ensure it meets a wide range of access needs, such as ensuring there is step free access to, within, and out of a home. Lifemark also has an interactive tool to help people consider what accessible homes look like. A housing system that delivers fully on accessibility gives disabled people equal choices about where and how they live, and enables them to participate fully in society – for example, being able to visit their friends and whānau at home. 2. Supporting inclusive and non-discriminatory housing programmes and policies • Ensure the housing you operate is free from discrimination and harassment. This can be done through anti-discrimination and anti-harassment policies, plans for reviewing and removing barriers, and procedures for resolving disputes quickly and effectively. You can also contact the Human Rights Commission if you have questions about potentially discriminatory programmes or policies. • • • 6 It’s important to eliminate discrimination at every stage, including when people are searching for a home (as prospective tenants) and while they are in their home. Consider how you can change or update your approach or apply flexibility to meet the cultural and access needs of your tenants. Identify and remove existing barriers. Think about how you can accommodate tenants’ needs – for example, installing a wheelchair ramp or bathroom grab bars for tenants who need or benefit from them. Human Rights Commission • Provide a supply of accessible homes for disabled people and/or retrofitt homes to meet the access needs of disabled tenants or the cultural needs of tenants. • Follow some key human rights principles when you design or build new housing. Design inclusively, which means thinking about people’s possible accommodation and cultural needs before you start work so that your housing service does not cause new barriers. • Maximise integration, which means setting out housing and programmes that are inclusive, where everybody can take part. 3. Supporting the right to active and informed participation • Ensure that people have the opportunity to participate in housing initiatives such as neighbourhood regeneration projects and take on board their views. For example, it could be appropriate to upgrade housing rather than demolish and rebuild it, in accordance with the choices made by residents. • Make sure that people and communities who have been left behind in the past (such as disabled people) have access to participate in issues that affect them. • Identify whether your housing programme or service requires te Tiriti o Waitangi partnership and shared decision-making. • Support your tenants to be informed on their right to a decent home, and their domestic legal rights and responsibilities as a tenant, flatmate, or boarder so that they can be fully informed to participate in decisions that affect them.