Finlay Butcher is a 19-year-old Kiwi whose main excitement in life is exploring the sights that New Zealand has to offer with his family.
But because Finlay lives with cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair, he's often not able to join in on activities on family trips. He often has to be lifted by two people to do most tasks as accessibility standards are so low.
Finlay's mum Kimberly Graham told AM as her son has gotten older, the things he can do have gotten "even more limited".
She said sometimes the hardest thing can be as simple as finding somewhere to stay.
"Accommodation is always really difficult to find, a lot of people have a different idea of what wheelchair accessible means. Our building code is pretty minimal, and it probably hasn't been changed for over 20 years."
Kimberly is urging the government to come to the table with a new Accessibility Bill that would tackle problems head-on.
"We need the regulation, if we can regulate it. It's like repeating yourself over and over again year after year.
"There's disability advocates before me that have always said this, and we are one of the only countries that doesn't seem to have any kind of accessibility act or bill in place."
The new bill would direct the creation of minimum accessibility standards specific to the tourism industry. Kimberly believes a board to oversee it is required.
"We need a board to regulate accessibility so we're not turning up in a place and finding we can't get the wheelchair through a changing room or anything like that"
New Zealand tourism ranks very badly on the international stage when it comes to inclusion and accessibility, with only 75 out of close to 3500 operators making active changes to improve their access issues.
Kimberly also has a blog 'Grab Your Wheels' to share tips and review accommodation, activities, walks and events for others who face similar challenges.
Kimberly hopes through her advocacy, New Zealand tourism can become accessible for everyone, no matter their ability.
"Imagine if all tourism operators had guidance on how to make their offerings more accessible - this would increase their client base and bring in more revenue."
"For people with disabilities and their families, finally, the holiday season would become a time for joy and connection, instead of barriers and increased isolation."
You can watch the full AM interview above.
