Nine weeks from now the Government will introduce the Accessibility for New Zealanders Bill into the House of Representatives.

On 19 May, the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) proactively released the cabinet paper Accelerating Accessibility in New Zealand. You can download the Cabinet Paper, Minute of Decision and all other documents from the MSD website. Information is available as PDF documents, in Te Reo Māori, as web versions, in large print, Braille, Audio and as NZSL videos.

This Cabinet Paper reports back on the detailed design of the accessibility framework that takes a progressive approach to identifying, preventing, and removing barriers to participation for disabled people, tāngata whaikaha and whānau whaikaha Māori and others with accessibility needs.

We would like to hear your thoughts on two key questions:

1. What do you like about the Government’s proposed detailed design of the accessibility framework?
2. What’s missing from the Government’s proposed detailed design of the accessibility framework?

Your feedback will be included in the final model bill (Accessible Aotearoa New Zealand Bill). The model bill will be a yardstick with which to measure how effective the Government’s bill will be.

We seek your input by 5pm Tuesday 31 May.

Your thoughts are important to us. We want to hear what you think. We understand this is very short notice and if you don’t have the time or capacity now to share your thoughts that is okay. We look forward to supporting you to put forward your submission to the Select Committee later in the year.

Please send your feedback to [email protected] by 5pm Tuesday 31 May.

Ngā mihi

Juliana Carvalho

For the Access Matters Campaign

p.s. please remember to contribute to #AccessDeniedDiaries initiative!