6 September 2016

CCS Disability Action welcomes the new YouthLaw report into students with disabilities

CCS Disability Action joins the Human Rights Commission in commending YouthLaw Aotearoa on their thorough report on students with disabilities. The report ‘Challenging The Barriers: Ensuring Access To Education For Children With Special Educational Needs’ takes a detailed look at the current situation and recommends changes.

CCS Disability Action Chief Executive, David Matthews, said the report’s findings that students with disabilities face a wide range of barriers to quality education rang true with him.

“We see many of the barriers the report found in our everyday work, such as disabled students not being allowed to enrol at their local school, only attending with teacher aide support or simply not receiving enough support. Our own Families Choices research from 2011, found similar issues and it is disappointing to see that nothing has changed very much over the past five years. We simply need to do better for our students with disabilities throughout their education”

Mr Matthews said the report made a number of interesting recommendations that deserved closer inspection.

“The Ministry of Education should take a good look at this report, especially with their Learning Support Update and the Education Act update. The recommendations in this report could greatly complement the changes currently proposed by the Ministry of Education.”

ENDS

CCS Disability Action Background Information
CCS Disability Action is a community organisation that has been advocating for disabled people to be included in the community since 1935. As of June 30 2015, we were providing support to 3,405 children, young people and adults through our 18 branches, which operate from Northland to Invercargill. Our support focuses on breaking down barriers to participation. We receive a mixture of government and private funding.

CCS Disability Action has a national network of access coordinators, who work with local government and transport operators to create a more inclusive society. We also run the Mobility Parking scheme. As of June 30 2015, this scheme supported more than 122,000 people to more easily access their local towns and facilities. Our fully owned subsidiary, Lifetime Design Ltd, advocates for and provides universal design guidelines to improve the accessibility of New Zealand housing.

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