Juliana Carvalho's home in Tauranga has an accessible bathroom, kitchen and wardrobe, wider doorways, sliding doors and no carpet. Photo / Megan Wilson
When Juliana Carvalho first moved to Tauranga, she had to shower on her back porch because of a lack of accessible housing. Now she has bought and moved into her first accessible “dream” home. Megan Wilson reports.
Juliana Carvalho is calling on the Government to introduce legislation enforcing accessibility standards.
The Tauranga woman, who uses a wheelchair, can now access her “full house” with an accessible bathroom, kitchen and wardrobe, wider doorways, sliding doors, and no carpet.
“Now there’s no excuses - I can cook and do the dishes.”
When she moved from Auckland to Tauranga in 2022, she had to shower on the back porch of her temporary accommodation for six months because of a lack of accessible housing.
A portable shower, for which she received Government funding, was installed at the house, where she lived until moving into her new home in October.
The disability advocate is calling on the Government to act.
She travels for work and “I never know what I’m going to find” in a supposedly accessible hotel room.
“There’s no enforceable standards that say, ‘This is the specifications.’”
Disabled people already suffered from isolation because of barriers preventing them from fully participating in society, she said.
“Then you have Christmas time, and you cannot visit your family ... because there’s steps or the doors are too narrow, you won’t be able to use the bathroom.”
Speaking to the Bay of Plenty Times at her Pāpāmoa home, Carvalho said she contacted Barrett Homes in October 2023 to buy her first house.
Nothing was suitable on the market.
In June 2024, she bought a home-and-land package and worked with Barrett Homes to make accessible alterations to the plans.
Building from scratch allowed a “fit for purpose” home to be built. It was also cheaper than retrofitting an existing home, she said.
“It’s a dream.”
Originally from Brazil, Carvalho said she was a healthy 19-year-old university student when she started feeling unwell.
“I went to hospital walking, and then in 48 hours my body totally paralysed.”
In the intensive care unit, she could only move her head.
Lupus had caused inflammation of her spinal cord.
She did a lot of physiotherapy to regain movement in her arms and fingers, which was a “miracle”.
Her legs were still paralysed.
The consultant, author and comedian wrote a book, In My Chair or Yours.
She said she was “proud to be disabled” as it built her resilience.
Barrett Homes national sales manager Lianne Simpkin said it was important that elderly or disabled people could choose accessibility.
“We’ve looked to make a specification that people can opt for ... and it’s not that much of a variation in cost.”
Ben O’Meara, the Ministry of Disabled People - Whaikaha’s deputy chief of executive policy and insights, said an analysis of accessibility and disability-specific legislation in Australia, Canada, the UK, the US, Bangladesh and Brazil was completed in July last year and provided to the minister’s office.
It found legislation was “not a silver bullet”, with several countries experiencing issues with implementation and enforcement.
Whaikaha had focused on accessibility initiatives, including reviewing the building framework standard to ensure buildings and facilities were accessible, and improving the mobility parking system, he said.
Housing was a main focus for the New Zealand disability strategy. It would soon appoint members from the disability community to a newly established advisory group to provide expertise and advice on accessibility matters.
Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston said she sympathised with disabled people facing challenges with accessibility, especially in housing.
“As minister, my absolute priority is to ensure the disability support system is more consistent, transparent, sustainable and fair – this includes improving accessibility for the disability community.”
She said Whaikaha’s analysis was used to frame work within the disability strategy, and Whaikaha had just finished consulting on it.
The importance of accessibility was clear across all priority outcome areas within the draft strategy.
NZME reported in 2022 that Kāinga Ora had a goal of having at least 15% of its newly built homes accessible for people with disabilities.
Kāinga Ora strategy and policy director Janna Campbell said it no longer had a target. However, “we will continue to deliver FUD [full universal design] homes when the location, typology and build costs allow”.
It delivered 1127 FUD homes nationally in the 2024 and 2025 financial years, 58 of which were in the Bay of Plenty.
Campbell said it worked with the Ministry of Social Development and Accident Compensation Corporation to modify existing homes to meet tenants’ needs.
As of October 31, about 28% of Kāinga Ora homes in the Bay had an accessibility modification, including handrails, ramps, water lift access, modified bathrooms and kitchens, wider doors, and structural changes.
Megan Wilson is a health and general news reporter for the Bay of Plenty Times and the Rotorua Daily Post. She has been a journalist since 2021.