Living with Disability in New Zealand

Living with Disability in New Zealand

Date of publication: October 2004
ISBN 0-478-28305-9
HP 4002

Table of Contents:
Index
Foreword
Acknowledgements
1 Introduction
2 Patterns of Disability
3 Support, Equipment and Services
4 Education
5 Employment and Income
6 House and Home
7 Travel and Transport
8 Māori and Disability
9 Pacific Peoples and Disability
10 Adults with Disability Living in Residential Facilities
11 Future Focus
Glossary
Appendix 1: Classification of Disability Type
Appendix 2: Relative Sampling Error (RSE) Cut-off Points Used for this Report and Appendix Tables
Appendix 3: Tables in Excel format
References

Foreword

Living with Disability in New Zealand is the most comprehensive report ever produced on the status of people with disability in New Zealand. It builds on the post-census disability surveys undertaken in 1996, providing extensive descriptive analysis from the 2001 post-census surveys.

Reliable information helps us to understand the needs of people with disability, and plan more effective and responsive policies and services. The report is intended to be a resource for a wide range of users including people with disability, policy analysts, funders, service providers and other interested parties, both inside and outside government.

Widely distributing this important information in a format that is accessible to as many people as possible is a key priority. To complement this report, a comprehensive set of data tables is being made available on-line on the Ministry of Health's website, www.moh.govt.nz.

A shortened summary of the report Living with Disability in New Zealand: A Summary will be available by the end of the year in hard copy and alternative formats, including Braille, audio and plain English versions.

One of the objectives of the New Zealand Disability Strategy is to:

'collect and use relevant information about disabled people and disability issues; and improve the quality of relevant disability information collected, analysed and used, including regular national surveys of activity limitation'.

It is my hope that Living with Disability in New Zealand promotes further investigation into the status of New Zealanders with disabilities so that we can work towards the Strategy's vision of an inclusive and non-disabling society.

Hon Ruth Dyson

Minister for Disability Issues