The role of the Disability Advisory Panel
Panel members provide valuable feedback and advice from their lived experience.
Panel members will:
- identify the issues that are important to people with disabilities
- provide advice on our regional strategies, policies and plans
- help us to effectively engage with people with disabilities.
This helps us build understanding and awareness of issues that are important to Auckland's diverse communities and helps us improve our engagement approach.
Read about the
term of the panel.
Members of the panel
Standing from left to right: Áine Kelly-Costello, Lorraine McQuigg, Martine Abel-Williamson, Gerard Martin, and Chris Orr. Seated from left to right: Barry de Geest, and Amy Hogan. Not present: Lavinia Lovo, Ryan Meechan.
Áine Kelly-Costello
Áine Kelly-Costello (they/them) is a Pākehā, multiply disabled storyteller, researcher and advocate.
They have written and podcasted on a range of kaupapa from a transnational disability perspective, including climate justice, migration, independent living, accessibility and disability pride.
They work from the basis that the personal is political and they are committed to bolstering disabled people's access to and participation in politics at a local and national level.
They are a PhD candidate at the University of Otago where they are exploring what meaningful deinstitutionalisation for disabled people looks like in Aotearoa.
Amy Hogan
Amy has a lived experience of disability and has navigated the health system for herself and others while working as a researcher for the Cerebral Palsy Society of New Zealand.
She has worked as a disability advocate and campaigner in a professional role since 2010.
While she is undertaking a master's in science (School of Psychology), her interest in knowledge translation, equity and system change throughout Aotearoa New Zealand has contributed to the wider disability community.
Barry De Geest
With over 40 years championing disability rights and inclusion, Barry de Geest is a recognised authority in the disability sector.
He has worked in various government departments and not-for-profit organisations before becoming the Director and CE of Renaissance Group, one of the largest supported living providers in New Zealand.
Barry is Chairman of Taikura Trust operational board, and a member of Workbridge board.
As a thalidomide survivor he has not allowed his disability to stop him from making changes for all of society.
Chris Orr
Chris Orr was born in Dunedin and educated at Otago Boys' High School.
Chris lost his sight as the result of an accident in 1974. In 1975 he attended a course at the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind (now Blind Low Vision NZ) Rehabilitation Unit.
At the completion of his course Chris was offered and accepted a role as a staff member at the Foundation of the Blind.
Over the course of his employment at the foundation, Chris has undertaken many and varied roles. These included fundraising, public relations and as an access and awareness advisor.
The access and awareness advisor role included many guest speaker opportunities and training sessions for technical institutions and public transport providers.
Chris has advised on many local and central government standards including:
- Aotearoa Pedestrian Network Design guide
- requirements for urban buses (RUB)
- shared space pedestrian standard and shared pedestrian and cycle paths.
Over the past 20 plus years Chris has concentrated on access to the built environment for people who are blind or have low vision (including roads, footpaths and buildings). His access work on the built environment included public transport facilities such as bus stops and rail stations.
One of Chris’s many highlights was advising on the design of the electric trains for the Auckland rail network.
Chris has had five guide dogs since he graduated with his first dog Adam in 1975. Chris’s current guide dog is Noble, a 9-year-old black Labrador retriever.
Chris retired in June 2022 after 46 years working for Blind Low Vision New Zealand.
Gerard Martin
Gerard Martin is currently Relationship Manager, External Providers with Immigration New Zealand, for the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.
He manages a portfolio of external providers supporting refugees and migrants to settle in New Zealand.
Gerard is an accredited economic development practitioner, a former board member of the Institute of Public Administration of New Zealand (IPANZ) and has served on the Committee of the Auckland/Northland Amputee Society.
His areas of interest for the Disability Advisory Panel include addressing discrimination and unconscious bias affecting those with disabilities and advocating for the Universal Design approach to infrastructure and building design.
He uses an above-knee prosthetic leg after losing his left leg to a bone tumour in his early 20s.
Martine Abel-Williamson
In 2022 Martine Abel-Williamson was the recipient of the Inner Wheel Club of Howick of the Dawn Johnston Koru Award.
This award was established in 2018 to recognise and pay tribute to a resident of Pakuranga, Howick or Botany who has displayed perseverance.
Martine was also awarded the Queen’s Service medal (QSM) in 2018 for service to disabled persons. In the same year she was the Supreme Award winner at the Attitude Awards.
In 2016 she was presented with the Beamish Memorial Medal from Blind Citizens NZ for outstanding service.
She is the president of the World Blind Union (WBU) and she also serves on the boards of the International Disability Alliance (IDA), Disability Connect, Blind Citizens NZ and the Royal NZ Foundation of the Blind.
Her current work role is as Senior Human Rights Advisor at Te Kahui Tika Tangata/NZ Human Rights Commission. She previously served on Auckland Council’s Disability Advisory Panel.
Ryan Meechan
Ryan Meechan is a dedicated disability advocate with a passion for helping those in need.
With a background in speech-language therapy, he has worked in a variety of settings, including education and healthcare.
Currently, Ryan is pursuing his PhD at the University of Auckland, where he is focused on improving the assessment of language difficulties in people who have had a stroke.
Ryan's work is driven by his desire to make a positive impact in the lives of individuals with disabilities, and he is committed to advocating for their rights and wellbeing.
Lorraine McQuigg
Lorraine works part-time at Auckland Deaf Society and previously worked as an investigator at the Office of the Health and Disability Commissioner.
She was a founding committee member of advocacy group Deaf Action and is involved in other advocacy activities, such as advocating for increased captioning access for Deaf and Hard of Hearing people in New Zealand.
Lorraine is Deaf but was born and grew up hearing. When she first started to lose hearing in her early 20s, she used hearing aids and lipreading to communicate. She later started to learn New Zealand Sign Language as her hearing deteriorated.
Lorraine first made connections in the Deaf community when she and her young daughter were supported with their signing at (then) Kelston Deaf Education Centre preschool.
Lorraine has now been involved in the Deaf community for approximately 20 years and uses either New Zealand Sign Language or written English to communicate. She completed a Bachelor of Arts at Auckland University before becoming Deaf and later completed a Certificate in New Zealand Sign Language and Deaf Studies at Auckland University of Technology (AUT).
She also completed the Sociology of Disability paper at Massey University. This helped her learn more about the experiences of other disability groups and better understand the wider disability context in New Zealand.
Lavinia Lovo
Lavinia Lovo was appointed to the Disability Advisory Panel on 30 September 2024.
Work of the panel
One of the panel's key priorities this term is climate and extreme weather resilience. The panel recognises the importance of disability-inclusive emergency preparedness and response. To support this, the panel hosted a community engagement hui on the topic.
The purpose of the hui was to:
- foster relationships and share knowledge between the disability community, elected representatives and community agencies
- share learnings from the extreme weather events in 2023
- use learnings to improve local and regional emergency planning and decision-making.
A formal report and recommendations from the hui were approved by the panel in March 2025.
The report, including responses and next steps from Auckland Emergency Management, will be presented to the Civil Defence and Emergency Management Committee in June 2025.
Read 'Are we included in your plan?' to find out more about the panel report.
