Russell DeborahDr DEBORAH RUSSELL (Labour—New Lynn): Kia orana e Te Vaa Tuatua. There are three points I wish to make taking the final call on the speech tonight: I wish to speak about the social construction of disability; I want to tell some of the stories around disability and why this bill is so important; and I want to talk about what this bill does to deconstruct the social construction of disability. That phrase The social construction of disability" is very very important. It lies at the heart of this bill but it's not a phrase I've actually heard in any of the speeches so far in the debate on this bill tonight. However "If we talk to people in the disability community" is a phrase that is used all the time; it is how people with disabilities understand and work with their own disabilities. So I want to talk first of all about what the social construction of disability is. When we look at a standard model of disability—and this is probably the easiest way to understand the social construction of disability—we tend to think of it in medical terms. We tend to adopt the medical model of disability where someone with a disability has a physical problem to be fixed. There's an emphasis on someone with a disability being autonomous on standing on their own two feet. We see people with disabilities as somehow deviating from the norm as a problem to be fixed. Alongside that we have a narrative of the cripple as hero; they're so wonderful overcoming whatever it is that disables them. So it is a model of disability that thinks in terms of taking away—someone who is disabled is less than the rest of us.Understandably people with disabilities reject that model. Instead they often think in terms of the social model of disabilities where that which disables them is not the physical—it's not the physicality—it is not being non-neurotypical it is not having a body that is different from others but it is our social structures and the way we design our societies which makes them disabled. This fits so well into this bill in terms of how we are starting to deconstruct disability here. Let me give you an example of the way that our social structures construct disability. The main formal entrance into this building is a long flight of steps. Only some of us can climb those steps. If we had thought in terms of the social model of disability right from when this building was built—and I know that was a long time ago—perhaps our main entrance would have been constructed with a ramp and the steps might have gone to the side. Everyone can use a ramp but only some people can use steps. It is our social structure there that has disabled some people; it is not in fact people's own bodies that have disabled them.So that is the social model of disability. In it we understand disability as people being excluded from participation in mainstream activities. Having said that I am sure you can understand why it is that this bill is so very very important. It's because it begins to deconstruct social disability.Interestingly one of the previous speakers—I think Mr Andrew Falloon—said that this was not a controversial bill. I disagree. This is a very controversial bill; not politically but it is controversial socially because it is making us begin to deconstruct that social model of disability. That is why this is in many ways quite a radical bill that this entire House is agreeing on. So we know that we've got some big long-term issues facing New Zealand that we're tackling them. It's something we're going to be working on for a long time—for 30 years; not just three. This is part of that work of tackling some of those long-term issues. Let me tell you some of the stories that I have heard relating to this bill in particular. The first is a young constituent of mine Áine Kelly-Costello. Áine is vision impaired. She came and met me in my early months as an MP to talk to me about the way she had to study at university. It was extraordinarily difficult for her. She couldn't access print information in a way that suited her. She was handed course notes but they were only suitable for people who had normal vision. She couldn't get textbooks quickly and easily; she had to have readers working with her readers who would read the textbook for her in order that she herself could access the material. She was disabled not by her sight but by the fact that there were no books available that suited her. That was that social model of disability. She said that we need to improve access for people with disabilities—including print access.Another story that touches me a little—somewhat indirectly—personally and this is from a submission from Phillippa McKeown-Green who says that her husband Dr Jonathan McKeown-Green sadly deceased was blind but he had completed a PhD in philosophy and lectured in philosophy. Now I know how hard it is to complete a PhD in philosophy and the sheer amount of reading that is to be done from personal experience. It took an extraordinary amount of work for Dr McKeown-Green to be able to access the information he needed. For that reason his widow came to present to the Economic Development Science and Innovation Committee and talked about how much she supported this bill. So the third point I want to make—I want to talk about—is how this bill starts to deconstruct the social model of disability. It does it by ensuring that people with visual disabilities have a way of accessing the print media they need so that they are no longer subject to the book famine there is a way for them to access text there is a way for them to access books because it can be created for them in an accessible format. Now copyright law was previously a barrier to this. Under this bill and this treaty copyright law will no longer be a barrier. The one major problem that many of the people submitting had with the bill as it was originally presented was the commercial availability test. People seeking this alternative format or this accessible format print media had to first see if somewhere somehow the particular text was available commercially. That was another disability being imposed by social structures. As it turned out I wanted to order a book an economics text that I want to read Economics in Two Lessons which I feel would be a good follow-up to my recent reading in economics. I got online. I ordered it—easy—from a bookseller in Christchurch. It should be waiting for me when I get home. Not so the barriers for people with print disabilities. For them getting hold of the book would have been extraordinarily difficult. Now they'll still face some difficulties in getting it but at least an authorised entity—a library or so on—can make an accessible format copy of the text for them. In this way this bill enables people with print disabilities to function almost as well as I can with my ordinary vision and my ordinary sight. So this is a major step in again deconstructing the social model of disability with respect to print media. And that is why this bill is so important. So there's a lot to fix with this Government. We've talked many times about homelessness hospitals water and so on. These are known problems. In a sense accessibility for people with disabilities is an unknown problem. Many of us are unfamiliar with it—particularly that social model. We can't solve all the problems straight away but we're starting and we're making some really good progress. We're taking a balanced approach to solving the known problems. Here is a balanced approach to an unknown problem. I commend this bill to the House.Bill read a third time."