I RECENTLY MANAGED to slice open the sole of my foot on some oysters at a beach. I spent the rest of the weekend hobbling; biking to avoid putting weight on my foot, limping up steps and resting. The 5-minute walk to meet friends at a restaurant suddenly seemed a great distance. I became conscious of my body and wondered how noticeable my limp was. My foot healed fast, but I’m holding on to the memory of the experience of how a temporary, minor injury shifted the world around me.

Disability affects us, sometimes temporarily, sometimes permanently and in a major way. It affects people in our families and workplaces. One in four New Zealanders lives with some kind of disability and while our data around disability has improved over time, there’s still a lot we don’t know about the numbers of people with visible or invisible barriers to enjoying full access to society. If we want all people to flourish, then we must care about disability rights.

Whaikaha, the Ministry of Disabled People, was formed in 2022. Recent limitations in funding mean it has capped financial support for people who care for disabled members of their whānau, including covering respite care and travel costs. Significantly, the changes reduced decision-making within whānau about how to spend allocated funding, with decisions instead being made by the Ministry. The disabled community was appalled not only at the changes themselves, but also at the way they were communicated, with then-Disability Issues Minister Penny Simmonds claiming that funding was being misused by carers for “massages, overseas travel, pedicures, haircuts.” Although Whaikaha received a boost in funding in the government’s May budget — about an additional $220 million per year over five years — much flexibility for families has been lost.

As member of the Disabled Persons Assembly Chris Ford wrote in an opinion piece following the budget, “disabled support changes are not the only government policy that have impacted on this country’s disabled community” (ODT, 1 June 2024). The disabled community experiences, like all in Aotearoa, the stressors in the health system, such as a return to the $5 co-payment for prescriptions and under-resourced emergency rooms; access to emergency housing; support services in schools and universities; challenges to Te Tiriti.

I’m inspired by the work of theologians of disability, who give us new ways to imagine what inclusion in the community truly looks like when disabled people have what they need to feel fully included. Although there are many biblical stories of people being healed of a disability, particularly by Jesus in the Gospels, theologian Nancy Eiesland in The Disabled God, reminds us that Jesus presented his injured — disabled — body to the disciples. Paralysis or blindness were not metaphors in the scripture stories, but realities that limited the people’s participation in their communities — these limitations were imposed by people, not God. This is as true now as it was in Jesus’s time. My own small experience started my awareness of what it’s like to live with a disability. It made me realise that I have lots to learn about the personal, familial, political, economic and social aspects of full inclusion in society for those people living with a disability. It made me realise, too, that it’s solidarity with disabled people as brothers and sisters, not pity, that I need to develop.

Tui Motu Magazine. Issue 294 July 2024: 26