Amanda Jane "Minnie" Baragwanath MNZM is a disability advocate from New Zealand. [1] In 2011, she founded Be. Accessible, a social enterprise which aims to make New Zealand accessible and inclusive for all people with disabilities. [2] [3]
Amanda Jane "Minnie" Baragwanath MNZM is a disability advocate from New Zealand. [1] In 2011, she founded Be. Accessible, a social enterprise which aims to make New Zealand accessible and inclusive for all people with disabilities. [2] [3]
Baragwanath grew up in Palmerston North. [4] When she was 14 years old, she was diagnosed with Stargardt disease, an incurable disease of the eyes which caused her to lose her sight. [2] Baragwanath studied at Massey University and completed a bachelor's degree in English literature, a bachelor of communication studies and a graduate diploma in economic development. [2]
In 2011, Baragwanath founded Be. Accessible, and Be. Leadership as a subproject. Be. Leadership focused on providing leadership development programmes for disabled New Zealanders. [5] In 2019 she renamed the organisation Be. Lab and established the Centre of Possibility at Auckland University of Technology (AUT). [6] At the Centre of Possibility Baragwanath works with AUT researchers and academics in the field of possibility design and innovation. [6]
In 2013, Baragwanath received the Sir Peter Blake Leadership Award and in 2014 she was made a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit. [2] [7] In 2017 she received the New Zealand Women of Influence Award for Diversity. [8] In 2019 she was named by Zonta International as one of 100 Women of Achievement in New Zealand for her leadership and advocacy for social change. [4]
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Baragwanath is a Cornish language surname originating in west Cornwall in the UK. As a result of emigration, members of the Baragwanath family can now be found in South Africa, the UK and Ireland, Australia, the US, and New Zealand. In Johannesburg, Gauteng, there is a hospital whose name is derived from a local storekeeper, John Albert Baragwanath: the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital, Soweto. This hospital has over 3,000 beds.
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