Building a more accessible and equitable society

12 May 2011

Last Friday marked an exciting milestone for accessibility in New Zealand, with the official launch of the Be. Institute – a social enterprise founded by Auckland Council, Auckland University of Technology and Auckland District Health Board, and supported by the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind (RNZFB).

Created to inspire and enable accessibility in all corners of the country, the Be. Institute has come about in response to a clear need: a united voice from the spectrum of disability groups operating in New Zealand who represent the 20% of our population who are living with a disability of some sort.

The RNZFB is working closely with the Be. Institute, to provide expertise in accessibility for blind and partially sighted people.

The Be. Institute will begin its journey with two key programmes: Be. Accessible, which is focused on bringing about a 100% accessible society, and Be. Leadership, a programme aimed at developing disabled leaders of the future.

During her speech at the launch event, Minister for Disability Issues the Hon. Tariana Turia made a remarkable and rare pre-budget announcement that $4million of Government funding has been allocated over four years to Be. Accessible!

One of the aims of Be. Accessible this year is to leverage the Rugby World Cup to begin to provide information on the accessibility of New Zealand’s built environments; this pilot assessment programme will focus on key locations on the RWC tourist trail. With only a few months to go before New Zealand has to be ready for this event, these assessments won’t be able to cover everything, but they will act as an excellent catalyst to get real feedback on the pilot programme to improve it for roll outs across the country.

Our partnership with the Be. Institute will have many benefits – not least helping us to achieve our Strategic Priority of ‘Supporting an accessible and equitable society’ through ‘Building partnerships to remove barriers’ (see the RNZFB’s Strategic Plan).

Check out www.beaccessible.org.nz for more information. Please note the website content is currently Auckland-centric, as the funding was only recently confirmed for a national roll-out, but expect information to evolve as the work gets underway.