Strong Voices

People with intellectual disabilities make up a small percentage of people in New Zealand with disabilities. How small? No one really knows because no one is counting them properly.

New rules about using physical restraint at school are a huge step in the right direction.

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Young Porirua people charged with offences no longer have to stand in the dock while lawyers and judges use language they can’t understand and make rules they are unable to follow.

Autistic people are participating in a University of Canterbury project to highlight their priorities for future autism research.

The Wallaces’ five-week-old baby girl, Edin, was in Starship children’s hospital in Auckland with unexplained seizures. Her mother Karen was by her side. Edin’s father Rob was nearby in Ronald McDonald House with her two brothers, Ben, 6, and Ryan, 4. Whatever was going to happen to Edin, the Whangārei family was going to face it together.‍

This summer Trudy and Paul Masters are expecting their first banana harvest from their rural block near Whangārei. But there is more at stake for the couple than wanting to join Northland’s recent enthusiasm for growing the fruit.

Danni-Lee Kokiri, 18, from Lower Hutt, won first place in the IHC Art Awards for 2021 and a $5000 prize for her mystical painting The Chakra Forest. Interviewed after her win, the Taita College student said the trees made her want to fly over them.

David Simpson had the ground cut from beneath him when his Kaiapoi home was destroyed in the first Christchurch quake. Then the ground shifted again.

Families shut inside in Auckland and Northland have had some online relief during their extended COVID-19 lockdown, with Auckland-based music therapist Ahjay Stelino taking his sounds and skills directly to families with disabled children.

The Law Commission is reviewing the legal powers people are given to make decisions for others, something disability advocates say is well overdue.