Table of Contents Foreword / Introduction from Disability Rights Commissioner 3 Executive summary 5 Submissions made to this phase of the Inquiry 5 Summary of themes 6 Significant concerns with communications 6 Staying safe during the pandemic 7 Support to isolate safely 7 Disrupted disability support services 7 Unavailable health services 8 8 Lack of support in education settings Recommendations and observations 8 Taking immediate action Preparing for the continued responses to COVID-19 10 Designing systems and policies for disability inclusiveness (medium-term) 11 Transforming society’s cultural assumptions about disability (medium-term) 11 Areas for further consideration 11 Discussion 9 13 Human rights and Te Tiriti framework 13 Background to this report 14 Submissions and analysis 15 Findings of this report 16 A lack of partnership with disabled people and their whānau in the government response to COVID-19 17 Significant concerns with communications 19 Accurate and appropriate information is hard to find 19 Information is not in accessible formats 20 0800 lines and websites do not work for everyone 21 Official messages keep changing, causing confusion 22 22 Disabled people and their whānau have plugged information gaps themselves 1