Halfway through my weekly pilgrimage to my local supermarket, I noticed they’d installed these fancy new self-service checkouts. Wonderful, I thought, this will save me some time!

Wrong.

Unbelievably, despite them installing four new DIY checkouts, not one was accessible for a wheelchair user. The screens were all positioned quite high up, and the EFTPOS terminals even higher, way out of reach for anyone sitting down! Of course, this also excludes children and some elderly folk who might also want to use them.

I find this kinda bewildering, really! It seems like every time we take a step forward in terms of access, someone jumps in and sends us flying 8 steps backward. Good one, Countdown.

As you may be aware, two of the last major acts to visit New Zealand, Westlife and Eric Clapton, have both set exorbitant pricing for the wheelchair section Auckland’s Vector Arena. Both times I was able to lobby Vector Arena on my readers’ behalf, who then in turn spoke to the promoters, and convinced them to lower the wheelchair pricing to a more reasonable level, in line with what other consumers pay. With international rock act Coldplay announcing a one-off

Following on from the discussion regarding the overzealous clamping of cars displaying mobility parking permits, Matt sent me a few pics detailing his latest encounter. While Matt admits his permit had expired, he says he had no idea, and was never sent a reminder notice, despite CCS Disability Action finding it within themselves to send him various newsletters and pamphlets throughout the year. Here are his pictures below, featuring: Matt’s clamped car, with mobility parking permit (albeit expired) displayed in

Thanks to Saphiya for this review! We went here earlier in the year and although prices were steep, an adult being $26.00 we did the family pass of 2 adults and children for $52.00 and were told that we could enter and exit the village when we wanted and until the village was closed (but no, we didn’t stay the whole day!) Firstly, there was a lot of space to park; it was so empty that we didn’t even need

Thanks to Sally from Wellington for this review! The best accessible establishment is the Wellington City Library/Civic Square in Wellington. There are numerous designated disability carparks located in front and to the side street of the library, and in the library’s basement carpark. You never have to travel far from the car to the library or the Square. Two sets of lifts take you quickly to any of the three floors of the library and a lovely little cafe which

Fresh from blasting the Westlife promoters for only offering wheelchair-using patrons the highest priced ticket bracket, a user of this site has emailed me about a similar situation with the upcoming Eric Clapton gig in Auckland. Vector Arena has several tiers of seating, differentiated by price depending on the quality of the seating area. Apparently, the wheelchair seating bay at Vector is deemed to be in the ‘Gold Reserve’ category, with the hefty price tag of $299/each. This presents two

Firstly, apologies for the shoddy image quality, but my god, what is this lift signage trying to say?! I actually cracked up when I saw it. I’m not quite sure how I never noticed it before. I’ll leave it up to your interpretation, but it sure is um, interesting…

Well, the bloggers over at TVNZ’s Olympic site are kicking up a stink about the disabled bathroom signage through the National Stadium in Beijing. As you can see in the picture on the left, rather than your traditional white-on-blue ‘wheelchair’ sign, the Chinese have adapted it somewhat and made it a funky black-on-red logo, in what I believe is a really fresh spin on a rather tired image! But no – TVNZ’s Michael Burgess says: Just what are they trying

I very rarely get upset. But today, when trying to book tickets for Phantom of the Opera at Auckland’s Civic Theatre, the disabled seating “policy” employed by The Edge pushed me to my limit, and I decided to pen this letter to try and get them to change what is an offensive, discriminatory, and utterly incomprehensible disabled seating arrangement. I’ve spoken about this before, but this time I’m going to do something about it. Read on, and leave your thoughts

Let’s face it. There isn’t much on offer in NZ for disabled thrill-seekers. More often than not we’re lumped in the ‘too hard’ basket and left on the sideline as a spectator by many tourism operators. So imagine my excitement when I got a call from the folks over at Auckland’s brand new SkyWalk, asking me if I’d like to take their new ‘access’ chair for a test drive (or swing, as it turns out). Without thinking about what I