Wellington, New Zealand – Access Matters Aotearoa (AMA) has released a major national report, highlighting entrenched accessibility barriers across Aotearoa, with calls for coordinated, system-wide reform.
Kōrero for Change: Insights and Actions brings together findings from ten national forums held across 2024 and 2025, drawing on the experiences of people living with a disability, alongside input from government, business, and community leaders.
The report finds the 17 per cent of New Zealanders who live with a disability face barriers in nearly every part of daily life, from accessing healthcare and education to finding work and suitable housing.
AMA Co-Chair Amy Hogan says accessibility remains inconsistent and often left to chance.
“Too often, whether someone can fully participate in everyday life depends on circumstance. This shouldn’t be the system we aspire to in New Zealand.”
The report identifies accessibility as a system-wide issue, with barriers arising from policy settings, funding decisions, and design choices that haven’t prioritised inclusion.
It highlights stark disparities, including employment rates for people with a disability sitting at around 38 per cent compared with 78 per cent for non-disabled people, alongside significantly higher unmet health needs and ongoing shortages of accessible housing.
AMA Co-Chair Dr Rebekah Graham says these outcomes are the result of long-standing structural gaps.
“Inaccessibility is predictable and preventable. When accessibility is treated as an afterthought, exclusion becomes embedded across systems.”
The report sets out practical actions across ten sectors, including introducing enforceable accessibility standards, embedding accessibility in policy and design from the outset, and strengthening accountability across government and industry.
It also points to the economic cost of inaction, with modelling showing closing the employment gap could add hundreds of millions of dollars to the economy.
Hogan says the findings reinforce the need to treat accessibility as essential infrastructure.
“This is all about participation, productivity, and fairness. When systems are designed to support people with disabilities, they end up benefiting all Kiwis.”
Dr Graham says the report is intended to drive sustained action.
“This is about working towards an Aotearoa where people with a disability can participate fully in everyday life. This requires deliberate action, consistent standards, and leadership across every sector.”
About Access Matters Aotearoa
Access Matters Aotearoa is a solutions-driven, non-partisan advocacy trust working to secure strong accessibility legislation so everyone in Aotearoa New Zealand can participate fully.
