August - October Update
Kia ora and welcome to our August - October update,
We have had a busy few months of mahi, and been busy preparing for our AGM this weekend!
Most recently there have been a string of awesome engagements by our executive to keep things rolling towards the end of the year.
Co Pres Sean and Admin officer Neve attend the Inclusive Pathways conference, taking the opportunity to share on a panel focused on internships about the experiences of disabled learners and employment. Including accessible work experience, well studying and the inequity that persists in transition from study to workforce. Where comparably qualified disabled individuals are employed at much lower rates than peers, with census stats showing 25% of non-disabled students gain employment post university compared to 8% of disabled people.
Co Pres Sean also continued his presentation streak by being the moderator for a stunning event organized by Access Matters “ Kōrero for Change on Education: The Thinkers Panel”. Facilitating a fiery and innovative discussion on how we can build a more inclusive tertiary education, with expert academics from across disability academia.
In the advocacy space, we heard from Green MP’s Kahurangi Cater and Francisco Hernandez that they wished to meet to discuss our mahi and what we saw as the key challenges facing inclusive tertiary education. Co-presidents Tara (Zooming in) and Sean (our Wellington local), shared the consistent message we have been pushing this year, grounded in the voices of our members and evidenced by research. The importance of student voice and contribution to DAP’s, as is required by the Code of Pastoral Care and ensuring support services at institutes are high quality, especially as new technology such as AI provides both an opportunity and risk to this.
In the community space, we hosted our second community panel. Linking up disabled students with our new friends in the inclusive employment space, from B-lab, Employment Connections, well keeping it real with the ‘outsider’ perspective of a student who had recently undertaken a disability focused internship, to bring to light some of the real challenges we can anticipate facing as we enter the workforce.
Nikki continued her work supporting NDSA member organizations, while visiting whānau in Auckland she also managed to sneak in an insane amount of mahi. Including supporting the election of new Disability at Massey Reps, being a part of Auckland's first local inter-dsa event, bringing together learners from all three local universities, meeting with the unions while attending events held by local universities, and attending the fabulous launch of AUTDSA who have hit the ground running with some awesome community building and advocacy, check out their socials!.
We have also had some two stunning members council meetings, taking the opportunity to ensure that we are grounded in and informed by the perspectives and experiences of our members. In August we had the opportunity to jointly review and feedback on policy for what the future of hybrid learning in higher education will look like. Then in September we switched it up with our new member chairing model with our representative from Ara Canterbury, Emily taking the floor, to lead important conversations. Including, how to hold an inclusive AGM, what members' training opportunities will look like next year given funding restrictions, and of course, what bird we should endorse for BOTY. These insights have directly impacts our decisions and planning going forward, and we are so grateful to members for their contributions.
And lastly of course, a quieter October, which has been the month of AGM preparations, you might have caught us across social media promoting the open 2025 executive positions, sharing how awesome this mahi is, and our journeys with it. However, quieter doesn’t mean nothing has happened! Sean and Nikki both attended the Brightstar Conference in Auckland in October and spoke on a panel, where they discussed mental wellbeing and disability! For the highlights of each executive member's tenure this year check out our instagram!
A final mention and congratulations to our co-president Tara who was also selected as one of the Y25 young wahine leaders, from across Aotearoa, we could not be more proud of her, and amazed by the breadth of her mahi.
Next time you hear from us, we will be introducing the new executive for another year of bringing the inclusive, accessible, and quality education our disabled students deserve.
Till then, Mā te wā,