Hutt Valley No Exceptions District Declaration
A flexible approach to implementation
It is important that the timeframe for implementation does not step too far ahead of public awareness and the people doing the implementing. This is because of the central role of awareness and attitudes in changing behaviour around disability (beyond understanding the obvious things like physical access, people usually need to ‘get’ disability before they change their behaviour).
In other words, once the political commitment has been made and the agreement made around what is to be done, some flexibility going forward about how implementation will be managed can be useful. This reflects that the move to No Exceptions is partly about people learning to be inclusive.
There are, however, certain factors that can make individuals and organisations slow to learn about disability. One of these is the perception that being inclusive of people with disabilities is financially costly. One of the successful aspects of the approach taken with the Hutt Valley No Exceptions district was the low-cost. That is, apart from a small contribution to the initial scoping research and planned gap analysis (referred to above), there are no daunting upfront costs. Alongside this, the participating organisations have the flexibility to implement the initiative over time, within a business-as-usual approach.
Updated | 23 Apr 2008.
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