Speaker 1: Kiyota.
Speaker 2: I'm Chelsea Daniels and this is the Front Page, a
Speaker 2: daily podcast presented by the New Zealand Herald. There are
Speaker 2: huge inequities facing at least one hundred and eighty three
Speaker 2: thousand New Zealanders and not much as being done about it.
Speaker 2: New data from Blind, Low Vision and Z reveals how blind, deaf,
Speaker 2: blind and low vision New Zealanders face not only higher costs,
Speaker 2: but also the emotional strain of barriers most kiwis never encounter.
Speaker 2: Stats and Z figures show that fifty eight percent of
Speaker 2: disabled New Zealanders earn thirty thousand dollars or less a year,
Speaker 2: compared with thirty three.
Speaker 3: Percent of non disabled people.
Speaker 2: So what does government need to do to make sure
Speaker 2: this community doesn't keep falling through the cracks? Today on
Speaker 2: the front Age, Blind, Low Vision and Z Community and
Speaker 2: Inclusion General Manager Dan Shepherd is with us to speak
Speaker 2: about his own lived experience and.
Speaker 3: How we might be able to help.
Speaker 2: So, Dan, everyone is struggling with the cost of living
Speaker 2: crisis at the moment, But how are these financial pressures
Speaker 2: compounded for those who are blind, deaf, blind or low vision.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think in terms of the cost of being
Speaker 1: blind deaf, blind, or low vision. There there is more
Speaker 1: than just the financial cost of being a disabled person.
Speaker 1: There is the emotional cost, the cost on your time,
Speaker 1: the cost on your energy. When the barriers are in
Speaker 1: front of you, when you just want to make choices
Speaker 1: to live your life.
Speaker 3: What are some of those barriers?
Speaker 2: Can you give me an example of perhaps something that
Speaker 2: we might take for granted.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, Well, Look, I like to use the example
Speaker 1: of something as simple and every day is getting your
Speaker 1: groceries for somebody who's blind or somebody who's low vision
Speaker 1: like me, it takes time to prepare yourself for a
Speaker 1: trip to the supermarket. I've got to get Isra my
Speaker 1: guide dog ready, I need to book my taxi. I
Speaker 1: need to count count on the fact that the taxi
Speaker 1: that comes to pick us up is going to want
Speaker 1: him in their car and not drive away like some
Speaker 1: ubers or taxis can do. Then you get to the supermarket,
Speaker 1: and as somebody with low vision, you're going to need
Speaker 1: some support to find the things you need. So you're
Speaker 1: counting on awareness and support from others to get your groceries.
Speaker 1: And then you've got to do all the things, and
Speaker 1: that's process and reverse to.
Speaker 2: Get home gosh, and I see that blind low vision
Speaker 2: and Z has reported that clients are skipping GP appointments
Speaker 2: because travel is becoming unaffordable.
Speaker 3: What kind of financial help does the community get at
Speaker 3: the moment and is it good enough?
Speaker 1: Yea. So there is some support and play place from
Speaker 1: schemes like the total Mobility scheme whereby there is subsidized
Speaker 1: public transport or taxi travel. But again again that that
Speaker 1: cost that comes into it is the time it takes
Speaker 1: to then book your taxi, to wait for your taxi
Speaker 1: hope that they will give you access to their car
Speaker 1: to get you where you need to be.
Speaker 2: So there are some drivers that will simply just drive
Speaker 2: away if they see your dog with this absolutely.
Speaker 1: Yeah, look absolutely. As a guide dog user, myself, Ezra
Speaker 1: and I, we have had instances where we can clear
Speaker 1: an entire taxi rank of drivers because the drivers don't
Speaker 1: want the dog in their car.
Speaker 2: And could it be as simple as changing the rules
Speaker 2: as to you know, being able to say you have
Speaker 2: to accept somebody no matter what their circumstance.
Speaker 1: Yeah, look, and there is legislation that supports Ezra's access
Speaker 1: as a guide dog as a service animal. We are
Speaker 1: faced with the challenge of driver behavior. Really, that's what
Speaker 1: it comes down to in terms of a driver's individual
Speaker 1: view of a dog and look, as an empowered client,
Speaker 1: I will stand there and I will cause a scene.
Speaker 1: I will quote legislation around his rights. But the excuses
Speaker 1: you get back can sometimes be quite laughable.
Speaker 3: God, what are some of the excuses?
Speaker 1: Oh? Look, coming back to the supermarket scenario, I was
Speaker 1: outside a popular Auckland supermarket one afternoon, needed a ride
Speaker 1: back to my hotel. At that stage, standing there with Ezra,
Speaker 1: a driver gets out of his car. I said, can
Speaker 1: you take us to our hotel please? And he said, oh, no,
Speaker 1: dog's in my taxi And I said, yes, dogs and
Speaker 1: your taxi you're acquired by or to let my service
Speaker 1: animal in your car. Oh no, no, my company doesn't
Speaker 1: do that. He said, well, I know your company does
Speaker 1: do that, and I'm aware of the fines and the
Speaker 1: standdown period from work that you'll incur if you don't
Speaker 1: let us in your car. So then the then the
Speaker 1: excuses start coming. Oh I'm sorry, sir, but my car
Speaker 1: is too small for your dog. And I said, well,
Speaker 1: I've got all this other stuff to take with me
Speaker 1: as well. Perhaps I could leave my dog and my
Speaker 1: other stuff, but outside the supermarket and you could just
Speaker 1: take me to my hotel. He said, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: you don't understand. My car is too old for your dog.
Speaker 1: And at that stage, I've got a bunch of customers
Speaker 1: watching me outside this particular supermarket who are there for
Speaker 1: the show. And I looked at him. I said, the
Speaker 1: only thing that's old here is your attitude. Are you
Speaker 1: going to take me to the hotel? And he drove
Speaker 1: off without a passenger.
Speaker 3: Wow, I mean deez.
Speaker 2: And that's just one example of how something so small
Speaker 2: can inconvenience your day and then your life. I see
Speaker 2: that there are also reports of clients delaying treatment because
Speaker 2: forms or health information isn't available in formats that they
Speaker 2: can read.
Speaker 3: Have you encountered anything like that?
Speaker 1: Yeah? And I think in all these scenarios, we as
Speaker 1: a community where our clients are making decisions not to
Speaker 1: attend GP appointments because when you get there, you're going
Speaker 1: to be handed a piece of a four with twelve
Speaker 1: point font on it saying can you fill this? Can
Speaker 1: you sit down over there and fill this out please?
Speaker 1: It's access to an accessible way of filling out the
Speaker 1: form would make it so much easier. It's expecting those
Speaker 1: sorts of barriers to be put in front of you
Speaker 1: when you leave your home. That is leaving so many
Speaker 1: of our clients not leaving their home and making the
Speaker 1: decision to not be overwhelmed by those sorts of barriers.
Speaker 2: Tell me about the community and the challenges that they
Speaker 2: face in the workplace.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think there are barriers in terms of seeking employment,
Speaker 1: in terms of the accessibility of recruitment processes and the
Speaker 1: attitudes towards towards people with disabilities or in our case,
Speaker 1: people with low vision or who are blind. If you
Speaker 1: can access or get through a recruitment process, you then
Speaker 1: have to go through the process of disclosing your disability,
Speaker 1: and that can scare a lot of employers off in
Speaker 1: terms of this belief that this person is going to
Speaker 1: cost me more than a non disabled person.
Speaker 4: People with disability fees so much challenges when you look
Speaker 4: for a drop fit, and foremost to have a social
Speaker 4: stickmak because a lot of our people have a misunderstanding
Speaker 4: about what people with disability can do, to focus on
Speaker 4: what they can't do instead of focusing what they can do.
Speaker 4: The second thing is the employment of recruitment framework needs
Speaker 4: to change in New Zealand, asking questions like you know,
Speaker 4: do you have a disability and what are your medication?
Speaker 4: That itself is actually a rope bluff and the LOTO
Speaker 4: in four years will actually cut off the candidate simply
Speaker 4: because they have a disability.
Speaker 2: I see that one in six New Zealanders identify as disabled,
Speaker 2: sixty percent are unemployed or underemployed for blind, low vision
Speaker 2: and Z clients, fifty one percent of working age members
Speaker 2: are without a job, and seventy four percent of youth
Speaker 2: clients have never had a part time or summer job.
Speaker 3: Now that's to me, the right of passage.
Speaker 2: Is to you know, get a summer job or something
Speaker 2: during high school or UNI or something like that. I mean,
Speaker 2: how can we make this happen as a community, as
Speaker 2: a society to make sure these kids are getting those
Speaker 2: kind of experience.
Speaker 1: And I think that does come into that awareness piece.
Speaker 1: If you are an employer or if you have an
Speaker 1: opportunity for somebody to volunteer with you, that you're making
Speaker 1: those opportunities available to everybody be inclusive, because those volunteering
Speaker 1: opportunities that you pick up as a young person that
Speaker 1: can turn into part time work, they turn into aspiration,
Speaker 1: and they turn into careers moving down that person's journey.
Speaker 2: And obviously we've spoken about the financial pressures and a
Speaker 2: little bit about that emotional toll, but tell me more
Speaker 2: about that.
Speaker 3: Because the thought of people just.
Speaker 2: Not wanting to leave their homes because it is simply
Speaker 2: just too difficult to exist, that's really not good.
Speaker 1: No, look, it really isn't. And it does come down
Speaker 1: to I guess, our communities seeing seeing the barriers that
Speaker 1: they're putting in front of blind, deaf, blind and low
Speaker 1: vision people, and those people are members of their community
Speaker 1: as well. We should be able to access our communities
Speaker 1: without barriers. It was only this morning on our walk
Speaker 1: into work that I had to stop at four different
Speaker 1: sites to have a conversation with a with a construction
Speaker 1: company or a tradesman who had parked their van or
Speaker 1: their car over the footpath. Now, for that person, it's
Speaker 1: not an inconvenience. Somebody should be able to walk around
Speaker 1: their car. But for a blind person who's using a
Speaker 1: guide dog, my guide dog has to be able to
Speaker 1: find me safely around that vehicle, and you know, it
Speaker 1: compromises our safety. So that leads me to think, well, tomorrow,
Speaker 1: do I just work from home or do I need
Speaker 1: to have those conversations again tomorrow morning.
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: And I mean, I guess do you think that there's
Speaker 2: a feeling of, oh, it doesn't affect me. And like
Speaker 2: you said with that tradesperson as well, he hasn't obviously
Speaker 2: hasn't even thought about how it may affect somebody with
Speaker 2: low vision or someone who's blind or deafblind. Do you
Speaker 2: think it's because of that, because it's affects a small
Speaker 2: part of the population.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely. I mean in the vision loss community, we
Speaker 1: have a funny saying that vision loss is the disability
Speaker 1: that nobody sees. And for one, you don't see it
Speaker 1: because we're not out in community, because we are making
Speaker 1: choices not to include ourselves or to not to participate
Speaker 1: in our communities because of the barriers. But you know,
Speaker 1: disability is one of those things that if it's not
Speaker 1: in your immediate circle, it doesn't exist to you. It exists.
Speaker 1: Disability exists to all of us, and it's in our communities.
Speaker 1: We need to be aware of it.
Speaker 2: Well. And the fact here, I've got some numbers here.
Speaker 2: The census data shows that the number of people reporting
Speaker 2: no or limited site that affects daily activities has risen
Speaker 2: by about eight percent since twenty eighteen, from just over
Speaker 2: one hundred and sixty nine thousand to nearly one hundred
Speaker 2: and eighty three thousand and twenty twenty three.
Speaker 3: So this means there's actually a rise in demand for
Speaker 3: support services.
Speaker 2: Hey, is anything being done alongside this increase?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I think as an organization Blind at Blindlow Vision,
Speaker 1: we are seeking to ensure we have the resource available
Speaker 1: to meet demand. We're in an aging population and vision
Speaker 1: loss is a disability that you acquire with as you age.
Speaker 1: So months like Blindlow Vision Month are so important because
Speaker 1: so much of what we are able to do comes
Speaker 1: from the donations of the public.
Speaker 2: Well, isn't it about eighty percent of the organization's income
Speaker 2: comes from donations.
Speaker 3: Wouldn't it be good to get more government support?
Speaker 1: Look were at Blindlow Vision, We would love more government
Speaker 1: support because we are dealing with what is becoming an
Speaker 1: aging population and that one hundred and eighty thousand is
Speaker 1: set to grow over the next ten years. More government
Speaker 1: support is great, but you know, the generous donations of
Speaker 1: the public also really supports us to be able to
Speaker 1: help people to make their own choices and live in
Speaker 1: their communities the way they want.
Speaker 2: If you could change something tomorrow, whether it be big
Speaker 2: or small, what would you do first?
Speaker 1: I think I think the easy the first thing to
Speaker 1: change is attitude towards disability. When we are aware as
Speaker 1: a society that people with disabilities are accessing and participating
Speaker 1: in our communities. So many of the barriers are so
Speaker 1: easy to remove the people they don't come at a
Speaker 1: cost to remove. It's easy for a tradesman to park
Speaker 1: their van on the side of the side of the
Speaker 1: road rather than over a driveway, and for their inconvenience,
Speaker 1: that's only three extra steps to their van. So I
Speaker 1: think awareness and changing attitudes is a good first step
Speaker 1: towards a barrier free New Zealand.
Speaker 3: Why don't you think it's happened yet?
Speaker 1: Look, I think I think we are on a journey
Speaker 1: in organizations like blind, low vision like ours, we need
Speaker 1: to do a better job of getting in front of
Speaker 1: our communities and there is some responsibility on ourselves, as blind, deaf,
Speaker 1: blind and low vision people to seek that inclusion and participation.
Speaker 2: Are there any workplaces or companies that are doing a
Speaker 2: good job.
Speaker 1: Yeah? Look, there are plenty of workplaces that are doing
Speaker 1: a good job, but a lot that could do a
Speaker 1: better job, and a lot that need to start that journey.
Speaker 1: So at Blind Low Vision, we're we're here to support
Speaker 1: that journey as well.
Speaker 3: Thanks for joining us, Dan.
Speaker 1: Hey, you very welcome. Thanks for your time.
Speaker 2: That's it for this episode of the Front Page. You
Speaker 2: can read more about today's stories and extensive news coverage
Speaker 2: at nzadherld dot co dot nz. The Front Page is
Speaker 2: produced by Jane Ye and Richard Martin, who is also
Speaker 2: our editor. I'm Chelsea Daniels. Subscribe to the Front Page
Speaker 2: on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts, and tune
Speaker 2: in tomorrow for another look behind the headlines.