Hooray! It’s been reported by Radio New Zealand that the fine for parking in a space reserved for mobility card holders is set to increase by more than 3 times the current amount. Presently, if you park in a mobility space, and the parking warden gives enough of a shit to ticket you (which, it seems, is fairly rarely), you’re presented with a meagre $40 fine. Thankfully, this will be bumped up to a heftier $150 later this year, and

I was contacted by a reporter this morning who was wondering if I’d had any feedback on how wheelchair users feel about sandwich-boards cluttering up footpaths, particularly in busy hospitality-filled areas like Ponsonby. In my personal experience, I’ve had to frequently roll down a nearby curb-cut and scoot along the road for 50 metres or so, purely because there was no room on the footpath for my wheelchair after the sandwich-boards, tables and chairs had monopolised most of it! If

Considering the number of requests I’ve had recently from people thinking of visiting New Zealand and who are looking for accessible bushwalks, tours, etc., I thought I’d have a look around and find a bunch of providers who specialise in just that! Of course, anyone can Google “wheelchair accessible NZ”, but in case you’d rather check out my hand-picked list, read on! (PS – isn’t that a brilliant quintessentially NZ photo? I borrowed it from here). Galaxy Motors: Diverse travel

The Cerebral Palsy Society currently have a great story up on their site written by one of their members, Lynn Slade, on her experience of a P&O cruise from a wheelchair user’s perspective. I didn’t even know you could take wheelchairs on cruises, much less bulky power ones, but from what Lynn is reporting it sounds like a wonderful experience! She says: P&O have a few wheelchair accessible cabins but it does pay to book early. Ours was excellent. It

It seems the quaint old villa that the Royal Oak branch of CCS Disability Action has been operating out of for so long is finally due for the chop. While the article over at stuff.co.nz isn’t clear on what will happen to the old building that I’m sure many of you are familiar with, what is cool is the new one they’re replacing it with! It aims to set a new standard in accessibility, featuring everything from deliberately lowered windows,

Whenever I check my site stats, nearly half of the searches which led to my site have some sort of pornography aspect to them, (for example: “disabled sex”, “amputee porn”, “naked disabled woman”) and I’m beginning to wonder what the deal is with all these people coming to this site looking for disability-related smut?! Is it genuine curiosity with the sexual dimensions of those with an impairment? Is it a perverse fascination? Or is it just representative of the claim

Following on from last week’s entry about the Mobility Dog Trust’s golf tournament fundraiser, I was stoked to come across an article which features a friend of mine, Amy Hogan, who has just received her own mobility dog, Bonnie. “It’s the indefinable stuff that’s most important,” she says. “I can be completely alone or I can be in a crowd and it doesn’t matter. It gives me the confidence to do things without worrying, because I know I’ve got Bonnie.”

How cool is this? Snowplanet is launching a snowsport coaching programme designed specifically for those with physical, sensory, and cognitive impairments! Snowplanet say they’re launching these coaching sessions to “ensure there is no limit to enjoying the freedom of skiing and boarding with your family and friends”. In case you’re not familiar with Snowplanet, Auckland’s indoor ‘snowdome’, I thoroughly recommend you check out their website for more information. Specialist adaptive equipment is available from their rental department and a team

Thanks to Caz for this fantastic review! My partner and I went to visit our friends Charlie and Dianna Shailer who run Shailer’s Bed & Breakfast yesterday for a reunion of a special group we used to attend, while there I decided to do research on the accessibility of the house so I took my wheelchair along for the job. When you first arrive you would think there is no way in hell for a wheelchair to enter as there

In quite exciting news for anyone who wants to get in the good books of an internationally-acclaimed comedian and disabled leader Liz Carr, Liz is visiting NZ with her partner throughout March and April, and is looking for places to stay! If any of you out there know of anyone with an accessible home who’d be interested in hosting (or even have accessible accommodation yourself that you wouldn’t mind sharing with) a “fabulously black” comedian, or if you’d like to