Invitation: disabled people's experiences during COVID-19

The Independent Monitoring Mechanism (IMM) is writing a report about disabled people’s experiences during the COVID-19 emergency.  

We want to talk to disabled people, their family/whanau, and people working in the disability sector to find out about:

• the things government agencies did well 
• the things government agencies did not do well 
• what you think can be done to make things better 
• other things you may want to tell us about your experiences during the COVID-19 emergency.

The IMM looks at how the New Zealand Government is following what the United Nations Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities (the Disability Convention) says. 

It is made up of the Disabled People’s Organisations’ Coalition, the Office of the Ombudsman and the Human Rights Commission. 

The Disability Convention says what the New Zealand Government should be doing to make sure disabled people: 
•    have the same rights as everybody else 
•    can live a good life. 

The IMM is holding public meetings around the country to talk about these things. We would like you to come to one and tell us about your experiences. Invitations in New Zealand Sign Language and Easy Read formats can be found at the bottom of this page.

Public meetings: 12 August - 2 September

 These meetings will help us to write a report about disabled people’s experiences during the COVID-19 emergency. 

The main goal of this COVID-19 report is to make sure things will be better for disabled New Zealanders if an emergency like this happens again in the future.

Attending a consultation meeting

If you are interested in attending a consultation meeting, please RSVP via email [email protected] or call the Office of the Ombudsman on 0800 802 602 and ask for the Disability Rights team.

Please share this information with your friends and whānau – everyone is welcome. 

Accessibility

• All venues are wheelchair accessible and accessible car parks are available.
• Please tell us if you need a New Zealand Sign Language interpreter by the RSVP deadline of the consultation meeting that you want to attend.
• Please let us know about any other access needs you may have or anything else you think we need to know to support you to attend a meeting.

Dietary needs

• Light snacks will be served. 
• Please let us know if you have any dietary needs.

Virtual consultation - 4 September 2020

If you're unable to attend a meeting in person, we would still like to hear from you.

You can participate in an online Zoom meeting on 4 September.

• Please RSVP via email [email protected] or call the Office of the Ombudsman on 0800 802 602 and ask for the Disability Rights team. We will send you the Zoom link.
• Please tell us if you need a New Zealand Sign Language interpreter by the RSVP deadline (21 August).
• Please let us know about any other access needs you may have or anything else you think we need to know to support you to attend the virtual meeting.

Invitation - in New Zealand Sign Language 

Invitation - in Easy Read 

Please note: The Easy Read invitation does not currently include information about the consultation in Whangārei on 9 September. For information about this event, please refer to the table above.