Hui advances action on accessibility legislation

Thank you to everyone who turned up to our hui last Friday to talk about advancing accessibility in Aotearoa. Special thanks to Hon. Ruth Dyson and Chrissie Cowan from Access Alliance for sharing their updates on the progress that has been made towards bringing in accessibility legislation. It was great to see the room so full for this kōrero.

The good news is: accessibility legislation is going to be passed into law! The Ministry of Social Development and Cabinet have made this clear and have gone through consultation, but still have work to do on what the legislation should cover before an Access Law can be made a reality. This is cause for celebration and we should all be very proud of the role we have played in driving this change. Our stories and advocacy have made a huge difference.
 
However, an Access Law is not going to be able to be passed before the election in September. The process and time the work takes makes quick action unachievable. This means we need to continue advocating and sharing our stories to keep accessibility at the top of the list, and to obtain cross-party agreement on legislation.
 
There are several ways you or your organisation can help make an Access Law a priority, no matter the election results. We have a list of resources and action points available here.

The Earthquake Disability Leadership Group is also here to help you advance accessibility locally. If you need support to work on an access issue in Canterbury, please get in touch with us at: ruth@kanohikitekanohi.org.

We’d also love to hear your stories – both good and bad – about access in Christchurch post-earthquakes, so that we can share these as part of our accessibility learnings from the rebuild. Finally, if you’re keen to join our Trust, we welcome you. Email Ruth to have a kōrero about this.
 
You can stay up-to-date on local and national accessibility progress via our website and Facebook.