Had a read about this today and sounded quite interesting, so I thought I’d share it with y’all. The following is taken from the North Shore LIFE Centre‘s newsletter, just thought I’d give credit where it’s due The Halberg Trust Activity Fund provides grants to enable young disabled people to participate in sport and active leisure within their community. The Activity Fund is available to support young people with a disability between the ages of 8 and 18, including those

And thus begins my feature on accessible accommodation throughout Auckland City. Firstly, I take a look around the modern SkyCity Hotel, situated within Auckland’s iconic Skytower. The first thing I noticed about the SkyCity Hotel, which sponsors the NZ Special Olympics team, is how well thought-out every element appears to be; nothing seems to be an afterthought. Everything from the well-positioned card-swipe machines in the lifts right through to the sink with enough room underneath it to slide a wheelchair,

Serbia might seem like another planet to most of us, but that comparison seems apt when you read about the recent atrocities being committed in the central European nation against thousands of disabled people. Reports of disabled adults and children being physically tied to beds and cribs for long periods of time, sometimes years, along with reports of filthy conditions within the institutions that are set up to ‘care for’ disabled people, are all part of a damning report released

A massive thanks to Honor for sending this through, I love contributions from other people! Why don’t you do the same? – Red Been thinking lately on the subject of disabled carparks – not only from having had a few run-ins with people who felt it was necessary to park illegallly on them, but also (in fact, mostly) from being ticketed myself when I briefly left my car on a disabled carpark outside our local library without my card displayed.

You may remember, if you saw the CloseUp piece on this site, that Starbucks were going to get in touch with me regarding the accessibility of their stores. Whilst I’m pleased to say they did get in touch a week later, and I did meet up with a man by the name of Joe Rich, I’m incredibly disappointed by what has happened since. By “what has happened”, I mean that absolutely nothing has happened. In fact, during Joe and I’s

In town the other day for my review of the SkyCity Hotel (coming soon!) I decided to scope out Auckland’s ever-teeming Queen St and see how the massive upgrade works were affecting wheelchair users. Whilst the results of the work are impressive (see picture left), several aspects left a lot to be desired. To take a look at what I found, check out the photos over at the gallery section and leave your comments below!

You’d better believe it. Curtis Palmer, pictured left in his sporting days but now one of the Attitude TV presenters, has written in his blog about the delight he experienced when he found that EVA Air‘s aeroplane had an accessible toilet onboard! He was on his way to Shanghai to watch several of NZ’s top athletes compete in the recent international wheelchair and amputee games, and gives EVA the big thumbs up for being innovators in the world of accessibility.

How cool is this?! Over in the UK, Aardman Animations, the animation geniuses behind the Wallace and Gromit franchise, have created a new set of characters for a disability awareness campaign. The campaign, launched by the Leonard Cheshire Disability charity, is called “Creature Discomforts” and features six animal characters, each of which is voiced by a disabled person. Characters include Flash the sausage dog, Spud the slug, Brian the bull terrier and Peg the hedgehog – all wheelchair-bound with different

Just in case you hadn’t seen enough of me on the TV or in your local newspaper, a local Nelson radio station was brave enough to put my voice on their airwaves as well! Listen to the full interview here

I just stumbled across a fantastic account of a wheelchair accessible journey through New Zealand from an Australian man with multiple sclerosis, Bruce Mumford. Note that it was published last year, so certain details may be slightly outdated (in particular, his concerns with the inaccessibility of the Waitomo Caves, which is no longer the case). Here’s an excerpt from his story: A good number of tourist attractions were very well set up for disabled visitors and a number provided me