DPA New Zealand

Bites: December 2002 and January 2003

 

May the force be with us

The need to become a political force and how to achieve that were the key issues at DPA’s October Conference, NEC member, Lorna Sullivan, declared in her summary of Conference proceedings. "Conferences can be tiring, but stimulating,"

Lorna said. "You always learn a lot. You spend a lot of time in discussion and in informal discussion where you really find out the important things. It’s been very stimulating and well focused on Disability as a Political Force, to stimulate our thinking.

"It got us thinking in various ways. The need to become a political force is a key issue - along with how to achieve that. We’ve seen a number of ways and explanations about how that might happen.lives and what the future might be able to look like if we can overcome some of the attitudes and barriers that have been systemic in recent years."

Having disabled people in control of their own organisation and having a chief executive who was also disabled, contributed much to making conference much more laid back, long-time DPA member, Robyn Hunt, said later. "There’s much less aggravation, no blood on the floor," she said.

Excellent conference

"Excellent, worthwhile, enjoyable, relaxing, laid back," were some of the positive comments made about the very successful DPA National Assembly and Conference held in Invercargill during 11 October to 13 October 2002. About 100 people attended the National Assembly, that for some was like getting together again with "family". The well-organised effort from DPA Southland to host the event attracted other positive comments and here are some of them:

"I want to say what a good job you did organising the conference. I heard not grumpy word just heaps of positive comment. Well done."

"Invercargill did us proud with an excellent venue - unfortunately no oysters but plenty of Speights! most enjoyable and worthwhile conference."

"Many thanks for all your assistance and wonderful organisation of such an excellent 20th Conference for DPA. The hospitality and your very warm welcome made it all worthwhile for the four of us who had travelled from Taranaki. I found Invercargill a lovely place - very friendly - with many interesting sights."

"I merely wanted to pass on my kudos to you for a job very well done in pulling the conference together on short notice. You did great, and everything seemed to come off without any apparent hitches!

"Where did you find Gerry Ford? He was so patronising. How are the media people after their workshop? "

"Would you like to organise the next one?"

DPA to lobby for change

DPA is to develop and propose a structure for purchasing what is now called DSS (Disability Support Services) for people under 65 years, after a remit calling for that action was passed at conference.

In proposing that remit, former DPA president, Paul Gibson, said DPA would not want Disability Support Services to be subsumed by the 21 district health boards, as few had any knowledge about disability.

"We need a structure governed by the community of disabled people. We need to be proactive about the structure, rather than wait for a government decision."

DPA also agreed to establish a series of issues - based forum with computer list servers - lists of email addresses automatically receiving emails from others in the list.

The lists usually are for a given group or topic and would be a tool for participation in decisionmaking and democracy.

DPA will also examine development of a disability commission after such a remit was passed at Conference. In proposing the idea for a disability commission, Paul Gibson, said no formal monitoring body existed outside of government to monitor implementation of the New Zealand Disability Strategy.

He compared the idea for a disability commission to the function of the Mental Health Commission, "an efficient and effective unit delivering for one community within the broader disabled community."

New NEC on board

Six new members of DPA’s national executive committee were voted into their positions following the ballot vote for membership. The new members are: Linda Beck (79 votes); Ken Talbot (74 votes); Lorna Sullivan (71 votes); Dot Wilson (68 votes); Chris Ford (61 votes); and Amy Hindley (55 votes).

They join other NEC members, David Corner, Jonathan Wilkinson, Sara Georgeson, Huhana Hickey and Beverley Grammer on the NEC, Matt Whiting and Victoria Manning both having stepped aside.

Good for a laugh

Even the best people are caught out sometimes. So it was for conference organiser, Ann Boyles. During housekeeping announcements there was a burst of hilarity when dear Ann unwittingly asked people walking the guide dogs to raise their hand, so we could see who they were. Everyone had a good laugh about that one.

And as for that talk about "crips" among some, that only proved self-deprecating humour is alive and healthy.

Organisers encourage others

Hosting conference was a big effort for DPA Southland who took up the task with gusto at short notice. They were not slow, however, to challenge other DPA regions to host the next one.

"Invercargill DPA has 17 members and a committee of eight," said Ann Boyles, one of the Conference 2002 organisers. "I would like to challenge other regions to run conference. It’s been a big learning curve for us.

And, speaking against the remit proposing to limit conferences to the main centres of Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, she said: "I would like to see others parts of the country."

Dot Wilson, conference 2002 organiser, also extolled the benefits. "Our community profile has been raised and for those involved whether they be staff at Ascot or members of Altrusa, or volunteer drivers, all now have a greater awareness towards disability. An opportunity, you bet - cannot understand why others do not grab it."

Loo to be put right

The large single level Ascot Park in Invercargill hosted DPA’s National Assembly and boasted an accessible public women’s toilet.

Sadly, the so-called accessible women’s toilet actually wasn’t.

However, it is to be put right. Word from Invercargill’s DPA conference organiser, Dot Wilson, about the convenience, which turned out to be very inconvenient, is that the bad privy will get a refit, along with a "lip" at the hotel entrance.

"The architect has been out to Ascot Park to view the inaccessible accessible ladies loo and to see the lip at the front entrance," Dot said. "Our member who is accredited ‘Barrier Free’ auditor is liaising with both. So next time you are down this way all should be in place." Thank goodness!

Maori need waking up to disability

Maori needed to teach their whanau that "people with disabilities are OK", Murihika local, Tapeka Hakopa, said in his welcome speech at the conference powhiri. "We need to work on that and educate our people. It’s time for a wake up call for all of us. We need to teach our people that people with disabilities are OK.

Champion Town Cryer teaches deaf kids

Itinerant teacher of deaf children, Gretchen Mark- Dear, is Invercargill’s official Town Cryer and currently the New Zealand champion Town Cryer.

She’s been "crying" for the past four years. "I just do it because I enjoy people and it’s fun," Gretchen told DPA Bites after officially "crying" a Friday night welcome to conference delegates.

A teacher of deaf children for "many, many years" and known as "the mouth of the south" she said, "it’s a bit ironic that I’m Town Cryer". Gretchen is based at van Asch Deaf Education Centre, employed and hosted by Invercargill South School.

Education a key priority

A Code of Practice is to be developed in tertiary education to support people with disabilities, the Minister for Disability Issues, Hon Ruth Dyson told delegates at this year’s conference.

A comprehensive review of the Special Supplementary Grant will also be conducted to ensure that it is meeting the needs of tertiary students with disabilities.

About 11 per cent of children with disabilities have not always been able to enrol at the school of their choice, perhaps because the school is unwelcoming, or special services and equipment were not available.

"None of these reasons are good enough," Ruth Dyson told conference delegates. She said the government would work to uphold the right (and provide the necessary support) for all children to attend their local school.

Children’s education project

A $500,000 research project by the Donald Beasley Institute and the Children’s Issues Centre, to start next year and sponsored by the Marsden Fund, is to investigate how school experience shapes children’s sense of identity.

Five Dunedin-based researchers will follow 18 children for three years as they make the transition from primary to secondary school. Nine of the children will have a range of intellectual and physical disabilities, matched to a control group of nine children without disabilities.

"The study is a first in looking at this age group, and because it focuses on the children’s perspective of their experiences. The results will be published widely so that teachers can learn from the findings and schools can become more inclusive for children with disabilities," Disability Issues Minister, Ruth Dyson says.

Needs assessment and service concerns

An overhaul of Needs Assessment and Service Coordination (NASC) organisation is expected to come up with a system based on interdepartmental co-operation and flexibility. Disability Issues Minister, Ruth Dyson, said the service was currently half-way through an overhaul.

"My aim, at the end of the day, is that people with disabilities will have one generic assessment, no matter where they live or what their needs are, and specialist services will be brought in as required from appropriate government departments and funding streams."

Equipment services, carer support and respite care were priorities for future funding increases, she said.

"There is also widespread concern about inequitable access to services for people with disabilities, and a lack of coherence in the services provided.

"Some of this is because of the different levels of provision available to people whose disability was acquired through accident and those whose disability had other causes.

"Some of it stems from agencies’ different definitions of ‘disability’, the lack of an interagency interagency approach, inconsistent funding mechanisms and eligibility criteria, problems with the location of providers, lack of information and alienation of some potential clients."

TM vehicles need upgrade

Nine year-old vehicles with about 334,000km on the clock are the average for wheelchair capable vehicles in the national Total Mobility scheme.

And most operators say their vehicles are overdue for replacement, according to a recent survey quoted by the New Zealand Federation.

NZ Taxi Federation has been concerned that regional councils were not making available sufficient funding for replacement vehicles equipped with wheelchair hoists.

Accessible transport is a vital link to society for people with disabilities and the Total Mobility taxi voucher scheme has been a key transport initiative since being introduced in 1984, giving people with disabilities a 50 per cent subsidy on the usual taxi fare for travel within a defined area.

The door-to-door passenger transport service uses regular taxis and vehicles fitted with wheelchair hoists, is administered by regional councils and voluntary organisations such as DPA, New Zealand CCS and Age Concern. Some 60 per cent of funding comes from council and 40 per cent from Transfund New Zealand.

Eligibility varies among regional councils but the main rule is that the disability means someone can’t use public transport. Some councils require a doctor’s certificate confirming that a person can’t use public transport or drive.

People from one area can use their vouchers in other parts of New Zealand, although local conditions apply.

Clear goals on transport

The disability strategy outlines clear goals in the area of Total Mobility, notably with Objective 8, designed to support quality living in the community for people with disabilities and requiring:

Minister of Disability Issues, Ruth Dyson said the Ministry of Social Development last year reviewed transport services for disabled people.

The Ministry found that high costs of transport and insufficient public transport deterred people from using support services - and that could be a significant barrier to participating in paid employment.

This was especially a problem for Pacific people in the urban Auckland region, halting access to disability support services there.

Problems with TM

Growing numbers of older people and people with high support needs has increased demand and costs of the Total Mobility service, according to Ruth Dyson.

As a result, many councils have moved to cap costs by imposing local limits, she said. Some councils were:

Some had restricted assistance to taxi companies for hoists or compensation for administration overheads. Administration is inconsistent across the country, assessment and eligibility criteria vary and the service mainly operates in urban areas when rural people are more likely to have to travel long distances in areas without public transport.

A review of Total Mobility by Transfund is expected to be completed by the middle of next year.

"Purple Circle" round Invercargill

Never one to miss an opportunity, Mayor Tim Shadbolt, arrived at conference straight from talks about the stranded ship, TaiPing, and welcomed delegates to Invercargill.

He outlined how Total Mobility scheme costs were increasing by 20 or 30 percent a year in Invercargill. "More of you are getting out into the public more and more," he said.

And though Councils were always worried about rates costs, he suggested subsidies were available and Invercargill had an innovative approach to public transport, currently centred on "Freebie the Bus" travelling the "Purple Circle".

He said he hoped that in future all buses in Invercargill would be free. And accessible.

Office of DI

Seven staff have taken up positions in the new Office of Disability Issues based in the Charles Ferguson building in Wellington, including former DPA policy researcher, Owen Hughes, and NEC member, Victoria Manning.

Other staff include former Hamilton-based Workbridge staffer, Judy Small, who has been at the Ministry of Social Development for the past 18 months; formerly from the National Health Workforce Committee and the Mental Health Commission, Tessa Thompson; senior policy analyst, Julia Elworthy; and former national policy administrator for Age Concern, Paul Dickie. They will report to the Director, Jan Scown, who has a variety of roles in the disability sector for the past 20 years.

Helping interpret NZDS

Helping government agencies interpret the New Zealand Disability Strategy will be a key task for the new Disability Issues Office, according to director, Jan Scown.

"We are tasked with monitoring their implementation of the Strategy. We’ve got a big job to help them come up with meaningful ways to interpret the strategy and do things. She says the Office will work across all government departments in an advisory capacity, ensuring that departments have plans in place to implement the Disability Strategy.

The Office will also advise the Minister of Disability Issues, "pulling together what government departments have done, for the Minister to present to Parliament," Dr Scown said. "We provide service for the Minister’s office."

Careful consideration would be given to the work programme. "The key will be identifying some priorities and identifying where we can make the most difference. We’re going to be careful that we don’t get too stretched otherwise we’ll be running around getting nowhere," Dr Scown said.

Seven full-time staff have been employed initially, expanding to 10 over the next five years and staff in the new Office were familiar with the sector. "We’ve got a whole lot of people who are really passionate about disability issues and have got networks and good knowledge about different parts of the sector."

Dr Scown co-chaired the New Zealand Disability Strategy sector reference group, has been the chief executive of the Community Living Trust in Hamilton and helped to establish Access Ability Limited, a NASC agency operating in five centres in New Zealand.

One of the office’s roles will be to ensure that a disability perspective is included in all relevant Cabinet papers, Disability Issues Minister, Hon Ruth Dyson said.

"The absence of such a watchdog role in the past has meant, for example, that the Telecommunications Bill was introduced into parliament without any significant reference to the needs of people who are deaf, or who have hearing or speech impairments."

Want to be a leader?

If you haven’t registered for the leadership course to be held during 5 January to 15 January 2003 at Hanmer Springs and you think you may be interested, contact Nathan Bond, Youth Leadership Development Project Co-ordinator, 22 Fitzherbert St, Alicetown, Lower Hutt, fax (04) 977 3869, Email: nathan.bond@paradise.net.nz

Independent thinking emphasised

Without the disability community, guest speaker at conference, Dr Martin Sullivan, said he would not be where he is today.

He began his presentation by acknowledging the disability community and thanked those certain individuals within the disability community for "kicking me in the butt when I was flagging. Without you, your stories and your experience I would not be where I am."

"Once upon a time I used to have all the answers. (I was) a hard-line orthodox Marxist and the proletarian revolution was going to save the world but that hasn’t happened and it doesn’t look likely," Dr Sullivan, a Senior Lecturer at the School of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work, Massey University, said.

In a wide-ranging "from the heart" discourse, Dr Sullivan spoke on Saturday morning for about 25 minutes. He said that he’d thrown out the prepared notes for his presentation as "all the issues that I was going to raise have been raised."

Be flexible

However, in his perceptive discussion on disability as a political force, Dr Sullivan stressed the importance of critical evaluation and analysis, and independent thinking. He noted that, of course, different personalities had different points of view and suggested that having the flexibility to reflect upon and to change one’s own point of view was essential .

"I have been trained over the past 20 years to be very critical and to ask difficult questions and sometimes in asking those questions you can become very unpopular. That can become a difficult place to be at times.

"I used to say institutions were incredibly bad. Years ago I did some advocacy work at a sheltered workshop in Auckland - I was shocked by that. From that moment I said close down sheltered workshops.

"But since then I have been involved in other groups within the disability world and now I’m not so clear cut that shutting down institutions is the answer.

"With de-institutionalisation we can close down a lot of big institutions but then we go and create mini institutions within the community. As far as I am concerned what we need to close down is institutionalised thinking. And deinstitutionalisation has become institutionalised thinking. This is very dangerous when it comes to providing respite for families with children whose behaviour challenges 18 – 20hours per day, 365 days of the year.

Be aware and critical

"Also, we can become very institutionalised in our thinking and we can start treating people as objects. We are all colonised (in our thinking) in various ways and we’re never totally de-colonised. Hence, we have to be continually on guard against our racist, sexist and disableist tendencies that have been socialised into us from birth. So it’s dangerous to be black and white. We need to be aware, to be critical in our thinking about solutions.

Decolonising ourselves

"I remember when I got paralysed. I was in hospital and this doctor comes around and he says ‘don’t worry, you just won’t be able to climb a ladder and you can’t play rugby’.

"I was never really told about disability when I was growing up. ‘Disability’didn’t exist when I was 17 years old. Disabled people and those sorts of things were to be avoided at all costs. I remember thinking, ‘shit, I’ve become one of them’.

"I thought of disability as an individual problem and, 30 years ago, I had a highly medicalised view - that ‘they’ had to remain in hospital and that doctors and nurses looked after ‘them’. That was my understanding about how the world was going to be for me. I was thoroughly colonised!

"Rehabilitation in those days was about doing sports. I met other disabled people. These guys and women actually taught me a hell of a lot about disability. They would go for jobs. Many of them had high qualifications but they’d say, ‘I can’t get jobs because people can’t see past my disability.’"

They would say: "Disability has nothing to do with my employment. It has everything to do with discrimination out there in society."

"Impairment is organic to us (in the sense that) it’s physical, sensory, cognitive, psychiatric. Disability is not something that we have got;, it’s something that’s put upon us; it’s social, political, economic, cultural exclusion - where we are not able to participate in society and in communities in the way that we would like.

Disabled people working for disabled people

"They were saying that in the 1970s. About the same time people in California at Berkley were setting up an independent living movement - disabled people working for disabled people. In the UK the disability movement was getting off the ground.

"A collective consciousness was operating. With that de-colonisation of disability, disabled people began to operate in a collective way for social and political rights.

"Two things flowed from that: the way we think about ourselves; and a direction for political strategy, a way to work towards the elimination of disability discrimination within our society.

"It was a road to Damascus experience - (the revelation) that this problem isn’t with me, it’s with society, and (the thought) that ‘we’ve got to work with other disabled people to change society’.

Disability Pride

"In terms of consciousness, that is thinking about ourselves, that’s where disability pride comes in. It’s not about saying ‘I am proud to be disabled’. But saying and thinking ‘who I am is OK, what happens to me is not’. So, from this perspective, I hate being disabled. I can organise my life around my impairment relatively easily, but I hate the additional barriers and restrictions society imposes on me because of my impairment.

"Linked to disability pride has been a drive for human rights, including:

"As a political cause, a lot of what we want means putting our energy into fighting to get rid of the disabling society. That is what we are after. The real thing we’re after is citizenship, the right to be citizens in our communities, to be able to take part in the decisions that create and re-create society, the ability to participate, the right to work, to leisure, travel, religious observance.

He said the potential for advances was huge, especially since the development of the New Zealand Disability Strategy. But with citizenship rights came duties.

"If we are going to be citizens the duty we have as a community is to really be on the government’s back in implementing the NZDS. While we are on their back, we need to be supportive and encouraging, but adopt a critical stance - things can always be done better.

Constructive support

"In 1993 we got a new deal. We were asked whether we wanted Disability Services to go to the Ministry of Health or the Department of Social Welfare, like a choice between cancer or polio.

"A bunch of us used to say then, why don’t we just have a Ministry of Disability Issues. Now I think we’ve got a good Minister and an Office of Disability Issues. But it is within the Ministry of Social Development, which is similar to the old DSW. I think that’s a real advance and something we need to support in a constructive but critical way, in the hope that one day we will have our own stand alone Ministry which is run and controlled 100 percent by disabled people."

Verona honoured

Long-time DPA member, Verona Moynihan, was honoured at conference with life-time membership of DPA. Recently retired as regional secretary of Napier and

Districts DPA Assembly, in order to concentrate on co-ordinating Total Mobility, Verona thanked everyone for honouring her but wanted to remember all the other people who also worked for their community.

Robyn says celebrate the gains

Disabled people have been and are a political force in the realisation of their own human rights and the human rights of others, Human Rights Commissioner, Robyn Hunt, told the conference.

"I take very seriously the leadership role the Commission takes in the realisation of human rights for disabled people nationally and internationally. I want disabled people to be able to talk to us about human rights issues of concern to them," she said, in her presentation, "The Right Approach: Disabled People and Human Rights Leadership".

She said she’d had 25 years of experience in the disability sector and in making her presentation it was "particularly lovely for me to be speaking to my own family about the Commission, to acknowledge and celebrate the advances of disabled people. So often we don’t celebrate what we have gained, and what people have done".

"Human rights are basic to our lives as human beings," she said. "The pursuit of human rights by disabled people internationally and nationally has been fundamental to the development of the disability rights movement worldwide.

"Internationally disabled people founded DPI (Disabled People’s International) in Canada following the International Year of Disabled People. National organisations of disabled people have campaigned in many countries for the realisation of their human rights.

"In Aotearoa New Zealand disabled people have organised to take control of their own lives and have a voice in their service organisations. They worked to achieve the inclusion of disability in the 1993 Human Rights Act. They have taken human rights complaints both as individuals and as groups. Some of these complaints have resulted in wide ranging systemic change.

She said changes to the Human Rights Act last year strengthened human rights protection for disabled people, and disabled people were involved in the processes that led to changes in the Act – going to consultation meetings, writing submissions, making their views heard and exercising their rights.

"It is largely as a result of that participation that disability has been identified as a priority for the work of the Commission.

"My role as Commissioner is to focus in particular on the disability work in the Commission. Our activities are centred around the first two objectives of the Disability Strategy: educate for a non-disabling society, and ensure the rights of disabled people."

Changes to the NZ Human Rights Act

New ways to tackle human rights issues have been established with changes to the Human Rights legislation including:

What Government accountability means

Complaints of disability discrimination still top the list of informal and formal complaints received by the Commission, Robyn Hunt says.

For the first half of this year the Commission received 632 complaints, 120 (or 20 percent) on the grounds of disability, mostly about employment and access to goods and services complaints.

Now there is protection from discrimination in the areas of employment, access to goods and services, education, accommodation, access to public places, government and public sector activities including laws, regulations, policies and procedures of government departments and Ministries.

Many of the activities that health and disability service providers supply on contract to the Government will now be covered by the Act. It is now unlawful to discriminate against someone because of a disability.

Systemic issues and disability

Systemic issues are issues that affect a group of people because their needs have not been taken into account when systems and processes were designed. They affect groups of people in similar ways, for example, lack of a telephone relay service affecting deaf people and people with speech impairments; and the lack of government information available in Braille affects blind Braille readers.

It is important that people feel able to contact the Commission about any systemic issues that might affect them, Commissioner, Robyn Hunt, says.

A National Plan of Action – human rights and disabled people

A national plan of action is like a "stock take" on where New Zealand is at with human rights and what needs to happen to improve the situation". The sort of things that might result from a National Plan of Action are:

A National Plan of Action is also a way of tackling systemic issues. Consultation with human rights groups and NGOs began in October with meetings in Auckland and Wellington which DPA was involved.

"It is important that disabled people take the opportunity to be involved. Consultation with disabled people will be an important part of the development of the National Plan of Action."

EEO Commissioner

Since 1988 all state sector organisations (government departments, ministries, schools and universities and so on) have had to have Equal Employment Opportunities (EEO) programmes. EEO programmes are designed to remove barriers to employment for disadvantaged groups.

The appointment of a full time EEO Commissioner is designed to encourage EEO programmes in both the state and private sector. The EEO Commissioner will also provide a focus for research and developing best practice standards in the EEO area.

The new dispute resolution process

The Human Rights Commission has been given a wide brief to do its best to resolve disputes. Usually this will mean contacting the people involved in a dispute and encouraging them to talk to each other to find a solution that everyone agrees to. This process may involve telephone calls, correspondence, and/or a series of negotiations or face-to-face meetings.

"We hope that this new system will result in a quicker, simpler, dispute resolution service. If mediation doesn’t work, it will still be possible to take a complaint to the Human Rights Review Tribunal (formerly the Complaints Review Tribunal) for a binding ruling, Robyn Hunt says.

Exciting international developments

A new and exciting development in Human Rights for Disabled People is beginning, Robyn Hunt says. "In November 2001 the general Assembly of the United Nations unanimously voted to begin work on a convention on the rights of disabled people."

"The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), adopted by the general assembly of the UN in 1948 says all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights: there are no distinctions of any kind in the rights and freedoms it proclaims.

"Since then, specific conventions have needed to be targeted at groups whose rights were not well addressed. So we have conventions for women (CEDAW) children (UNCROC) and against racial discrimination (CERD) in addition to the Universal Declaration. When countries sign these conventions, they must comply. Countries then are subject to international scrutiny of their actions, and governments submit regular reports to the UN.

"Internationally, disabled people have faced discrimination in many forms, lack of services, poverty, abuse and often a denial of their right to live. They have for a long time sought the protection afforded by a convention on disability.

"In 1983, the UN adopted Standard Rules for the Equalisation of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities. They also designated a Special Rapporteur to monitor their implementation of the rules. But because the rules are entirely voluntary, many countries have largely ignored them and disability discrimination has continued.

"International NGOs of disabled people such as Disabled People International, the World Blind Union, The World Federation if the Deaf and Rehabilitation International have pressured the UN to develop a convention.

"I am pleased to say that both DPA and the Human Rights Commission strongly support the development of a convention. It will further strengthen Human rights in New Zealand.

"DPA and the Commission joined together to host a meeting for NGOs recently to begin a process to gather the views and support of disabled people and their organisations. From that meeting came the suggestion of a NGO working group. The HRC will be pleased to continue to host meetings and share information. We hope to hold similar meetings in Auckland and Christchurch.

"It is very important that disabled people and their organisations get involved. I am very pleased that DPA is taking a leading role," Robyn says.

Know your rights

It is important for everyone to feel their rights are accessible. Everyone should know about their rights and their responsibilities and support each other to know their rights. Use the Tu Tikanga training resource, (the training package and network of disabled trainers working with disabled people to help them to realise their rights under the Human Rights Act.) Get the Information pack on the Convention from DPA National office or Phone: 0800 4 Your Rights or 0800 496 877 (toll free).
Email: Infoline@hrc.co.nz, www.hrc.co.nz

Elizabeth Cooper fund

A trio of DPA women, Robyn Hunt, Wendi Wicks and Valerie Smith have started a new loan fund for extremely disadvantaged disabled women in honour of the late Elizabeth Cooper.

The fund, announced at conference, is based on the Angel Fund and is for women even though Elizabeth supported "both men and women with a disability", Valerie Smith said.

Elizabeth passed away in August 2001. "Her life and actions continue to inspire many disabled women," Valerie said.

The trio hope to launch the fund via a fundraiser dinner next year. They hope to get support via oneoff and sustained donations which would be welcomed in any amount of money.

Wendi Wicks called for donations into her "Hat of Hope" or you can donate by contacting the National Office of DPA.

Victoria steps aside into Office

DPA National Executive Committee member, Victoria Manning, has stepped aside from her role on the committee after being appointed to the new Office of Disability Issues.

DPA Bites understands Victoria’s resignation from the NEC is designed to avoid any potential for conflict of interest between DPA policy and government policy.

"I am really sad to be stepping down from the NEC," Victoria told conference delegates. "I have just started a new job in the Disability Issues Office so I am not leaving you (really). "

She said the recent success with getting in place the telephone relay system for deaf people meant that it was a good time to move on. "It’s a good time for me to step down. I am also getting married."

Besides, once the relay system was up and running, she said: "You can all phone me!"

Sad to be branded

Southland woman, Wara Hakopa, had a daughter in 1958. That daughter they called Lovey was "branded" handicapped.

Now, 44 years later Wara, a key figure in the disability organisation, Nga Kete Ki Murihiku, feels more could have been done for her daughter. "They said she was handicapped and she was branded with that. It was because she was slow."

In those days Wara says: "What we were told then, we had to do. There was no listening to Maori. It was, ‘you do what I say’. Ever since the Pakeha said she was handicapped, I thought she was."

Wara (Tainui, Ngi Tahu, Kahuhungungu) now feels more could have been done for Lovey to help her. "Education-wise, she was denied that right ‘cause some clever person said she was handicapped. It’s too late now, but more help could have been given to Lovey."

Briefs….

 

Want to know more?

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