Disabled people

Disability is the most frequent ground of enquiry and complaint to the Commission in the area of employment. Currently disabled people are estimated as having twice the level of unemployment as their non-disabled peers. However, there are a number of factors that lead the Commission to query whether or not this is an under-estimate.

Employment data for disabled people is only collected every five years in a survey conducted after the main census. It is not collected in other more regular surveys such as the Household Labour Force Survey sampled quarterly or the Income Survey sampled annually or the State Service Commission’s annual human resources capability survey. Reliable statistics on the employment of disabled people are collected in the New Zealand Household Disability Survey conducted every five years after the general survey. The next New Zealand Household Disability Survey is planned for 2013, several months after the general census which was delayed because of Christchurch’s earthquakes.

During the course of the National Conversation about Work the Commission heard that disabled people were experiencing a particularly difficult time accessing and maintaining employment. Discriminatory assumptions about what people were capable of is a significant barrier to the employment of disabled people.

Without more frequent data gathering, society is unable to monitor the situation for disabled people and also means progress cannot be tracked either. The Commission has identified the development of a full range of social statistics which measure key outcomes as an area of action to progress the rights of disabled people.¹

International obligations
New Zealand ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in 2008. The CRPD did not introduce any new human rights, but clarifies the obligations and legal duties of states to respect and ensure the equal enjoyment of all human rights by disabled people.

The purpose of the CRPD, expressed in Article 1 is to “promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by persons with disabilities, and to promote respect for their inherent dignity.” Included in the principles that govern the CRPD are non-discrimination, full and effective participation and inclusion in society, and equality of opportunity. Article 27 (1) provides a comprehensive list of the rights of disabled people in relation to employment including the employment of people in the public sector (Art.27 (1) g), the private sector (Art.27 (1) h) and the open labour market (Art.27 (1) j).

New Zealand legislation
Disabled people have the same rights and legal entitlements as other New Zealanders. The Human Rights Act 1993 (HRA) and the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 (BoRA) protect the right of disabled people to freedom from discrimination. Both rely on the HRA definition of disability:
• physical disability or impairment
• physical illness
• psychiatric illness
• intellectual or psychological disability or impairment
• any other loss or abnormality of psychological or anatomical structure of function
• reliance on a guide dog, wheelchair or other remedial means
• the presence in the body of organisms capable of causing illness.