Wellington man Jonathan Mosen has launched a parliamentary petition calling for an inquiry into the 2018 Census.
Blind since birth, the IT professional spent hours trying to access the code needed to fill in the Census online after not being able to see it when the letter arrived in the mail.
"It makes me feel like a second-class citizen," he said.
He was disappointed over conflicting information provided to him on the Census phone line and found information accessibility during the process "woefully inadequate" for a blind person as well as for many other groups in the community.
The code can't be read out over the phone for privacy reasons, deputy government statistician Teresa Dickinson said.
Mr Mosen wrote a blog post about the experience and a few hours later was contacted by Statistics New Zealand, with a staff member later coming to his house to read him the code.
He said New Zealand has a long way to go for being inclusive of those with disabilities with that being the only solution provided.
Mr Mosen said voting in the general election in New Zealand is user-friendly for blind people as it can be done over the phone and in Australia, blind people can receive their Census code by text or email. The code is then read by accessibility technology used by blind people.
The Blind Foundation's service of reading the Census code out to participants was signed up for by 46 of its 12,000 members.
Deputy government statistician Teresa Dickinson said she was "really sorry for what happened in Jonathan's case."
Ms Dickinson said as with every Census, the process will be reviewed but at the moment they're still in the operational stages of this Census.
She said the online-focused model is here to stay as New Zealand enters the digital age and while elements of that might be changed, the process won't return to paper forms as it's been working well. There'd been anecdotal information about individuals not having received their codes in the mail, but no reports of complete areas not getting letters, she said.
Those behind the Census have celebrated the participation rate with at least 2.65 million people taking part.
The Census can still be filled out. Reminder letters will be sent out from today for those who haven't completed the Census, before field teams are sent to addresses. Ms Dickinson said prosecution is a last resort, with fines being given to around 80 people after the 2013 Census.
Along with launching the petition, Mr Mosen has formally complained to Statistics Minister James Shaw and wants to receive acknowledgment the process was inadequate. He said he would like to work with Statistics New Zealand to help deliver an effective system for the 2023 Census.
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