Kōrero for Change | Access to Goods and Services

Persistent Barriers in Daily Access

In Aotearoa New Zealand, the Human Rights Act 1993 prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in the provision of goods and services, covering everything from retail shops and restaurants to banks, online platforms, and public transport. Despite this framework, disabled people routinely encounter barriers that prevent full participation in everyday economic and social life.

Access Matters Aotearoa Trust, a leading advocacy group, has been running its Kōrero for Change series to spotlight these issues across different domains of public life. The focus on access to goods and services addresses how ableism—systemic bias against disabled people—manifests in design, delivery, and policies that assume a non-disabled default. Everyday examples include inaccessible websites, physical stores without ramps or adequate signage, customer service that fails to accommodate communication needs, and products lacking inclusive features.

The stakes are high and immediate. Disabled individuals, who make up roughly one in four New Zealand adults, face reduced independence, higher costs (such as needing support workers for basic errands), and social isolation when services exclude them. Businesses that fail to address these barriers can face complaints to the Human Rights Commission, potential legal action, and reputational damage, though enforcement often relies on individual cases rather than proactive standards.

A key tension lies between voluntary compliance and calls for mandatory, enforceable accessibility regulations. Critics of the current system argue that reliance on goodwill has allowed persistent gaps, while some service providers highlight the costs and complexity of retrofitting or redesigning systems. Recent developments show no major legislative overhaul to the Human Rights Act's disability provisions in 2025-2026, but advocacy pressure is building for dedicated accessibility laws similar to those in other jurisdictions, potentially imposing specific standards and penalties.

Non-obvious angles include the intersection with Māori disabled people (tangata whaikaha), who face compounded barriers due to cultural and systemic factors, and the growing role of digital services, where web accessibility failures exclude users despite global guidelines like WCAG often being treated as optional.