Houses had been been repossessed, relationships had failed and children had lost their parents because of "systemic delay" - often of several years - in pursuing ACC appeal cases through the overloaded court system.
This outcome breached rights to justice which were protected under the UN Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the report said.
The 36-page report, focusing on the perspective of a "disabled person injured by accident", was prepared for Acclaim Otago, an ACC claimant advocacy group, and has already been submitted to the Government's Office for Disability Issues.
Representatives of the Office, which is a strategic policy grouping within the Ministry for Social Development, last year consulted people with disabilities, including in Dunedin, over a draft report on New Zealand's progress in implementing the UN convention.
The Government will this year submit a formal report to the UN on the matter.
Approached about statements in the Acclaim report, ACC spokeswoman Fiona Robinson said this week ACC would not be commenting "on the submissions of other organisations to the draft report".
"We will continue to work with the Office for Disabilities Issues in response to any ACC-specific feedback that arises from this consultation," Ms Robinson said.
The Otago report was also likely to be submitted to the UN as a "shadow" report, to accompany the final Government report, Acclaim organisers said.
The convention, which aims to "promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms" by all people with disabilities, was signed by New Zealand in 2007 and ratified in 2008.
Acclaim Otago president Denise Powell, who is a member of ACC's consumers' outlook group (Cog), an official liaison body which involves ACC claimants and senior ACC management, also plans to table the Otago report at Cog's next meeting in Wellington on February 9.
Ms Powell said New Zealand had won the prestigious Roosevelt International Disability Award in 2007 for helping develop a national disability strategy and shaping the proposed UN Convention.
New Zealand had clearly made significant advances in helping to meet some of the needs of people with disabilities, but the reality was that many disabled people seeking ACC support did not enjoy the legal and other protections envisaged by the convention, she said.
Several pieces of legislation had been modified to improve the protection of people with disabilities in New Zealand, but no changes had been made to the ACC system to ensure that ACC claimants were properly protected, she said.
The Otago report said the earlier-circulated draft report to the UN had overlooked the ACC system generally and did not acknowledge "egregious breaches of fundamental rights of privacy, justice, and respect for integrity of the person" outlined in the convention.
"ACC must be properly and independently examined against the convention if the Government is to comply with its obligations," the report noted in its "key recommendation".
It was important to see ACC claimants as "similarly disabled as any other disabled person", even if their disability might be only temporary and caused by accident.
Report findings
Points made by ACC claimant advocacy group Acclaim Otago in its report:
• New Zealand previously ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (in 2008).
• Despite other improvements, including law changes, later made to meet the needs of disabled people, the role of the ACC has remained "largely overlooked" in changes.
• In many ways, ACC claimants are "in a worse position" than other people with disabilities in terms of seeking help through the law in asserting their rights.
• ACC claimants face "intersecting forms of disadvantage", including when the "entity you seek justice against controls your income", and a negative attitude by some ACC staff towards perceived "bludgers".
• Other concerns include privacy breaches during fraud investigations and excessive restrictions on claimant funding for medical reports and legal representation needed for ACC reviews.
