Speech: Plain Language Awards 2025

Callum: Kia ora koutou, I’m Callum McMenamin and I run a consultancy called OpenAccess.

I help organisations to make their websites and apps accessible for disabled people.

I’m gonna talk to you about how plain language helps disabled people.

I’ll also flip the idea of disability on its head. It’s not what it seems.

People are not disabled by their medical conditions. People are disabled by systems that are not designed to include them.

I have vision impairment, but I can do many things if those systems are designed to include me.

A classic example is a pedestrian crossing.

If it has audio signals, I can tell when it’s safe to cross.

What determines whether I am disabled or not is not my own medical condition. It is the way society’s been designed.

This is why plain language is important.

Plain language removes barriers that might prevent disabled people from understanding.

There are many impairments that make reading complex text more difficult. People with learning disability, dyslexia, brain injuries, people who are Deaf, the list goes on.

The latest Stats NZ data shows that about 1 in 6 New Zealanders are disabled. That number is only going to get larger as we have an aging population.

But the interesting thing about disability is it’s a group that anyone can join at any moment.

[laughter] You can even become disabled tonight if you try hard enough.

[laughter] As a health and safety reminder, go easy on the champagne tonight. We preferably don’t want any injuries during the event.

We will all at some stage have some kind of injury that either temporarily or permanently gives us the experience of disability.

With any luck, we will all hopefully grow old where our physical abilities decline. Our vision, hearing, and cognitive abilities may decline also.

Now, I’m going to change topics slightly and talk about some recent events.

A core pillar of democracy is being able to understand what the government is doing. Otherwise you can’t hold it to account.

The government is currently getting rid of the Plain Language Act, as has been said, a law that requires plain language for all government writing.

The government claims that plain language laws are a waste of money and are not relevant to disabled people’s rights.

I asked the government if it considered the impact on disabled people before repealing the Plain Language Act.

The government responded with: no.

Generations of disability rights activists have fought long and hard for an accessible society. It can feel pretty scary at times watching the laws we fought for disappear, being called a waste of money.

But what gives me hope?

Well, disabled people will always be here.

We always have been here since the beginning of human existence.

Our voice may have been quiet in the past, but I can hear it getting louder.

I have hope soon our voice will be so loud, it will not be ignored.

And with my voice, I say to this government: Do not repeal the Plain Language Act.

Disabled people will outlast any term of government.

I hold hope that disabled people will soon be properly represented in Parliament so we can stop this regressive path.

We need more empathy in Aotearoa’s leadership.

We must not allow those who briefly hold the reins of power to remove rights from those who need them the most.

We must judge those in power by how they treat our most vulnerable in society. That is how we measure their humanity.

What gives me great hope is seeing all of you here tonight.

Every person in this room is here for a reason. It’s because you care about including disabled people, and I cannot thank you enough for that care.

All of you in this room have shown leadership in pushing our society forward. Please keep it up and take others along with you.

Accessibility is not politically neutral. It is fundamentally about who we include and exclude from society.

Disabled people have a right to a society that is accessible to us because we are human. We have a right to understand our government because we are human.

We all have our differences, but remember, we all have far more in common than what separates and divides us, because we are all human.

I’ll finish with one of my favourite quotes from a disabled artist, Neil Marcus, who said:

"Disability is not a brave struggle or courage in the face of adversity.

Disability is an art.

It’s an ingenious way to live."

Ngā mihi ki a koutou katoa. Thank you for listening.

[applause]