INDEPENDENT NEWS

Formal rights mean nothing unless enacted by those who care

Published: Thu 16 Feb 2012 05:32 PM
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Date: Thursday, February 16
"Formal rights mean nothing unless enacted by those who care"
ACHIEVE -the National Post-Secondary Education Disability Network -is astounded that Mojo Mathers has been asked to fund her own note-taking services.
"While New Zealand has some of the right legislation, clearly the proof is not in the pudding when Parliament cannot get it right. Formal rights are merely words on paper until enacted by people who care", says Melissa Lethaby, National President of ACHIEVE.
“Mojo Mathers should not have been asked to fund her own note-taking service and Parliament has a responsibility to ensure she has access to information that will enable her to the job she has been elected to do. It seems ironic that New Zealand Sign Language is one of our country's official languages, and yet here it is being silenced by the very lawmakers themselves", says Mrs Lethaby.
Mrs Lethaby explains that “within a tertiary setting, note-taking support is one of the many options available to Deaf or hearing impaired students, which is generally funded by the institution accepting the student’s enrolment. It seems ludicrous that this level of support is not available beyond this setting and especially within Parliament".
ENDS

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