An Online Tool Making New Zealand’s Disability Data Easy And Accessible For Communities

Friday 25th March, 2022

Yesterday’s launch of the Aotearoa Disability Figures project brought together over 60 members of the disability and data communities, including Disability Rights Commissioner, Paula Tesoriero, and Government Statistician & Chief Executive of Stats NZ, Mark Sowden, for timely kōrero on the power of data for disability inclusion and advocacy, with a helpful tool to put data back in the hands of communities.

Access to data about our communities can be an important tool to advocate for ourselves; amplify stories from our communities; and get critical support from funders, government, and other decision-makers. Yet to date, data on disability in Aotearoa has often been inaccessible and hard to reach for the very communities it’s about.

Figure.NZ CEO, Ngapera Riley, who emceed the launch noted that this was an especially critical issue during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and Omicron surge, where disabled people have been disproportionately affected both by the pandemic and our societal responses to it.

In response to requests from the disabled community, and building on the success of previous projects enhancing access to Māori and Pacific data, the team at Figure.NZ, partnered with Stats NZ to develop “Aotearoa Disability Figures”, a free and open tool for communities to easily access data about themselves and their experiences.

At the launch, Disability Rights Commissioner, Paula Tesoriero MNZM said, “Data is the foundation of change. We need it desperately to understand our disability population, because if we don’t understand it, it’s harder to make the change that we all know needs to happen.”

“The better and the more data we have, the harder it is for our issues to be ignored”, she says.

Government Statistician and Stats NZ Chief Executive, Mark Sowden shared Tesoriero’s sentiments, sharing “For me, this is about making sure that a large group of our population, those in the disability community, have the right access to the right data, when and how you need it”.

"Ensuring that different community groups represented in data have access to that data is really important to us at Stats NZ. We want to see more disabled organisations and the wider disability community have access to quality data to support their critical mahi."

During the tool demonstration, led by disabled and neurodivergent Chief Design & Product Officer at Figure.NZ, Nat Dudley, many disabled community members remarked how the tool would make their jobs and advocacy easier, and shared the struggles they had faced in not being able to access this data previously.

“We know that data is one part of driving to a better future, but the other parts are the stories, the analysis, and the lived experience of our communities.” Dudley said, highlighting the importance of building on this work to further improve accessibility of data in New Zealand, and the need for recording data that speaks to the experiences of disabled people with intersecting and marginalised identities, such as tāngata hauā and tāngata whaikaha Māori, and members of the rainbow community.

To conclude the launch, Figure.NZ Data Officer, Anton Sammons, who is a prominent member of the Aotearoa Deaf Community, invited disability organisations, community members, and others interested in the tool to make use of the free training that Figure.NZ will be providing.

“I am excited about this project, because we have made another step towards a more inclusive Aotearoa New Zealand. I look forward to people learning more about the disabled community in a user-friendly way that is accessible and usable to everyone.” he says.

Figure.NZ and our partners at Stats NZ invite you all to explore the tool for yourselves, at https://disability.figure.nz and make use of this data to support your stories and amplify your impact for disability inclusion.

If you’d like to attend a training on how to use this tool, and it’s accessibility features, you can follow https://blog.figure.nz/introducing-aotearoa-disability-figures-4afde0f9e639 for public session availability, or email Nat Dudley on nat@figure.nz to book a tailored session for your group or organisation.

Event details

Event: Aotearoa Disability Figures Project Launch

Thursday 24th March 2022 10:30am -11:30am, via Zoom

Hosted by: Figure.NZ Trust with the support of Statistics New Zealand.

Speakers: Paula Tesoriero MNZM, Disability Rights Commissioner; Mark Sowden, Government Statistician and Chief Executive of Stats NZ; Ngapera Riley, CEO Figure.NZ, and Nat Dudley and Anton Sammons of the Figure.NZ team behind the tool

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