Enable New Zealand is celebrating a milestone event this month as it achieves 50 years in the disability sector. While the organisation has been through a number of iterations during its lifespan the focus has always been on supporting New Zealand’s disabled community.
Enable New Zealand was brought to life in 1974 as the Aids and Appliances Unit at Palmerston North Hospital, staffed by its founders Terry & Pat Cunliffe. It was New Zealand’s first Disability Resource Centre (NZDRC) and primarily dedicated to researching and developing products for disabled people that were not available elsewhere and included design, transport and seating services.
By November 1994, the NZDRC had 27 employees, all based in Palmerston North.
In June 1995, the organisation secured a new Equipment Management Service contract for Midland (Hawke’s Bay), Central and Southern Regional Health Authorities. This was followed closely by the launch of the Research Clearing House project between NZDRC and Massey University, aimed at providing easy access to resources from the growing technology called the World Wide Web.
NZDRC became Enable New Zealand in 2000 and an operating division of MidCentral District Health Board shortly after, even as it continued to serve districts across Aotearoa.
Most of its subsequent growth has been outside of the original design and production area. This included, in 2002 providing national disability information and advice, expansion of brick-and-mortar sites to include equipment warehouses throughout the country, and a myriad other contracts to deliver support services to New Zealand’s disabled community. Enable New Zealand has a long and proud history of innovation, the EASIE Living (Equipment, Advice, Services Information and Education) demonstration centre and retail store, a first for New Zealand was established in Palmerston North in 2016, offering instore experience along with a mobile van that services the lower North Island.
In 2022, Enable became a stand-alone company as a subsidiary of the new Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora. This change brought a new Board of Directors, increased independence for the organisation, which is now over 200 people strong.
And today, as the leading supplier of disability equipment, information and modification services in Aotearoa, the organisation is proudly continuing to support disabled people and their whanau to live everyday lives across Aotearoa New Zealand.