New Zealand First is announcing today it will introduce a new Accessibility Standards Legislation to ensure a fully accessible New Zealand where disabled people, their families, and others with accessibility needs have an equal opportunity to achieve their goals and aspirations.

Accessibility barriers continue to affect many New Zealanders in their daily interactions with public services, transport, communications, banking, education, justice services, and essential utilities. The issue extends beyond disabled people to include older New Zealanders, people recovering from injury, veterans, and others with access needs.

The 2023 Household Disability Survey found that 17 percent of people living in New Zealand households were disabled, representing approximately 851,000 people, including 98,000 children and 753,000 adults. Disability rates increase significantly with age, affecting 35 percent of those aged 65 and over.

This is a large number of New Zealanders including seniors, carers, families, workers recovering from injury, returned servicemen and women, and communities across regional New Zealand.

When a school, hospital, transport hub, public building, social housing development, civic space, footpath, park, community facility or digital public service is being designed from scratch, accessibility can be built in from the beginning. This is when standards do the most good and cost the least.

Better accessibility supports workforce participation, productivity, customer access, independent living and stronger communities. Its benefits extend to older people, families, carers, businesses and the wider public. Closing the disability employment gap alone could add more than half a billion dollars to GDP.

New Zealand's existing accessibility framework is fragmented across multiple laws, policies, and agencies, with many accessibility expectations remaining voluntary or inconsistently applied.

Previous efforts, including the Accessibility for New Zealanders Bill 2022, focused primarily on only advisory and monitoring mechanisms rather than establishing enforceable accessibility standards.

New Zealand First’s proposed Accessibility Standards Legislation would establish a framework for creating legally recognised accessibility standards and a complaints mechanism to improve compliance and accountability.

NZFirst Accessibility Standards Legislation will:

·         Enable Ministers to direct the development of sector-specific Accessibility Standards covering services, facilities, infrastructure, and public-facing organisations.

·         Require consultation with disability organisations, service providers, the Disability Rights Commissioner, and the Human Rights Commission when developing standards.

·         Allow standards to require organisations to prepare and publish Accessibility Plans outlining how they will meet accessibility requirements.

·         Require entities subject to standards to maintain accessible feedback processes allowing users to raise concerns and recommend improvements.

·         Establish a formal complaints mechanism through the Human Rights Commission for alleged non-compliance with accessibility standards.

·         Require accessibility standards to be reviewed regularly to ensure they remain effective and proportionate while avoiding undue hardship on affected organisations.

·         Strengthen public awareness, guidance, education and compliance support through the Human Rights Commission and Disability Rights Commissioner.

The absence of clear national standards means accessibility is often addressed only after complaints arise, resulting in a reactive rather than preventative approach.

Good accessibility policy is good public policy. It supports participation, strengthens communities, and helps ensure that every New Zealander can contribute to our country's future.