For the first time, Christchurch City Council has allocated a specific pot of cash to help improve disabled access around the city.
Access to a swimming pool for wheelchair users (stock photo). Photo: 123rf
One councillor says planning rules discriminate against disabled people in a way that society would not tolerate for other minorities.
Reuben Cleave, 21, lives with cerebral palsy which means he approaches walking and talking differently.
He loves visiting parts of Otautahi but unfortunately, there's only a handful of wheelchair friendly places.
Completing a diploma in web design this year, he has been unable to find a job but while he continues to search he's working on a passion project of his own.
He's building a website to showcase wheelchair accessible activities and sites around the city.
"I am building the website because there are no other website out there that have a sufficient amount of information about wheelchair accessible places around Christchurch and New Zealand."
Last month, he put out a nationwide survey asking disabled people for feedback on whether to build the website and there were dozens of respondents in support of the idea.
Immediate improvements could be made by putting more ramps on streets and shop fronts, Cleave said.
The New Zealand Disability Survey released in 2014 said 24 percent of New Zealand's population identified as disabled.
Christchurch City Councillor Aaron Keown also chairs the Council's Accessibility Regulatory Working Group.
Despite making up a huge part of society, people with disabilities had been left out in the design of cities and within workplaces, Keown said.
"I have this issue with built prejudice. Where we build buildings around facilities or city but they discriminate against people with disability."
If you build a two- or three-storey commercial building there was no requirement to have a lift, he said.
However, that automatically meant someone using a wheelchair could not access the first or second floor.
Wheelchair access through a back door or alley was unacceptable, Keown said.
"Imagine if you said all men, women, or of a certain age, colour or religion has to come in through the back door. But it seems society is ok to do that to disabled people."
The Building Act, as it stands, does not have any minimum standards on accessibility for disabled people in residential housing builds either.
Christchurch City Council has for the first time allocated $100,000 for a disability committee to access for improvements.
Although it was not a huge amount, Keown hoped there would be more funding to come.
"It may pay for an access ramp, toilet door changes, signage, a cut down in a footpath ... it's just a start," Keown said.
Accessibility was not done well in Christchurch, Keown said, and while the funding was only a start, he would like to see "Christchurch become the most accessible city in the world".
Cleave's website will take at least another six months to finish but he hoped it will develop the conversation within cities and workplaces about the importance of accessibility.
