Since birth, Matt Perry was never expected to walk, yet now, at 22, he stands on stage to snarl out the vocals of his rock and metal band.

Autism New Zealand has welcomed a funding boost to assist children with special needs at school, but says there will still likely be an unmet need.

A spiritual awakening led occupational therapist Di Willis to help create an organisation to enable those living with disabilities to realise their full potential.

More funding for children with special needs has topped an informal wishlist for teachers ahead of this year's Budget.

A controversial decision by a pilot to remove a family because their autistic daughter was being "disruptive" has received support from at least one passenger.

A sick mother in the UK was left shocked when a vicious note was left on her windscreen after she used a disabled car park.

A series of photographs hopes to raise awareness and "show people with Down Syndrome can do anything they put their minds to".

A severely intellectually disabled man was left to watch television for hours and left in the car as his caregiver went fishing.

An 8-year-old Manurewa boy is one of 11,000 disabled children to lose a welfare benefit, even though his asthma is so bad that he missed one in every four school days.

Hearing-impaired cricket fans are missing out on the World Cup because they do not have access to captioning, the Foundation for the Deaf says.

The Kiwi father of Down syndrome baby Leo, born last month in Armenia, has a conviction for assaulting his father-in-law from a previous marriage.

It has been just over a decade since Charlotte Cleverley-Bisman captured the hearts of the country when she lost her limbs to meningococcal disease.

Six-year-old Destiny can't walk without a frame because of domestic violence meted out to her birth mother. Now she needs a costly spinal operation in the US.

The New Year is a time for reflection. This year, we met everyday New Zealanders who have suffered heartbreaking moments in their lives.

Brant Tohu has quickly come to love his hook, fitted to one arm this month after he lost both legs and both hands within a year to an immune system disorder.

Being fat is a disability, EU judges have ruled, meaning that European companies must offer obese staff bigger chairs, special parking spaces and a lighter workload.

A seven-year-old girl who was born with learning difficulties because her mother drank heavily while pregnant is not entitled to criminal injuries compensation.

For some New Zealand celebrities it was a bit of horsing around, but their doodles of horses are helping to raise money for Riding for the Disabled.

Keith Shelley gets to work early. Really early. The gates don't open until 7.30, but he's outside by "six or five past, depending on the buses".

Champion rower Rob Waddell celebrated the launch of a new surf programme for young, disabled Kiwis at Auckland's Mission Bay yesterday.

The evolutionary biologist and philosopher Richard Dawkins created a Twitterstorm this week when he posted about a young woman in Ireland who was forced to give birth to a baby conceived through rape.

Cerise Lawn says pregnant women must speak up when things don't look right, after signs of distress were overlooked and her baby was left struggling with disabilities from a damaged brain.

The details of a surrogacy case involving an Australian couple commissioning a pregnancy in Thailand have created outrage in all sorts of quarters.

Jared and Sarah Chisnall watched their eldest daughter deteriorate from a healthy 2-year-old to a brain-damaged 7-year-old. Now their son has the same condition.

A group of primary school children have solved a problem that our biggest bank couldn't solve - finding a way to let disabled people into its downtown Auckland branch.

The Australian man at the centre of a surrogacy scandal involving a disabled baby is reported to have spent time in jail for indecent assault.

On Tuesday night Philip Patston went to Parliament to collect the inaugural Arts Access Accolade.

A New Zealand manufacturer who adapts cars for wheelchair users says he has been forced to go overseas after officials here banned his design.

I once read a news article where a young boy was beaten by his harried mother for lying when he claimed, "Grandma scares me when her eyes slide off her face".

A 12-year-old autistic boy who had his electronics and birthday presents stolen in a burglary has been gifted a new laptop by a Hawke's Bay Today reader.