We're now members of the Accessibility Tick Programme

Kia ora koutou, hi everyone

Our vision as an organisation is ‘an Aotearoa New Zealand where people of all abilities and diversity flourish and achieve their full potential’, and our brand by-line is ‘valuing difference and supporting inclusion’. Playing our part in creating an inclusive Aotearoa NZ means acting on our belief that a diverse and inclusive workplace brings out the best in us all, and motivates us to provide better support and better service to our clients, and to each other.

Doing the work we do to support disabled people of all ages, and their families, we have a unique advantage over many other organisations and businesses, because we know the impact that living in a disabling society has on the lives of people with impairments. We hear every day personal stories about the effects of social and economic exclusion on our clients and their families. 

For disabled people who work, it is hard to participate productively when workplaces are not accessible. We have experience at working to make our workplace accessible, and so we have a sense of what this takes and also that this actually benefits everyone.  But we can, and need to, do more.

As just one example, we live in an era where we increasingly use technology to do our jobs and this is very much the case in our work. Adopting accessible technologies and strategies will support us to boost employee retention, meet our regulatory needs, and produce more and better quality work, which includes improved communications content for all of our clients and stakeholders.  For us as an organisation, this means continually adapting and evolving to provide secure, accessible services that are relevant to how people live and work in both the physical and digital worlds.

I am delighted to announce Taikura Trust’s partnership with Access Advisors who are helping us improve our accessibility as we work towards achieving the Accessibility Tick. Access Advisors is a pan-disability initiative of the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind who partner with other organisations across the disability sector in order to provide true pan-disability expertise. 

We are members in the Accessibility Tick Programme which has been designed by Access Advisors to help organisations progress along their journeys to becoming more accessible and inclusive for disabled people. For Taikura Trust, this is effectively a strategy for changing organisation practices which could result in discrimination against disabled people.

Taikura Trust is committed to complying with relevant accessibility and disability legislation and to continuous improvement in regards to accessibility and inclusion of disabled people in our workplace. We are committed to consulting employees on matters that may impact their accessibility needs before decisions are made on these matters. 

I am proud to say that Taikura Trust is on track to becoming one of the first organisations in Aotearoa NZ to receive the Accessibility Tick and we will also be one of a handful of Accessibility Tick Programme foundation members, many of which are industry leaders, who will lead the way for others in NZ to follow. 

I look forward to sharing with you our progress on this exciting initiative in the coming months.

Nga mihi

Sonia Hawea
CEO