About us

CCS Disability Action is the largest disability support and advocacy organisation in Aotearoa New Zealand, supporting people with impairments of any type.

We have been working alongside disabled people since 1935 and are now at the forefront of service provision, advocacy and information sharing in the disability sector. As an organisation, we work from a Human Rights perspective within a disability rights framework, and this is reflected in everything we do. We partner with disabled people, their families and wider whānau, to support them having choice and control in their lives. We recognise disabled people/ whānau hauā as the experts in their own lives.

Our vision is for every disabled person/whānau hauā to be interwoven into the lives of their whānau and community. Discover more about our Strategic Priorities.

In our mahi, we connect with all parts of Aotearoa New Zealand, working with remote communities and not limited to specific impairments. We acknowledge Māori as Tangata Whenua. We are committed to being in relationships with Hapū and Iwi so that we continue to develop our ability to support whanau hauā.

Our history and changing attitudes to disability

The emphasis and scope of our services, and our name, have changed over the years, along with society’s changing attitudes to disability, becoming more accepting of diversity.

The New Zealand Crippled Children Society was founded in 1935 by Rotary New Zealand, in response to the polio epidemics of the early 1920s. The Rotary Clubs of NZ recognized the need for children affected by polio to have prevention, after-care, training, and employment. They formed the Society on what is a known as a charity model of care - dependent on the good will and generosity of philanthropic groups, or people, to give. Emotive words like ‘cripple’, ‘suffering’ and ‘victims’, were often used to describe the children.

In the 1940’s – 1970’s there was a shift in attitudes where people believed the correct response was to ‘fix’ disabled people, segregating people and providing a service (such as an institution) to meet their ‘special’ needs and allow them to best fit into society by being as non-disabled as possible. This thinking is known as the medical model of disability.

The social model of disability emerged in the UK in the 1970s. In New Zealand, the social model movement emerged from the early 1980’s, after the International Year of Disabled people was celebrated. This is when the disabled person movement in New Zealand started to gain momentum.

Developed by disabled people, the social model says disability is caused by the barriers in our physical and social environments and people’s attitudes, not by impairments. People are disabled by these barriers, for example buildings with no accessible entrance or employers with an inflexible view of what disabled people are capable of.

Removing these barriers creates equity and gives disabled people more independence, choice and control in their lives. Once these barriers are gone, people with impairments are no longer disabled.  

Over the course of CCS Disability Action’s history, we have adapted and changed to reflect the changes both politically and socially to meet the needs of the people we are here to serve. 

This is reflected in our organisation name changes over the years.  We keep the letters CCS at the front of our name in recognition of our past.  Disability Action is looking forward to take action to be responsive to the disability community.

CCS Disability Action uses the term “disabled person” to align our vision with the social model of disability, Enabling Good Lives Principles, and the NZ Disability Strategy. We respect the right of all people to define their individual and varied identities for themselves.