One In Five for Sunday 31 August 2008

It's an idea that's taken root in the UK and across the Tasman. And now it looks like it's a happening thing in this country. It's all about business leaders taking a fresh look at hiring disabled people. That's if Business New Zealand head Phil O'Reilly has anything to do with it. We'll join him and his colleagues in the Employers Disability network

Blind man driving? Shotover Canyon Swing is a Queenstown adventure company that makes its money by getting tourists to take the plunge - all sixty metres of free fall through a two hundred metre arc over the world renown gorge. You could say strung out. General Manager Matt Holyer says the company's taken a novel approach to settling a few jumpy nerves.

Rehabilitation International, or RI. That's the collection of agencies and individuals from around the globe who're in the business, they say, of promoting the rights and inclusion of disabled people. As an organization with roots in nearly a hundred countries, they're a force to be reckoned with. That's according to outgoing world president Michael Fox. An Australian, Michael Fox is at the end of a four year stint at the helm. Michael says one of his biggest challenges has been to encourage RI to become more rights based in its thinking.