Walking is Overrated :: disability news, opinion, reviews, and a passion for accessibility » Television

Grant Sharman interviews NZ’s Minister for Disability Issues, Ruth Dyson

Red — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 23:29:10 +0000

If you missed my interview with NZ’s Minister for Disability Issues, the Rt Hon. Ruth Dyson, or perhaps you’re still undecided as to what Labour intends to do for disabled New Zealanders if re-elected for another term, check out Attitude TV‘s Grant Sharman as he grills our first ever Minister for Disability Issues.

‘Attitude Awards’ now open for nominations

Red — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 00:36:01 +0000

I’m sure many of you are familiar with TVNZ’s Attitude programme, which focuses on NZ’s disabled community and their lives, struggles, and achievements. Well now, Attitude are launching the ‘Attitude Awards’!

Says the Attitude website:

The Attitude Awards seek to honour the outstanding achievements of ordinary New Zealanders who have disabilities – men and women who have excelled in business, sport and life.

Nominations are now open, in the following categories:

Attitude Enterprise Award – This award aims to recognise an individual, team, organisation or company whose activities, innovation and achievements have improved the lives of persons with a disability and/or their families.
Attitude Sportsman Award – will be awarded to the athlete whose level of achievement in 2008 represented excellence in sport at the highest level.
Attitude Sportswoman Award – will be awarded to the athlete whose level of achievement in 2008 represented excellence in sport at the highest level.
Attitude Youth Award – recognises and rewards outstanding young New Zealanders with a disability aged 12 to 24 years.
Attitude ACC Employer Award – will be awarded to an organization that demonstrates their support, commitment & innovative approaches to employee’s with disabilities throughout their organization.
Attitude Community Award – will be awarded for the outstanding contribution made by an individual (either from an organization or from within a family) to a member or members of the disability community of New Zealand.
Attitude Arts Award – will be awarded for outstanding achievement in the arts. The event will be televised as a special episode of Attitude but Close Up (TV One) has also committed to covering the build up, finalists and the event itself.

Now in a shameless show of self-promotion, I have no problem with any of you voting for meee! I do of course fit into the bracket of ‘youth’ (thank goodness!) so if you do have the time to put in a nomination for me, I would be hugely grateful. I believe you can nominate as many people as you like, so no pressure hehe

Click here to download a nomination form (PDF format). I believe if you email them they can send you one in Word format if that’s easier for you.

Happy nominating!

Live Paralympics coverage – online!

Red — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 00:16:24 +0000

Fed up with TVNZ’s appalling excuse for Paralympics ‘coverage’ in the form of one hour highlights packages? Well now you can get live streaming of all the Paralympics events right from your PC! Simply log on to paralympicsport.tv and you can see round-the-clock live streaming of all the Paralympic events. Of course, they probably won’t prioritise our New Zealand Paralympians but I’m sure they’ll be featured at some point.

Check it out!

Meet the NZ Paralympic team!

Red — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 01:42:30 +0000

Well, not personally, but surely on the telly is just as good?!

TVNZ’s Attitude programme is bringing you an in-depth look at the team travelling to Beijing for the 2008 Paralympic games, screening tonight (Sunday 31st August) at 11:30pm on TV One, so for all you night owls, make sure you tune in and check it out!

And for those of you particularly interested in wheelchair rugby, TV One are also showing The Power of Attitude: The Journey of the NZ Wheel Blacks tomorrow night (Monday September 1st) at 11pm.

Just as an aside, how appalling is it that TV One can’t be bothered putting such programming at a slightly more accessible (ha!) time-slot? Marginalisation, anyone?