Don't throw us under the bus 🚍 🛣️
Plus: Breaking free from neurotypical validation 🦩
Tēnā koutou katoa! 🌘
In this delicious edition:
Public transport not just an access issue for disabled people 🚦
Disability-led research on what people want from Whaikaha, and how we lack disability-responsive policing 📝
Stepping out of neurotypical culture as a neurodivergent person 🦋
Ahh, public transport; we love to hate it. It’s something so idyllic in principle, yet so cooked in real life. And for disabled people, this is something that can squarely define the physical parameters of our independent lives. As we learn this week, sometimes it’s not even about physical accessibility.
The Spinoff reported yesterday that Victoria University of Wellington Disabled Students Association (VUWDSA) has collected a catalogue of complaints against Metlink from disabled passengers. Reading them may make your blood boil:
In one complaint, a student alleged they had been sexually harassed by a fellow passenger on a bus. When the student attempted to exit the bus, the passenger took hold of their wheelchair and told the driver the two were travelling together. Despite the student reiterating they were not travelling together and asking for the driver to lower the wheelchair ramp, the driver refused, and the student was left stranded.
A separate incident on the 22 bus in mid-March allegedly saw a student receive a concussion after their wheelchair was “manhandled” by a driver without their consent. Despite objections from the student, the driver pushed the wheelchair backwards down the bus ramp with the weight of the wheelchair unevenly distributed, causing the student to fall backwards and hit their head on a concrete curb.
The Wellington transport service said that the complaints were being treated seriously and would be responded to individually. Head of VUWDSA, Hope Cotton, hopes that this response will include further staff training, with disabled people at the forefront.
Access to transport is critical and in fact a right for all people. Anti-discrimination laws in the Human Rights Act 1993 would require transport operators to make “reasonable accommodations” to enable disabled folks access to transport. (You can read more about your disability rights to access to transport on Community Law.)
Meanwhile, over in Waihōpai (Invercargill), the council plans to disincentivise Total Mobility, whose demand has grown significantly in recent years. RNZ reports:
The council ultimately requested staff develop and implement a process to limit trip numbers, while considering cutting the subsidy to 50 percent as a disincentive… No final decision was made at the meeting as the organisation will consult with the disability community before reporting back with options.
🚨 Whether access-related or not, what are some of your transport nightmares? Share them with us and we’ll send you some of our NOT ACCESSIBLE stickers to send the message across 😏.
✳️ CORRECTION: Last Friday, RNZ reported on ‘the first Deaf teacher in a mainstream school’. Since then, the article has been updated to reflect that other Deaf teachers have taught at mainstream schools.
🔍 Donald Beasley Institute released Report 1 (of 5) of Disabled Person Led Monitoring of the UNCRPD. This first report is about how disabled participants feel about the structure of Whaikaha - Ministry of Disabled People and how it works and is working. Some of the hopes of participants were that Whaikaha would in future:
Be underpinned by the social and human rights models of disability, Te Tiriti o Waitangi, Enabling Good Lives principles, and actively advances the UNCRPD and concluding observations of the UNCRPD Committee.
Have a strong voice and leadership of tāngata whaikaha Māori and whānau hauā
Include people with psychosocial disability, chronic health conditions, and disabled people over 65-years of age.
Be properly funded and resourced and staffed by people with diverse lived experiences of disability
Be a ‘one-stop-shop’ for disability information and support and proactively provide accessible and easy to find information about what it does and can offer to disabled people and their family, whānau, aiga and close supporters
🌺 Will Sangster and Joegen Daniels give us a glimpse into Nesian Production’s rehearsals for Polyfest this week. Through the pouring rain this morning, Nesian stood on that stage and delivered a beautiful expression of their Pacific cultures.
👮♀️ This week, ironically on Autism Awareness Day, NZ Police and Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora released preliminary findings on the event surrounding the misidentification of a non-verbal autistic 11-year-old girl. I noted that some of the responses from leadership was that it was result of “human error” and situation not to be politicised. But there’s literally a large piece of work done between individual police and police-experienced disabled people that can show us the way forward for disability-responsive policing. You can read it in the Understanding Police Delivery report.
One of the findings of the research is that there are individual champions for disabled people in the New Zealand Police, but they don’t work “within a systemic, organisational policy framework that supports disability-responsive policing.” This came from police participants themselves.
⛓️💥 Vixen Temple writes about how a study she came across while doomscrolling freed her from seeking validation from neurotypicals. The research found that neurotypical peers were less willing to engage with autistic folks.
I believe that being neurodiverse and struggling to navigate neurotypical culture is not something to be ashamed of. In fact, I believe it's a badge of honour. Those who conform to arbitrary social hierarchies based on superficial notions are, in my opinion, the ones who are truly missing out. Over time, I've come to feel a sense of pity for those who are trapped in a never-ending cycle of seeking external validation and conforming to societal expectations.
💎 Come along to Disabled Queer Alliance’s mask DIY workshop tomorrow April 5 between 2-4.30pm at The D*List. There will be limited jewellery, beads and chains provided, so bring your own beads if you can to personalise your masks
🎬 Catch has put out a casting call for a 17-22 year old female from the blind & low vision community to portray a teenager in a short film centred around a character from the blind and low vision community. Auditions will be via the self tape portal and must be submitted by next Friday 11 April. 🕺
💻 Next Wednesday, Access Matters is hosting a webinar about ableism in the workplace and reimagining the future of employment. Register here.
Kei wareware, don’t forget: daylight savings ends on Sunday. Enjoy your extra hour! 🛌
Eda 🫶
