Providing a disability perspective in decision making is one of the key functions of The EDLG Network.

Highlighting the early experiences of COVID-19 for people in Canterbury and how the challenges we all faced were magnified for disabled people is an important contribution we are able to make towards supporting an inclusive, ongoing COVID-19 crisis response for disabled people in Canterbury

This research and the resulting paper, highlight experiences reported by disabled people and their whānau in Canterbury. They document peoples’ experiences, and the main ways the emergency response ‘system’ (e.g. services, funding etc.) did or did not respond. We believe that these two perspectives understood together will provide a foundation for future improvements to emergency responses to ensure an inclusive and accessible response for our disability community.

The Earthquake Disability Leadership Group (EDLG) began in 2011 with a vision of ‘A recovery and rebuild of Greater Christchurch that results in a genuinely accessible and liveable place for all of its citizens to participate in and belong to.’

Over the past 9 years, the EDLG has collaborated with others to facilitate universal accessibility, educate the Canterbury community and provide advice to a range of cross-sector businesses and organisations that have helped lead the way towards access-for-all in Christchurch.

The ELDG Legacy research project has been undertaken to identify effective practices and processes used by EDLG, lessons learned by EDLG and success case studies to provide to key stakeholders (including local and national government, businesses and the community) with an evidence base to make decisions about the design of future buildings, public places and spaces that are inclusive and accessible and contribute to the prosperity and wellbeing of all.

In 2019, the EDLG began focusing its efforts on supporting the creation and implementation of accessibility legislation in Aotearoa. In partnership with Access Alliance, EDLG has been raising awareness of the need for legislation and supporting local people and organisations to back the issue and keep accessibility front-of-mind in Government.

Our advocacy work began with supporting the Access Law 2020 campaign, led by the Access Alliance. This campaign calls for the introduction of an Accessibility Act in 2020.

Government have committed to passing accessibility legislation into law. 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.

The Earthquake Disability Leadership Group is supporting people and organisations to continue advocating for legislation. We are also providing support to people and groups who want to work on specific access issues in Canterbury.

Finally, we are embarking on a project to collate our learnings and stories from the rebuild and recovery of Christchurch. We aim to use this legacy document to inform future action on accessibility.

EDLG and Barrier Free NZ Trust initiated and launched the Accessibility Charter in Canterbury in late 2017. The Charter is a landmark document that challenges organisations involved in the rebuild and regeneration of our city and region to go beyond minimum accessibility compliance. 

Together with Barrier Free NZ Trust, we successfully attracted all the major players in the Christchurch rebuild to become signatories and commit to the Charter.

EDLG provides representation for the disability sector on several key community groups, including the Christchurch City Council (CCC) Disability Advisory Group, CCC Central City Transport Liaison Group, Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) Disability Steering Group, Canterbury Psychosocial Committee and the Regenerate Christchurch Community Reference Group and Technical and Community Advisory Group. We provide a mouthpiece to and from the disability sector.

We promote and advocate for accessibility through submission processes and also work with individual groups on specific projects such as the Metro Sports facility, ‘An Accessible City’ projects and the Heritage Strategy.

The EDLG collaborated with New Zealand Red Cross to produce a scoping report highlighting the experience of the disability community in the Canterbury earthquakes. The report includes a summary of relevant national and international research and interviews, highlights key themes and makes recommendations.

Click the link below to download ‘Preparing, Responding & Recovering from Disasters: The Canterbury Earthquake Series & the Disability Sector’. 

We have partnered with Red Cross and Christchurch City Council to deliver two series of wellbeing workshops for people with disabilities. Our aim is for all people to have the tools they need support their health and wellbeing. 

Members of the EDLG are  involved with the Aquatic Sensory Experience Advisory Group, which is working with the Metro Sports Facility to create an exciting aquatic space that will be accessible for everyone, including disabled people. The new Metro Sports Facility is set to open in 2021.

We ran a social media campaign in 2017 asking people in Christchurch to share their favourite accessible place or space. We created positive talk about accessibility in our community. The Christchurch Botanical Gardens was the most popular accessible place, with the Sensory Garden at Rawhiti Domain coming in second.

Click below to read stories from disabled people in our community, who talk about their favourite accessible spaces.

The EDLG presented a petition to Parliament in December 2013, encouraging the House of Representatives to urgently take all appropriate measures to ensure full access to public and commercial buildings, especially for new buildings in the Christchurch rebuild.

The petition was heard by the Local Government and Environment Select Committee in February 2015. In May 2015, the EDLG received a report from the Committee about the petition.

In 2015, EDLG, The Cube and CCS Disability Action combined forces to support a mural being painted on one of the fences surrounding the Metro Sports Facility site. The intention was to create a permanent reminder of the need to involve disabled people in Canterbury's rebuild and for new facilities to be suitable for Every Body.

The mural with the theme 'Inclusion Matters: Access for all in Christchurch' was unveiled on December 3rd, 2015, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.