Yet another blog? Well maybe but there aren’t many blogs that deal with disability issues and we hope this one will be a regular read for people interested in such things. Also we see this as another simple way to keep our own Association members up to date with our activities.

New Zealand now has a new government. At the time I write this, the newly announced Ministers of Cabinet are still digesting their first briefing papers and no doubt many different groups are hoping to get their attention. It will be a while before the Association can get a look in.

Yet another blog? Well maybe but there aren’t many blogs that deal with disability issues and we hope this one will be a regular read for people interested in such things. Also we see this as another simple way to keep our own Association members up to date with our activities.

New Zealand now has a new government. At the time I write this, the newly announced Ministers of Cabinet are still digesting their first briefing papers and no doubt many different groups are hoping to get their attention. It will be a while before the Association can get a look in.

The Association has no political axe to grind so we are happy to work with either a National or a Labour led government. But one thing that does concern us, based on our recent meetings with various National Party politicians, is that National really did not have well developed disability-related policies or strategies. We also know that the new government has talked of cuts in public spending, and we will be concerned if such cuts are in areas that impact on services that are important to people with disabilities.

But our message will remain consistent as we advocate for a fully inclusive society in which we as blind and vision impaired people can live with maximum independence. The more independent we can be, the more productive we can be as members of Society.

In early October as usual, we held our annual National Conference, this time in Dunedin. I have heard lots of positive comments from people about this year’s conference so perhaps people will agree it was one of our more successful ones. The theme was “literacy for all, from braille to email”, with particular attention to braille as we lead up to the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of its inventor, Louis Braille. . The open day was particularly enjoyable, with a number of guest speakers talking not just about braille, but also about literacy and what it means to be literate as a blind person in today’s world. One presentation that stands out in my mind was by nine-year-old Renee Patete, who, along with her mother, spoke about the significance of braille and the braille technology she uses. She read her speech confidently and fluently, but not from paper; no she read it from her portable Braillenote. This illustrates for me that we can be hopeful that the next generation of blind people will be completely at home reading with new braille and low vision technology in tomorrow’s “connected” world.

Another highlight was the tribute paid by the Association to Mary Schnackenberg, for her outstanding service to the blind community through her various roles at the Foundation. We have always valued highly our braille and talking book library service, and there is no doubt that much of what we have been able to enjoy has been largely the result of Mary’s leadership and commitment to the goal of maximising our opportunity to read information of all sorts. She was given a very beautiful stone sculpture which I know she will cherish for the rest of her life.

Like all conferences, this one produced a number of remits and resolutions for action. The Board has since met to set out the work for the coming year. Some of the more public activities we will be giving priority to next year include:

Some of our members, who receive personal assistance from caregivers and other people employed under government contracts, feel that these people are often not particularly conversant with blindness and seem to be uncomfortable or not confident when working with them. We feel there are some serious training issues that need to be addressed, and we will be lobbying the Ministry of Health and other relevant departments for better training for these people.

We plan to develop our “Great Barrier Brief” by producing briefs to cover specific areas. One of the first to be done will be a brief outlining our objectives in the area of public transport and Total Mobility. This will be a major theme in next year’s Wellington Seminar.

We will continue to lobby the Government to uphold the principle that public information, and personal correspondence with public bodies should be in accessible formats. Today’s technology can make it possible so we feel this is not unreasonable.

Early next year, we will be making submissions to the Electoral Commission as we continue to advocate for fully accessible elections, and for a pilot scheme to be tested in conjunction with the next election in three years.

We will continue to work with other organisations of people with sensory impairments to advocate for a full review of services to people with sensory disabilities. There is a feeling that sensory disabilities are not getting the resourcing priority they deserve.

With an increasing number of companies entering the telecommunications industry, we will again give priority to lobbying for full recognition of the principle that telecommunications services must be fully accessible and available to everyone on an equitable basis. We continue to urge the Foundation of the Blind to support our position.

You can see we will be busy, and through this blog I’ll keep you up to date with our progress.