Step Up Report: Auckland Disability Research Group

Maya Angelou, the great African-American writer, could have written the foreword to this report when she said,

“People will forget what you said; people will forget what you did; but they will never forget how you made them feel”.

Today we gain a glimpse into the every day realities of the 77,000 disabled persons who inhabit Auckland.

In any representative group of disabled Auckland adults:

• five in nine will have impaired mobility;
• three in nine will have impaired hearing;
• one in nine will have impaired sight;
• and more than half of disabled persons have more than one type of impairment.

Knowing the nature of the impairment is one part of the picture, but the biggest challenge for policy makers and whanau alike, is to determine the nature of the experience – how we, as a community, make disabled persons and their families feel.

And so I greatly welcome the initiative taken by the Auckland City Council, Auckland District Health Board, Waitakere City Council and AUT University Local Government Centre, in providing a snapshot of life for disabled Aucklanders.  It is absolutely perfect timing for the report to be out there – given the pending legislation to establish the Supercity Council.

The concept of ‘step up’ is used to cleverly convey four key challenges for disabled Aucklanders.

The first is the set of obstacles disabled persons face if there are barriers in transport and public spaces.

Getting around Auckland is exhausting and demoralising if you are forever facing asphalt obstacles in the form of footpaths, kerbs and stairs which block your access. 

Another set of obstacles relates to the income levels that many disabled Aucklanders are forced to live on.

From this study, it appears that even when disabled persons have tertiary qualifications, non-disabled persons are a step higher in the level of personal incomes.

This, in turn, links in to the need to encourage employers to understand that disabled persons are high calibre, loyal employees.

This brings me to the third set of obstacles – those related to what I suggest demands an attitudinal shift – the challenge for society to step up to the plate in providing reliable and quality personal support services.

 As the Minister for Disability Issues I must say that it was disappointing to read that the participants in this report, had concerns around the reliability, the skill levels, the levels of spoken English and issues of personal safety.

But by far the greatest worry for me in reading this report was to read a comment that many disabled Aucklanders indicate that they feel afraid or powerless to address their concerns with the service provider.

Barriers of fear and prejudice are the remnants of a disabling society which I would have hoped had long disappeared.

The final set of challenges depicted in the report is driven by the motivation for the same set of rights, obligations that other citizens have – the desire for active citizenship.

I think one of the particularly distinctive features of this report is the stories of disabled persons in their own words.  While the scenarios described for Lilly and Fred are fictional, the insights are real.

And so as we traverse broken footpaths and variable degrees of home support, a picture is built up which signals that significant and urgent change is still required.

It feels like this is a signal for Superman to appear – or at least a fairy godmother –to announce the strategy for getting it right for disabled Aucklanders.

Well I’m a very proud grandmother and great grandmother, but I haven’t as yet been rewarded with a magic wand to make everything fall into place.

I do, however, have the very strong support of a range of strategies to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; and to implement our own New Zealand Disability Strategy.

In this context, the Step Up report is a vital resource for government services, to transform our communities from disabling to being enabling and inclusive.

I want to just briefly touch on how we can build on the recommendations that have come from your report; to demonstrate leadership, partnership, innovation and action.

In terms of leadership, I have established a Ministerial Committee on Disability Issues which I am charging with the responsibility of implementing the UN Convention; the Disability Strategy and the recommendations of the select committee inquiry on the quality of care and service provision for people with disabilities.

When we refer to leadership, it is just as essential that we look to disabled persons and their families for their advice as to the proper priorities for action.

I am keen to meet with the Disability Council, comprised of representatives of disabled persons consumer groups and families.

And I am also impatient to see ordinary life outcomes being quickly realised across all areas of Government.

I want to encourage a greater focus from the disability support system, on enabling disabled persons and their families to have greater choice and control over their lives.  

To do so, disability supports need to be flexible and able to respond to the special circumstances of individual situations.   As a consequence, I am very interested in pursuing individualised funding paths.

I am also passionate about the right of families to care for their own; and to be able to access financial support to do so. 

To do this, they need to have all the support they need in their own home; and for families to feel supported by ongoing reliable and qualified people – rather than waiting for a crisis to occur.

Finally, I want to signal my interest in the Local Area Coordination model.   Essentially, the LAC model has a strong focus on developing and utilising what we might call the ‘natural networks’ – the community and family supports that are already present.

The Local Area Coordination model focuses on the aspirations and expectations of the disabled person and their family (‘what constitutes a good life’); while Needs Assessment and Service places emphasis on the type of disability support that is required.

Although I have only had responsibility for the disability issues portfolio for just over two months now, it has been increasingly evident to me, that there are a number of things we could do quickly to ensure Government services are accessible to all, and that the targeted disability supports work well, are fair, and give value for money.

But more than anything I want to see that everything I do in the disability portfolio improves the opportunities, choices and responsibilities for disabled persons to fully participate in their community.

The work that the Auckland Disability Research Group has been able to share with me in this project will provide an important context for me to be able to step up to the plate, to do what I can to ensure we all work together, and lead the way onwards, for outcomes we can all believe in.