The Canterbury earthquakes had huge impacts on the people that call Christchurch and its surrounding areas home. They also provided an opportunity for our city to be rebuilt better than before and to make it more accessible for people from all walks of life, including disabled people.
In late 2011, the team at Kanohi ki te Kanohi set up the Earthquake Disability Leadership Group (EDLG) to ensure that our future city would be one that welcomed disabled people, with a focus on planning for accessibility and the inclusion of disabled people in the rebuild.
One of our early projects was painting an inclusion-themed mural in Christchurch.
At first, The EDLG’s role was to ensure disabled people were well-supported in the initial aftermath of the earthquakes. As an independent group, The EDLG was able to work across the organisations involved in the rebuild and recovery. Once the crisis needs of disabled people were met, we began working to ensure the voices and needs of disabled people were included in the planning and rebuild of Christchurch.
Like all our work at Kanohi ki te Kanohi, we wanted The EDLG to become self-sustaining and we transformed it into a Charitable Trust in 2016. We now have a board of six leaders from the disability sector managing the strategic direction and a wider network of over 150 people from approximately 60 organisations. We also have one part-time projects facilitator.
Since it began, The EDLG has contributed to the city’s anchor projects, including the Metro Sports Facility, prepared a report with Red Cross on the earthquakes and the disability sector, and has more recently rolled out the Accessibility Charter in Canterbury, led by Barrier Free NZ Trust. The Charter goes beyond the minimum accessibility compliance expectations of the Building Code and includes signatories from all the major players in the rebuild.
The EDLG has also carried petitions to parliament, painted an inclusion-themed mural, run a campaign to get people to share their favourite accessible places in Christchurch and run disaster preparedness workshops with Red Cross.
We’re proud to have been part of starting a group that is having an impact on the future of our city and its accessibility for all people. We remain involved with The EDLG on a strategic level.