Your insider’s guide to the Total Mobility card scheme
Plus: An app with audio-described shows and church red flags 🚩
Kia ora! After writing about my issues with the Total Mobility card application process last week, we had a bunch of D*List readers get in touch with similar stories. Some people had been waiting months and months for an assessment, while others found the application process not accessible at all 🙄 Catch up on the discussion over on our Instagram.
At The D*List, we believe everyone should have access to the information and support they need to live the life they want. Based on the stories you shared, along with some research, we've written up an insider’s guide on how to get a TM card. We hope this can make it easier for everyone to navigate the pathway towards accessing affordable public transport. If you have any system or process hacks you’d like us to research and write about, please email us at kiaora@thedlist.co.nz and let us know!
A Nelson man is finally in an accessible home after an 18-month search for something suitable as a wheelchair-user. Nathan and his partner Cathy’s new home has a ramp into the house and a wet-floor bathroom and says the new house was amazing. “It ticked everything on our list of needs and even wants.” But it shouldn’t have taken resorting to speaking out about the situation to access their right to a home. “I shouldn’t have had to come to media to get help, but that’s not the individual staff’s fault, it’s a system failure,” Nathan says.
Twenty-two organisations have signed an open letter calling on political parties to abolish the Acceptable Standard of Health criteria for visa approvals. The open letter written by Migrants Against the Acceptable Standard of Health Aotearoa (MAASHA) detailed the discrimination caused by immigration requirements which consider disabled migrants and those with health conditions to be cost burdens. Last month on The D*List, we also published a piece about the migrant rules by MAASHA organiser Áine Kelly-Costello.
Chris Ford also wrote an op-ed on RNZ about the scrapping of Covid-19 restrictions and what that means for disability communities. “Disabled people have once again been overlooked as the last of the Covid-19 rules regarding mask wearing in health and rest home settings and seven-day mandatory isolation for Covid sufferers were ended by the government last week,” he writes. You can read the rest of his piece here.
And in some very sad news, disabled leader Alison Riseborough passed away last week. Alison was an influencer in the public service who advocated for better policies and services for disabled people. She was actively involved in both the Muscular Dystrophy Association and the Disabled Peoples Organisation Coalition.
Just a couple of weeks ago accessible media company Able teamed up with Earcatch, which is an app that holds a library of audio-described content which means the blind and low vision community can finally access Kiwi shows. Contributing writer Geni McCallum wrote about the difference it will make for those who use audio-descriptions.
Ever been to church and ambushed by impromptu healing circles on the way to the bathroom? Well, contributing writer Hope Cotton has and she isn’t a fan! While Hope says her faith gives her strength, she wants to be part of a space where her disabilities are accepted and celebrated. You can read more here.
Te Pāti Māori has reached out to us to let us know about the party’s Mana Hauā (Māori Disabled) policy being released this weekend. It will be livestreamed on Sunday 27 August at 6pm and trilingual interpreters will be available. If you want to join, email prettypattipoa@hotmail.com or text 0212959307.
If you have any announcements or community events you’d like to share with us, please email kiaora@thedlist.co.nz.
And as always, we love connecting with you - so make sure you’re following us on Instagram. We’re also looking for important stories to tell on our website, so please reply to this email and let us know what’s going on in your communities.
Kia pai tō mutunga wiki - have a great weekend ahead!
- Olivia Shivas, Editor
