreation and Sport Centre in Papanui is an example of how the rebuild is happening, then people with disabilities have cause for concern. Disability groups who...
View ArticleThe Canterbury quake: one year on
This special edition of Manahau looks at how the Christchurch rebuild is responding to the needs and issues of people with disabilities a year on from the earthquake that levelled much of the city and...
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Paul Gibson’s Editorial: New Zealand Sign Language Week
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...
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See how to communicate
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...
View ArticleSpeech 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. (View this article...
View ArticleFirst Deaf MP wants a fully accessible Parliament
The country’s first Deaf MP Mojo Mathers wants to ensure Parliament is fully accessible to all New Zealanders. (View this article in NZSL.) The Green MP in her first term was at the centre of a furore...
View ArticleNew 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...
View ArticleSkytower climber’s feat to raise attention for disabled Samoans
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...
View ArticleMarae plan to lift accessibility
The Waikato District Health Board continues to be part of a wider group, including CCS Disability Action, on a project to improve accessibility for marae. “The focus of the project is to enable all...
View ArticleChanges affect Māori mental health services
Funding for Māori mental health services has suffered a downturn says Rangi McLean who works for a Māori public health provider Hāpai Te Hauora Tāpui in Auckland.Rangi says the plan is to consolidate...
View ArticleGaps identified in services for disabled indigenous people
It’s time to look at disabilities from indigenous perspectives, says Dr Huhana Hickey, a lawyer, advocate and disabled Māori woman with multiple sclerosis.“I have recently returned from Toronto where...
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How Karangahape Rd earned its name
Ike Rakena manages Makaurau Marae, left tetraplegic after a rugby league accident, he acknowledged the kaupapa that sees his marae founded by an ancestor with a disability. The ancestor Hape’s story is...
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Manahau, mana hauā, and Matariki
A crescent moon gives a toothless grin from a sinking sky into an icy hauāuru sunset. The star cluster Matariki (and star Puanga) have been seen twinkling before dawn. The transition between years is...
View ArticleNgā Tapuwae o Hape (the Footsteps of Hape)
A two day hui for Māori to discuss disability issues will be held at Makaurau Marae from Friday 22 June in the Auckland suburb of Māngere. Jointly hosted by the Human Rights Commission,the Disabled...
View ArticleDisability advocate honoured in Queen’s Birthday and Diamond Jubilee Honours
The Commission would like to congratulate Chief Executive of DPA, Gary Williams of Ngāti Porou, who has been recognised in the recent Queen’s Birthday and Diamond Jubilee Honours by being awarded the...
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Disability is Diversity
By Paul Gibson, Disability Rights Commissioner | Kaihautū Tika Hauātanga Kotahi te kōhao o te ngira e kuhuna ai te miro mā, te miro pango, te miro whero. There is but a single eye of the needle through...
View ArticleDiversity Forum – Panel discussion on Te Reo and New Zealand Sign Language
A panel at the Diversity Forum on 20th August discussed issues of language promotion and protection as they apply to our official languages Te Reo and New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL). Panellist...
View ArticleDisability support coordinator needed for Christchurch
Christchurch really needs a disability support coordinator to work with people in culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities, say two well-known community advocates. Girdhari Kadariya and...
View ArticleIvan Yeo – advocate for Asian mental health consumers
The focus of Ivan Yeo’s work is reducing the barriers of stigma and discrimination for Asian mental health consumers and their families. He has a particular interest in the issues facing migrants. Ivan...
View ArticleThe Wellbeing Game – Serious Play
“Games give you new models for looking at the world, they are the ‘ultimate happiness engine’, because they work better than reality — there are better instructions, better feedback and better...
View ArticleMental illness, rights, and saying sorry
I am writing this column during Taranaki’s celebration of Mental Illness Awareness week from Parihaka, under the mountain Taranaki. Taranaki is said to have gone on a long tearful journey of sadness...
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Difference enriches our world
Talofa lava, Kia ora, Fakaalofa lahi atu, Aloha, Ni sa bula, Malo e lelei, Kia orana, Taloha ni, Halo olaketa, Warm Pacific Greetings. My name is Leilani and I work as a Disability Advisor here at the...
View ArticleThe Mental Health Commissioner within the Health and Disability Commission
The Mental Health Commission (MHC) was established in 1996 to provide independent advice to the Government following a national inquiry into mental health services in New Zealand regarding the...
View ArticleThe Value of Peer Support Groups
Lessons from the Christchurch earthquakes can be applied in many situations. The proverb “He aha te mea nui o te ao? He tangata! He tangata! He tangata!” (“What is the most important thing in the...
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Everyone in, not out
When we lose the right to be different, we lose the privilege to be free. Charles Evan Hughes Open your newspaper any day of the week and you’re likely to see people with mental illness portrayed as...
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The journey continues: three reports on the rights of disabled people
A fully inclusive society recognises and values disabled people as equal participants. Their needs are understood as integral to the social and economic order and not identified as ‘special’. To...
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Working together to create a disability strategy
The recently-adopted Disability Strategy for the Thames-Coromandel District is guided by the vision that ‘the Coromandel Peninsula is an accessible, inclusive place that values the rights and diversity...
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Council wins award for DIScover resource kit
The Upper Hutt City Council (the Council) has recently won two awards for ‘DIScover: serving customers with disabilities’. In August the Council won the 2012 Diversity Award from the Equal Employment...
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Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability Annual Monitoring Report
The first annual report of the Independent Monitoring Mechanism of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was launched on Monday, 3 December, the International Day of Persons with...
View ArticleThe right to sign: New Zealand Sign Language and human rights
The Commission is carrying out an inquiry into the use and promotion of New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) as an official language of NZ. To view the NZSL video click here NZSL has been an official...
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Accessible Christchurch
Christchurch is on the way to becoming one of the most accessible cities in the world in the aftermath of the Canterbury earthquakes. A group of disabled people, disabled people’s organisations and...
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‘We focus on results!’
Making public transport more accessible in the Waikato Disabled people were able to try out bus travel in Hamilton recently. The ‘Have a Go Day’ gave them the chance to get on and off buses, take their...
View ArticleCelebrating and reflecting on disability and diversity
Kotahi te kōhao o te ngira e kuhuna ai te miro mā, te miro pango, te miro whero. There is but a single eye of the needle through which white, black and red threads must pass. Pōtatau Te Wherowhero, the...
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Success through making a complaint
It is 20 years since disability and sexual orientation were incorporated as grounds of unlawful discrimination into the Human Rights Act 1993 (HRA). Many people worked together to make this happen....
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Demystifying mediation: Profile of Commission Mediator Cecelia O’Dell
Mediation can be a daunting and misunderstood term. Demystifying the term and clearly explaining the mediation process is one of the first things Commission Mediator Cecelia O’Dell will do when she...
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Te Rito – human rights case studies
Disability issues make up the second highest number of complaints to the Commission. The main issues disabled people face are lack of support services and reasonable accommodation; difficulties...
View ArticleCase study 1: Problem with online identity
What happened? (View in NZSL.) Daniel wanted to use an online service but was frustrated to find the only confirmation of personal identification was a driver’s licence. Daniel has been blind since...
View ArticleCase Study 2: Agency fixes access for disabled clients
Hannah, who is disabled and uses a wheelchair, visited the local branch of an agency to find that there was no longer a wheelchair accessible counter at which she could be seen or use to write out...
View ArticleCase Study 3: Jenny misses out on school camp
Jenny has an intellectual disability. Her school decided she could not attend a school camp because it felt her behaviour posed a potential health and safety risk. The school had insufficient resources...
View ArticleNews update
Te Urunga Award 2013 The Human Rights Commission will be presenting Te Urunga Award to support inclusiveness for the second time at this year’s ASB Polyfest. The award will be presented to the...
View ArticleInsulting comments in broadcasting
In 2009, the Commission received a large number of complaints from people who thought broadcaster Paul Henry’s comments about British singer Susan Boyle were insulting to her and to all disabled...
View ArticleCommission concerned new family carer legislation will compromise disability...
The Human Rights Commission is concerned that new legislation will make it more difficult for disabled people and their families to access their rights. The New Zealand Public Health and Disability...
View Article“We’re not alone!” The Taku Manawa Mana Hauā programme
The Human Rights Commission recently began a Taku Manawa Mana Hauā programme in Auckland. This three year programme begins with an eight-day course that focused on disability rights. Participants...
View ArticleNZSL Inquiry – Update
Over the last few months the Commission has been collating information on key issues under three priority areas identified in the NZSL Inquiry’s Terms of Reference: 1 NZSL in education 2...
View ArticleAnything is possible! Disabled students excited to be Polyfest winners
The Te Urunga Award for Disability Inclusiveness was awarded to two disability inclusive groups on the Maori and Cook Island Stages at Auckland Polyfest. The colleges that won were to Mt Roskill...
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The Whakapapa of Human Rights, Māori, Disability and Matariki
This week, snow shrouds the mountains and much of Te Wai Pounamu. Bitter winds brought down trees, homes, power lines, sea walls and rail links. Our home shakes with each gust. From my bed, in between...
View ArticleThe 2013 Disability Survey is happening soon
From July to October of this year, Statistics New Zealand will be collecting data as part of the 2013 Disability Survey. The last Disability Survey was held in 2006. This post-censal survey planned...
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Commission has launched new disability complaints resource
The Human Rights Commission launched a complaint resource for disabled people and their families at the 3rd National Disability Conference. Titled Your human rights and making complaints, the booklet...
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Improving marae access for disabled people
Ngā Tapuwae o Hape hui Karangahape Road is well known throughout New Zealand but few are aware of the history behind its name. Its story is entwined with that of Hape, a successful explorer who was...
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