My concern over disability and disability rights in the Solomon Islands led me to read through an article published by Radio New Zealand, today, Saturday
In the published piece, Minnie Baragwanath MNZM the Chief Possibility Officer and founder of the newly established Global Centre of Possibility at AUT, talked to Susie Ferguson about why New Zealand should get over its ignorance about disability, and embrace the social and trillion dollar opportunities of opening up access.
Ms Baragwanath was mentioned as a long-serving advocate for people who have a disability or access need and in 2011 founded the Be. Lab aiming to make New Zealand the most accessible nation in the world.
The new Global Centre of Possibility is designed to help businesses understand and work with the disability/accessibility sector to improve the lives of those affected, and to harness the $8 trillion dollar annual disposable income people with disabilities have.
Thinking especially of the Solomon Islands while reading through Ms Ferguson’s article, I found common ground on a lot of things Ms Baragwanath reportedly said.
Let me share one or two illustrations
Quote.
Ms. Baragwanath says when people consider the challenges faced by those with disabilities; the 101- basic point to remember is that this group is much wider than just those who use a wheelchair.
"We're talking about 25 percent of the population, we're talking about 1 million New Zealanders and growing every single day. By the time we're 65 nearly 60 percent of us have an access need, due to aging. By the time we're 70 or 80 all of us will have an access need.
"So we really have to stop thinking about accessibility being an 'us and them' conversation, or for some small group. We need a much more sophisticated conversation now about who we're talking about, and what a truly accessible society actually now needs to look and feels like."
Sadly, New Zealand still has some hang-ups in this area, which hold the country back from so much, she says.
"I think fundamentally as a society we still have some deep-seated myths and beliefs about who somebody with a disability or an access need is.
"Yes, wheelchair users are part of the group, but the conversation hasn't moved, our understanding as a society hasn't developed in a way that it could or actually now must, I think.”
Applying the same kind of thinking Ms Baragwanath said could we not truthfully say much the same applies to the issues associated with disability back home? Clearly in the Solomon Islands population numbers are much smaller than in New Zealand, but does her comment, “By the time we're 65 nearly 60 percent of us have an access need, due to aging. By the time we're 70 or 80 all of us will have an access need.” not have a ring of truth about it?
How about this from Ms Baragwanath, "We've had incredibly low unemployment rates for the general population... but the rates for those living with disability or access needs has either remained the same or gone up. And even before Covid-19 it was double and at times three times the rate of people who don't identify as having an access need.
"So we've got this incredible pool of talented, young, creative, diverse individuals, and we've got all these employers who say 'we can't access skilled workers' ... hang on, what's going on there? Why isn't the matching happening, what's the disconnect there?"
Could any of such comments relate to how things are for talented people with some degree of disability in the Solomon Islands today?
Yours sincerely
Frank Short
