Approximately one in four New Zealanders identifies as disabled — a significant proportion of the population who often face barriers to full participation in education, employment, community life, and healthcare. New Zealand's disability support system has undergone significant reform in recent years through Enabling Good Lives (EGL), which shifts power to disabled people and their families. Grant funding supplements government funding and supports community-led initiatives, advocacy, and innovation that the mainstream system doesn't reach.
Scale
NZ disability frameworks
New Zealand's disability approach is shaped by:
- UNCRPD: UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (ratified 2008)
- New Zealand Disability Strategy: government framework for disability inclusion
- Enabling Good Lives (EGL): paradigm shift to self-direction and choice and control
- Whaikaha – Ministry of Disabled People: dedicated disability ministry (established 2022)
Key disability policy principles
Whaikaha – Ministry of Disabled People
Whaikaha is NZ's dedicated disability ministry:
- Funded disability support services (personal cares, residential, day services)
- Enabling Good Lives implementation
- Disability System Transformation programme
Ministry of Education
Disability support in education:
- Ongoing Resourcing Scheme (ORS) for students with high needs
- Learning Support
- Specialist services in schools
Ministry of Health / Te Whatu Ora
Health-specific disability supports:
- Disability support for health conditions
- Mental health disability
Ministry of Social Development (MSD)
ACC
Accident Compensation Corporation — covers disability arising from injury.
Lottery Grants Board / NZ Lottery Grants
Significant funder of disability organisations — community facilities, programmes, and equipment.
Lotteries Community
Community disability inclusion grants.
Foundation North
Northern region community foundation — disability inclusion grants.
Community Trusts
Regional community trusts fund local disability programmes.
Neurological Foundation of NZ
Neurological disability research and support funding.
Blind Low Vision NZ
Blindness and low vision support — partly philanthropically funded.
Deaf Aotearoa
Deaf community services — combination of government contract and philanthropy.
CCS Disability Action
Advocacy and support services for physically disabled people.
Autism NZ
Autism-specific support and advocacy.
Enabling Good Lives implementation
Community inclusion
Employment
Disabled people have significantly lower employment rates:
- Employment skills training
- Supported employment
- Employer education (disability confident employers)
- Wage subsidies and trial employment
- Self-employment support
Education
Deaf community
Blindness and vision loss
Autism
Intellectual disability
Physical disability
Mental health disability
Māori disability
Māori disabled people face compounded disadvantage — disability support must be kaupapa Māori:
- Whānau-centred approaches
- Māori disability organisations
- Cultural identity as strength for disabled Māori
Pasifika disability
EGL represents a fundamental shift in disability support philosophy:
- From service-provider control to disabled person control
- From prescribed packages to flexible, self-directed funding
- From deficit-based to strengths-based and aspirational
- From compliance to genuine partnership
Grant funding that supports EGL implementation — disabled people-led planning, peer support, family capacity — is well-aligned with government direction and funders focused on systems change.
EGL alignment
Applications that actively support disabled people's choice and control — rather than traditional service-provider models — are well-aligned with NZ disability policy direction.
Māori disability equity
Māori disabled people face compounded disadvantage. Kaupapa Māori disability approaches — whānau-centred, culturally grounded — are a priority for disability funders in NZ.
Employment gap
The employment rate for disabled New Zealanders is significantly lower than for non-disabled people — employment support, employer education, and structural change to workplaces are high-impact priorities.
NZSL
New Zealand Sign Language is an official language — programming that centres NZSL and the Deaf community is distinctive and well-funded.
Tahua's grants management platform supports disability funders and community disability organisations in New Zealand — with programme participant tracking, inclusion outcome measurement, Enabling Good Lives data, and the reporting tools that help disability funders demonstrate their investment in full participation for disabled people across Aotearoa.