I would like to concentrate now on the significance that Human Rights law and the Human Rights Commission have for people with disabilities and in particular people who are blind or visually impaired. People within the disability sector argue that the reasons why people with disabilities are still seriously disadvantaged in areas such as employment, education, transport and accommodation, is the direct result of public prejudice, ignorance and misrepresentation about disabled people. People with disabilities still feel the stigma of their disability because of previous negative experiences. This is particularly felt by people who have less obvious or invisible disabilities. There is the dilemma for a person with visual impairment about disclosing information say, to an employer, that they have a disability.
Disclosure is still largely a judgement call.
For instance, people with disabilities recognise the responsibility to make their employers aware for health and safety reasons but also recognise that disclosure may prejudice their employment opportunities. Although New Zealand has had Human Rights legislation since 1977 the most significant empowering legislation for people with disabilities is the Human Rights Act 1993. Disability is now one of the 13 prohibited grounds of discrimination specified in Section 21 of the Human Rights Act. Having disability recognised as a prohibited ground of discrimination means a fundamental shift from a mindset of seeing disability as a welfare model to a rights model. This shift of mindset needs to be well understood by the disability sector and by people who are blind or visually impaired.