Disabled People in Aotearoa Disabled people are a diverse and significant part of the population The United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (CRPD) explains that disabled people are: …those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which in interaction with various barriers may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others.11 This aligns with a social model of disability. This is described in the New Zealand Disability Strategy 2016–2026: Disability is something that happens when people with impairments face barriers in society; it is society that disables us, not our impairments, this is the thing all disabled people have in common. It is something that happens when the world we live in has been designed by people who assume that everyone is the same. 12 In 2013, one in four New Zealanders identified as disabled. Like all people, disabled people inhabit a complex intersection of ethnicities, gender/sexual identities, gender roles and expectations, cultures, and socioeconomic positions. Interestingly, the most recent year for a comprehensive disability survey was in 1993. Racism and ableism intersect and create unique risks for tāngata whaikaha Māori Some people gain privilege by these intersections; for others, these intersections create disadvantage that is potentially further complicated by discrimination related to ableism, racism, sexism, audism, classism, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression and sex characteristics. Disabled indigenous people, tāngata whaikaha Māori, must navigate all these barriers in addition to the disabling effects from suppression of their rangatiratanga or ability to define themselves and determine their own lives. 10 Human Rights Commission Indigenous people have additional and diverse historical and contemporary impacts of disablement arising from colonisation, racism, subjugation and dysfunction that are in themselves disabling.13 Loaded on to this intersectional dis/advantage is the stigma related to societal, cultural, religious and other misunderstandings of disability. Disabled people are misunderstood, discriminated against and stigmatised by cultural values and “erroneous beliefs and myths”14 that can differ from community to community. Such beliefs or myths are that disability is a punishment, disabled people are in some way evil, or disabled people are childlike and incapable of adult interactions and thought.15 Underpinning this fear and misinterpretation of disability is ableism – the hegemonic (dominant in a political or social context) privileging of certain characteristics of mind and body to the detriment of disabled people. The discrimination and stigma arising from ableism often results in disabled people experiencing: • verbal, sexual, coercive, emotional and physical violence and abuse • denial of rights • segregation • lack of accommodation17 • denial of appropriate health care.18 The consequences of this discrimination include fear, withdrawal, isolation, low self-esteem, reduced social and economic participation, and low participation in education.19 These in turn increase the risk of poverty and violence. The disability community in Aotearoa reports that disabled people who have intersecting marginalisation experience higher rates of violence. Those affected include people in one or more of the following groups: • Māori • Pacific peoples • women