Our Relationship with Disability

Shona & Allan

Many of our closest and dearest friends have lived with disabilities. We have specialised in Disability Support for well over 40 years, in both the volunteer and business related sector.

Shona's Background: Nurse, trained and worked in the now closed down Opotiki Hospital. I lived in Singapore for several years while my late husband Ken Hudson served in Vietnam.

Allan: Bushman, machine operator, truck and bus driver. Adult apprentice in Pulp and paper making as well as 2nd Class Boiler Operator. Shona and I have involved ourselves in several successful businesses, but we are peoples persons rather than business or professional people. Hate balance sheets, spread sheets and almost every other activity associated with the office.

Married in 1976. Shortly thereafter invited a friend (Hone) who had suffered a bush accident and become tetraplegic, to come from the Spinal Unit in Otara and live with us in a granny flat in our Whakatane house. In those days the Spinal Unit would have been his permanent home; there was very little in the way of community support. This was a U-turn in our lives. It was the first time I (Allan) had even pushed a wheelchair.

We became disgusted at the way Disabled people in those days were treated by the government, the Health system and community in general. In the ensuing 40 odd years things have improved 1000%, and we like to feel behind the scenes we have been involved in several such improvements.

We developed, built, and managed for 20 years the first residential home/hospital in NZ (Thornton Park Opotiki) to receive government funding for all age groups and disabilities. This unique situation led us beyond the Nursing Home. A specialised tour company evolved — "Accessible Kiwi Tours" — NZ's only tour company meeting the needs of inbound and local tourists with almost any disability. Both businesses were eventually sold, but not before Evac+Chair Distributors had evolved.

Our experience made us very aware of the danger these people faced in emergency. To overcome the access-without-egress problem, Allan designed and modified a wheelchair with special handles that doubled as a stretcher — used to take disabled people onto rocks, into caves, up and down stairs (likely the only wheelchair-dependent people to go onto Whakaari/White Island or through Waitomo Caves). It worked but wasn't practical for general use.

Then on holiday in the UK in 2006 we saw an Evac+Chair — a wheelchair that goes down stairs, "the answer to our prayers." We brought it back to NZ. Years later Evac+Chairs are deployed in most government departments (including Parliament itself), many hospitals, Universities, Councils, etc. But our emergency-management teams are still, in the most part, blind. Our human-rights legislation hasn't been changed: equal access yes, but nothing about equal egress.

Our recent Earthquakes were a wake-up call — Evac Chairs were used very successfully in several Christchurch establishments including a government office, and in nursing homes around Christchurch and Wellington, and in power cuts and lift failures. The Fire Service (now Fire and Emergency) as an organisation has been slow to come aboard, but now recommends Evac+Chair as the best way to ensure total self-evacuation. As far as I know I am still the only person to bring anyone down the fire stairs of Skytower unassisted in under 12 minutes (see Skytower Evacuation).