Attitude Awards held at Eden Park 

Source: ONE NewsCerebral Palsy sufferer Mackenzie Kench uses her big toe to type her every thought

A young woman who talks via a machine and an aid worker with prosthetic limbs are among those recognised at an awards ceremony, celebrating achievements of people with disabilities.

Six hundred gathered at Eden Park for the Attitude Awards, which grew out of TV One's Sunday morning Attitude TV series .

Cerebral Palsy sufferer Mackenzie Kench won the Attitude Awards' Person Of The Year.

She said the biggest challenges she faces is overcoming others' perceptions, like not being intelligent.

But Kench has plenty and communicates as well as any able bodied individual, even if she has to use her big toe to type every thought.

This year, at school, she delivered an entire speech using her toe, but NCEA assessors didn't grant her credits because it wasn't delivered in her own voice.

It could have crushed the 15-year-old but she says she continues to dream big.

"I want to go to university but I am exploring my options. But my interests are food technology and marine biology," Kench types.

The Supreme Award went to Robbie Francis, who wears a prosthetic limb.

Far from dwelling on her own challenges, she's helping those in third world countries overcome theirs.

"Having a disability... It gives me access to people cant reach, I've experienced things other people have no idea about, and i think that gives me something to offer the world," says Francis.

Robert Martin says it took some time to realise what he had to offer the world.

He was institutionalised for the first 15 years of his life because of his intellectual disabilities.

Now he is an advocate for the disabled and was rewarded for his work by being inducted into the Attitude Hall of Fame.

A lot has changed in the last 20 or so years.

For the better, people with disabilities can actually contribute to society, in many different ways.

That was proven by many different people, on a night of singing, dancing, rewarding and celebrating those who do not let disabilities hold them back.