Category Archives: Disability Issues

by | July 20, 2009 · 9:52 am

Ten tips for accessible meetings

Over the years I have attended meetings which could have had more successful outcomes if the organisers had taken just a bit more time in planning and preparation.

When organisations have to think carefully about money every little helps. Here are some tips for getting a bigger bang for your meeting buck by investing in a small extra amount of time and planning.

  1. Think about who will be coming and how to make sure you get the audience and the attendance you want. Is the meeting limited to people with one impairment type or will there be several?
  2. What sort of venue will you need? Basic physical access might not be the only consideration, e.g. good acoustics for people with hearing impairments might be needed.
  3. What time of day or evening will you hold the meeting? This might depend on how far people need to travel and how they get there. In winter people with arthritis might not find an early start easy. Those who need a high level of personal assistance may not favour an early start.
  4. If you are providing food make sure you think about catering options for people who need particular food, and I don’t just mean vegetarians.
  5. Have you allowed enough lead time to book a sign interpreter? They are scarce in some areas.
  6. When sending invitations by email in particular make them accessible, if you must send a pdf make sure the same information is included in the body of the email.
  7. In the interests of good community relations when your invitation asks about people’s disability related needs don’t ask for ‘special’ needs. You could ask for ‘disability,’ ‘diet,’ ‘information,’ or ‘particular’ needs.
  8. What kind of meeting process will you use? Will it exclude anyone? Presenters may need to be briefed on their audience and a variety of presentation styles and methods are useful.
  9. Are the breaks adequate for people who might need assistance with toileting or eating?
  10. Handouts and other material will need some thought. They could be emailed in advance for blind attendees or for people who need support to participate. Agendas might need to be in large print for some. Meeting outcomes may need to be provided in a variety of formats.

I intend to write more on this subject, here and on the AccEase web site so watch this space.

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by | July 6, 2009 · 12:04 pm

Human rights and disability newsletter

The Human rights commission has just released its latest disability and human rights newsletter, Manahau: Resilience and Celebration.

This edition contains the announcement that the site has NZ Sign content. A cause for celebration!

There is also a review of Nobody’s Perfect, a sadly rather inaccessible film from the Human Rights Film Festival, a profile on New Zealand disability leader and world president of Rehabilitation International Anne Hawker, Talking about Work, more Deaf stories and a n accessible transport survey How bumpy is your Journey. Hopefully lots of people will respond to that.

The newsletter is interactive so you can post feedback to any newsletter item online.

You can subscribe and visit archives.

I would be interested to hear any feedback about the accessibility of Manahau.

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by | June 19, 2009 · 2:33 pm

Inclusive education means everyone

Learning Better Together is a long overdue report. Subtitled working towards inclusive education in NZ schools the report is a breath of fresh air in the so called ‘special’ education debate.

Making a strong case for including all children in our schools the report says “Inclusive education stands in contrast to ‘special’ education, where disabled children are educated in separate schools or classes, or treated very differently in the classroom to regular students.”

The report presents evidential research to show that disabled children will do better on many counts if they are included. This is not ‘mainstreaming’ or even ‘maindumping’ as I have heard it called, but it takes the next step.

Some people think that the increasing numbers of disabled students attending mainstream schools after the 1989 Education Act were the first disabled children in their local schools, but of course this isn’t true. Some of us were there more years ago than we care to think about, and we survived. We may not have been included in today’s sense, but I still think we are better off.

Of course some of us are barely literate or numerate but nonethe- less I would have hated to be sent away at five years old as were many of my contemporaries. I was sent away at thirteen, but that’s another story and another kind of institution!

When I worked in EEO a fair number of years ago I checked out all the disabled people I knew in Wellington who worked in the new improved public service. To a man and a woman they had all had the most significant part of their education in mainstream schools. I know it was a totally unscientific survey, but it supports the argument for good quality inclusive education.

I first came across Jude McArthur, who wrote the report, a few years ago when she presented her research with disabled children at an IHC education forum, I was so impressed that I asked her to speak to our Commission meeting. The voices of disabled children talking about their experience at school are telling. They show just how much work there is to do.

But of course true inclusive education is not just a slightly improved ‘special’ education. It is a whole new way of educating our children together in a learning environment which respects and values them all, and which enables them all to achieve.

If you have trouble with the link or want a hard copy or a copy of the accompanying DVD you can write to:

IHC Advocacy
PO box 4155
Wellington 6140

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by | May 7, 2009 · 3:28 pm

Sign language is in your hands

A recent exchange on Twitter.

A
NZ Parliament: Sign language on Parliament TV, 5 and 6 May [why not all the time?!?]

B
How many hip operations would a sign language on Parliament TV cost?

A

Don’t know. How many deaf voters/citizens have to wait 10 days or more for Hansard? Why do they matter less than hips?

And, I might add a Deaf person might also need a hip replacement occasionally. I know A and he isn’t Deaf. Good to see there are more people out there who ‘get it”.

Sign Language Week 4-10 May 2009.

Sign Language Week is this week and the publication of an international report Deaf People and Human Rights that shows that NZ isn’t doing too badly but does still have a few things left to do, particularly around education of Deaf children.

It is obvious that there will be no human rights for Deaf people anywhere without Sign, so maybe we need to start talking about a Sign Language Commission modelled on the Maori Language Commission.

The beautiful colourful butterfly logo is great. Butterflies are free, and Deaf I am told.

Sign language is in your hands. The hands and butterfly are combined.

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