Easy targets: Seen and not heard-the silencing and invisibility of disabled children and parents in post-reform aotearoa New Zealand

Abstract

• Families are positioned by services, professional knowledge and media. • Disability charity organisations and support groups have taken on the roles previously associated with state-funded institutions. • Families become consumers rather than navigators steering their own course. • De-institutionalisation had taken over two decades to achieve, the model of managerialism and reform was implemented in less than 12 months. • Print media discourse maintains a negative regard of disabled people, children and their parents. • The provision of care by families is linked to the view that disability is an individual’s burden. • In contemporary society, the ethos of individualism and choice often displace disability rights.