is a Māori disability and human rights advocate, scholar and former lawyer of Ngāti Tahinga, Ngāti Ira and Tainui whakapapa. A disabled wahine and wheelchair user, she brings lived experience and expertise to her work advancing the rights of tāngata whaikaha and whānau hauā. Huhana holds a PhD in Law and tikanga Māori from the University of Waikato and has held numerous national leadership, governance and advisory roles across disability, health, justice and human rights. Her advocacy is grounded in Te Tiriti o Waitangi, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, intersectionality and the collective wellbeing of whānau and communities. She was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to Māori and disabled people.

Dr. Huhana talks about singer Dame Hinewehi Mohi and her daughter Hineraukatauri. For some history and context, read the history of the [Raukatauri Music Therapy Centre](https://www.rmtc.org.nz/history).

Episode Chapters

00:00 Introduction - Disability Disrupters Podcast

00:21 Introduction to Podcast

01:02 Advert - Ask Dr Pam

02:11 Deep Dive Introduction

03:04 Deep Dive - Summary of Submission to the Disability Support Services Bill

22:25  Disability Support Services (DSS) Bill - Oral Submission by Foundation for Equity Research New Zealand

27:45 Intro to Podcast Guest

28:44 Interview with Dr. Huhana Hickey

01:19:10 Goodbye from Dr Pam

01:19:23 Advert - Tipjar support for the podcast

Disability Self-empowerment: Module One: Take charge of your future!

Available on amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/Disability-self-empowerment-Module-charge-future-ebook/dp/B0FJLKGLTV

Disability Responsiveness New Zealand offers personalised mentoring and workshops - view the content of these at https://drnz.co.nz/about-our-workshops-and-programmes/

Audio Shorts, background music provided by www.andrelouis.com

Podcast audio and transcript editor : Britta Offergeld

Support Disability Disrupters by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/disability-disrupters

Read transcript

Tim Young is the CEO of Smart Access, which has developed a data collection, categorisation, and navigation system for pedestrians with access needs to plan a safe journey. Tim started his business, which aims to improve infrastructure accessibility, after facing many obstacles and uncertainty when traveling around the country as a tetraplegic and wheelchair user.

Tim also uses his experience in his role as Chief Technology Officer of My Life My Voice to develop digital tools and conduct training on technology to improve outcomes and opportunities for disabled people.

Tim has completed a MSc in Psychology, developed an educational video game, a work placement program for disabled job seekers, and Co-founded the Magical Bridge Trust to build more accessible playgrounds.

00:00 Introduction - Disability Disrupters Podcast

00:21 Introduction to Podcast guest - Tim Young

00:33 Ad - Get interviewed for Disability Disrupters podcast

24:29 Deep Dive - Unpaid labour critique

41:10 Goodbye from Dr Pam

41:23 Advert - Tipjar support for the podcast

Disability Self-empowerment: Module One: Take charge of your future!

Available on amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/Disability-self-empowerment-Module-charge-future-ebook/dp/B0FJLKGLTV

Disability Responsiveness New Zealand offers personalised mentoring and workshops - view the content of these at https://drnz.co.nz/about-our-workshops-and-programmes/

Audio Shorts, background music provided by www.andrelouis.com

Podcast audio and transcript editor : Britta Offergeld

Support Disability Disrupters by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/disability-disrupters

Read transcript

Sadie has prosopagnosia — face blindness — which means she can't recognize anyone by their face. Not her mother, not her coworkers, not her husband (she once grabbed a jar of peanut butter out of a stranger's cart because she thought he was her husband. He was two aisles over).

Sadie has written a memoir about her face blindness and other conditions, called Do I Know You ? , Temple Grandin wrote the foreword.

Because of her Face blindness, Sadie built her own assistive tech system: She photographs everyone she meets and writes notes about them. What they look like, what they were wearing, what we talked about. It's basically a manual face database. It works, mostly, but it's exhausting — and it freaks people out when they notice.

Here's the irony: the technology Sadie actually needs is the one everyone else fears. Facial recognition. The thing governments are banning and privacy advocates are protesting is, for her, just... what normal people already have built into their brains. Sadie tried an early version of a face recognition app right when the pandemic hit — and of course **it didn't work with masks**, which is exactly when a faceblind person needs it most, because masks wipe out the few cues they do use (hair, glasses, context).

Face blindness affects roughly 1 in 50 people, but there's no accommodation framework, no widely available app, and most people don't even know it exists. Sadie didn't find out she had it until she was 40 — along with three other rare neurological conditions (stereoblindness, aphantasia, and severely deficient autobiographical memory), all missed for decades because she had just learned to work around them.

Sadie is a former reporter for the Washington Post and currently works for National Geographic in the USA.

You can find Sadie on Sadie’s website where you can follow her on social media, contact her and read her blog

If you prefer a hardcopy of her memoir and are located in New Zealand, you can purchase Do I Know You ? at PaperPlus

00:00 Introduction - Disability Disrupters Podcast

00:21 Introduction to Podcast guest - Sadie Dingfelder

00:43 Ad - Get interviewed for Disability Disrupters podcast

01:14 Interview with Sadie Dingfelder

28:01 Deep Dive - Why does Society label People instead of recognising that it is systems that are impaired

50:21 Goodbye from Dr Pam

50:34 Advert - Tipjar support for the podcast

Disability Self-empowerment: Module One: Take charge of your future!

Available on amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/Disability-self-empowerment-Module-charge-future-ebook/dp/B0FJLKGLTV

Disability Responsiveness New Zealand offers personalised mentoring and workshops - view the content of these at https://drnz.co.nz/about-our-workshops-and-programmes/

Audio Shorts, background music provided by www.andrelouis.com

Podcast audio and transcript editor : Britta Offergeld

Support Disability Disrupters by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/disability-disrupters

Read transcript