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Otago Regional Council Annual Plan 2025/2026 Consultation

Posted in Submission, Regional; Tagged Accessibility, Emergency management, Housing; Posted 17 months ago by DPA Less than a minute to read

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To: Otago Regional Council 
Date: April 2025 

 

Purpose

This submission’s primary purpose is to provide feedback from a disability perspective, ensuring that ORC’s planning, climate change initiatives, and emergency management strategies are inclusive and accessible to the significant and growing disabled population in Otago. DPA aims to leverage its established positive relationship with ORC to advocate for specific actions, particularly in areas of communication and staff training, to better serve the disability community.

Summary of DPA submission

DPA welcomes the opportunity to submit on the Otago Regional Council’s Annual Plan, highlighting that 7.4% of Otago's population (36,000 people) identifies as disabled, a number expected to grow with the ageing population. DPA values its ongoing relationship with ORC, noting its involvement in consultations on transport, civil defence, and air quality. DPA commends the ORC's Civil Defence team for their improved emergency response during the 2015 and 2023 Dunedin floods, which demonstrated enhanced evacuation accessibility for disabled residents. DPA supports the ORC's performance measure to increase engagement with diverse groups and recommends an annual review of the accessibility of ORC communications in partnership with disabled people and Disabled People's Organisations (DPOs).

DPA expresses its intention to submit on upcoming ORC plans, emphasising that well-managed and sustainable urban growth is crucial for disabled people, particularly concerning accessible housing and infrastructure. They also prioritize good air quality due to its disproportionate impact on disabled individuals with respiratory conditions. DPA supports ORC's work on natural hazards, climate change adaptation, and flood planning, viewing these as essential for building community understanding and enabling pre-planning for disasters, especially in high-risk areas like South Dunedin.

The submission reinforces the systemic disadvantages faced by disabled people in emergencies, including limited resources for emergency supplies, lack of clear information on accessible evacuation and accommodation options, increased mental distress from displacement, and the critical need for information accessibility for the Deaf community. DPA is pleased to see continued prioritisation of community resilience building and staff capacity training within ORC.

Crucially, DPA recommends that ORC emergency management staff receive comprehensive training in disability responsiveness and awareness specific to emergency situations. This training, DPA specifies, should be incorporated into existing staff training programs and, significantly, be led and delivered by disabled people themselves. This approach aims to ensure that emergency responders have practical, lived-experience-informed knowledge to effectively meet the needs of disabled people during crises.

 


Key Recommendation/Finding:

That ORC emergency management staff are undergo training in disability responsiveness and awareness in emergency situations through disabled people led and delivered training modules.

 


Supporting Statement 1:

DPA stresses the importance of enhancing the capacity of ORC staff to respond effectively during emergencies and specifically calls for incorporating disability awareness and responsiveness into existing training programs.

 


Supporting Statement 2:

Disabled people consistently face systemic disadvantage in emergency situations due to their needs not being adequately understood or planned for, and training led by disabled people themselves offers vital, practical insights to bridge this gap.

 

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DPA Submission 2504 Otago Regional Council Annual Plan 2025/2026 Consultation (DOCX)

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