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Providing marae with accessibility tools
Providing marae with accessibility tools
Waikato District Health Board is part of a wider group, striving to improve accessibility to Waikato marae for people living with disabilities.
A Marae Accessibility Project Group was established as a sub-group to Te Roopu Tiaki Hunga Hauaa Maori Disability Network Group (established in 2005).
The project group comprises representatives from CCS Disability Action Waikato, the Head Injury Society, Community Waikato, Hauraki Maori Trust Board and Population Health.
As part of the Marae Accessibility Project group, a toolkit was produced to assist marae in becoming more user friendly for those living with a disability or impairment.
“The focus of the project is to enable all whanau to become fully functional participants of marae hui as opposed to mere observers,” said Population Health, health promoter Maraea Nikora.
“That can’t happen if they can’t see or hear what is going on – if they can’t access certain parts of the marae due to limited mobility.
“The toolkit offers information about understanding disability and accessibility when building or redeveloping certain parts of a marae.
“It also includes checklists for different areas of the marae, legislation versus good practice and relevant references and links.”
The project group partnered with trustees from Te Kauri Marae in Huntly, who allowed photographs of their marae to be used throughout the toolkit.
Te Kauri Marae has undergone a large scale redevelopment and building project to increase disabled accessibility.
The toolkit was launched at the reopening of the marae in November 2010 where it was presented to the Māori king, King Tuheitia and the Te Kauri Marae chairman.
“The toolkit has been warmly received and we have had numerous requests for the toolkit” said Mrs Nikora.
To enable ease of accessibility to the resource the toolkit has been made available on the Waikato District health Board Website.
The toolkit can be accessed online at http://www.waikatodhb.govt.nz/page/pageid/2145871479/Marae_accessibility_toolkit
ENDS
Waikato District Health Board
Healthy People. Excellent Care
Waikato District Health Board (DHB) employs over 6500 people and plans, funds and provides hospital and health services to more than 391,770 people in a region covering eight per cent of New Zealand.
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