The Alliance Party says the National Government must not make proposed cuts to equity funding for disabled tertiary students.
Alliance Party Disabilities spokesperson Chris Ford says the cuts could badly affect the disability information and support services currently available in many of our tertiary institutions.
Mr Ford, who is also a mature student who lives with disability, believes that any funding cut will harm disabled students access to tertiary education.
He says without this funding, there would not be the staffing or resources to support disabled students in what can be a challenging learning environment.
“If equity funding is cut, then support staff numbers in disability support offices, such as that at Otago University, could have to be reduced. Also the ability to purchase and maintain specialist equipment, for example, large screen readers for blind and vision impaired students, could be severely impacted.”
Mr Ford says other ramifications could include a reduction in the number of hours worked by New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) interpreters who support Deaf students in tertiary education.
The Alliance Party believes that all of this could cost the country and disabled people dearly as the participation rate of disabled people in tertiary education is already lower than that of other disadvantaged groups such as Maori and Pacific Islanders.
The Alliance says that tertiary education should be available to all New Zealanders including disabled people.
“If the funding cuts go ahead, then the already low participation rate could decline even further. We would also like to point out that the National Government is in the process of tightening ACC and benefit eligibility as well and these moves will impact severely on disabled people.”
Mr Ford says this policy, amongst others, will undercut the ability of government to shift disabled people off welfare and into work.
“If disability support is not available at the tertiary level, then how are disabled people going to be able to train or retrain successfully? This is another example of National’s self-defeating approach.”
The Alliance will fight to stop or reverse any funding cuts and noted its commitment to free tertiary education with no fees, no loans and liveable benefit and student allowance levels funded through progressive taxation.