Study by disabled people’s charity reveals need for small changes from all to create lasting difference

With memories of the most successful Paralympic Games of all time still fresh in everyone’s mind, a quiz designed to engage non-disabled people in a light-hearted conversation about respect for disabled people revealed that a majority of non-disabled people had no problem using facilities set aside for the needs of disabled people.

The Saint or Sinner Quiz, rolled out by national disabled people’s charity Revitalise to coincide with the Paralympics, found that 6 out of 10 (57%) non-disabled people use disabled toilets and are showing no signs of stopping, with 1 in 5 (17%) saying they had “done it loads of times and really don’t see any harm in it”. The study also found that more than 1 in 10 (12%) non-disabled people use disabled parking spaces either sometimes or habitually.

Revitalise is citing a study by the charity Scope in the run-up to the Rio Games, which found that even though 78% of disabled people thought the 2012 London Paralympics had a positive effect on people’s attitudes to disability, only 19% thought Britain was a better place to be disabled than it was four years ago. Revitalise is therefore calling for positive action to preserve the Paralympic legacy in order to reverse this trend.

In March this year a House of Lords Select Committee Report* made 54 separate recommendations to the Government in order to strengthen the Equality Act, but so far the Government has acted on only one. In July this year the Equality and Human Rights Commission alleged that disabled people were still being treated like “second class citizens”, while Revitalise’s own research has added weight to the argument that society is only paying lip service to the needs of disabled people.

In a recent study of visitor attractions, Revitalise found that a fifth (20%) of the UK’s most visited attractions were not fully accessible from outside and just 17% had all their staff trained in disability awareness. The charity also found similar problems on the high street, where over half (55%) of disabled people had experienced negative or unwelcoming treatment from shop staff.

Most recently, in August 2015 Revitalise discovered that only three football clubs in the Premiership – the world’s richest football league – had the recommended number of spaces for wheelchair users, in accordance with guidelines that have been in existence for well over 10 years.

The charity believes that the aftermath of the successful Rio Paralympics presents the perfect opportunity for non-disabled people to contribute to the Paralympic legacy and add to the groundswell of pressure on policy-makers to back up the good intentions of the Equality Act with meaningful legislation.

To achieve this, Revitalise is urging non-disabled people to take on board the philosophy of Team GB, whose success is based on many small improvements adding up to one seismic change. So, the charity suggests, if non-disabled people simply make one or more small adjustment to their own habits, they will be helping to create a more inclusive and equitable society for disabled people.

Revitalise Chief Executive Chris Simmonds commented:

“We’ve just witnessed the most successful Paralympic Games of all time and legacy is now the word on everyone’s lips. Our Saint or Sinner Quiz was designed to explore the habits of non-disabled people and help them do their bit to keep the Paralympic flame burning.

“In the six years since the launch of the Equality Act it is very disheartening to find that when it comes to making society more open and accessible for disabled people, those with the power to enforce change seem to have made so little progress. Disabled people face a huge number of barriers – from physical access to transport to employment – which already obstruct them from playing a more meaningful role in society, so it is doubly disheartening to find disabled people are also being held back by something as simple as access to a toilet or parking space.

“So, in the warm glow of the Rio Games, if we as individuals can just make one or more small adjustment to our habits, we will be going a long way towards creating a better, more respectful world for disabled people and truly keeping the Paralympic legacy alive!”

Revitalise is a national charity providing respite holidays for disabled people and carers. Revitalise provides short breaks, with 24-hour nurse-led care on-call and personal support, at three accessible centres in Chigwell in Essex, Southampton and Southport. Each centre offers a wide range of accessible activities and excursions in a holiday environment. For more information please visit revitalise.org.uk.

Pictured left to right: Brian Scott, Isla McIntosh, Tressa Burke and Marianne Scobie from the Glasgow Disability Alliance at the National Diversity Awards 2016

Actor and Comedian Richard Blackwood and ITV News Presenter Charlene White united to host the National Diversity Awards on September 16, 2016. Role models and charities were honoured nationwide at Friday’s ceremony at the breath-taking Liverpool Anglican Cathedral, rewarding Britain’s most inspirational people for their fight against inequality.

Community heroes from across the UK gathered in the bustling city of Liverpool to celebrate the outstanding achievements of those who have demonstrated exceptional devotion to diversity, equality and inclusion.

Shortlisted from 600 nominations, Glasgow Disability Alliance beat seven others in the running for the Disability Organisation Award category.

Glasgow Disability Alliance was set up 15 years ago by disabled people who were frustrated with their voices being excluded from crucial decisions about their services and communities. Determined to address the glaring absence of disabled people from communities, public life and leadership roles, the group established a community of peer support that would build disabled people’s voices, confidence, connections and influence within the community. Building on seed-corn funds from Glasgow City Council, GDA secured their first Big Lottery grant in 2006. With 2 paid staff and 50 members GDA developed a programme of learning, peer support and engagement to achieve their vision of disabled people’s full and equal participation in their own lives, families, workplaces, communities and wider society. Now, thanks to multiple funders, GDA has 11 staff and over 3500 individual disabled members and counting – making it one of the largest Disabled People’s Organisations (DPO) in the UK. Through GDA, members work closely with Glasgow City Council and the Scottish Government to influence policy at all levels, while supporting each other to have choice, control, ambition and to fulfil their potential. GDA recognises that disability may be only one part of a person’s identity and so works in partnership with other equality groups and networks, including LGBT Youth Scotland, Equality Network,  BME and Women’s Voluntary Sector Network and Glasgow Equality Forum.

Tressa Burke, CEO of Glasgow Disability Alliance, said:

“On behalf of our 3500 disabled members, GDA is privileged to win the community award for disability. So many wonderful organisations were nominated and are doing amazing work around Scotland and the UK to tackle inequality, exclusion and injustice. Disabled people are disproportionately affected by welfare reforms, poverty and poor health outcomes and Glasgow has the biggest number of disabled people in Scotland at 1 in 4 of our population.  It was fantastic for GDA’s passion, commitment and impact in changing the lives of disabled people to be recognised. We believe that with confidence, connections and the right support, disabled people can achieve anything and our lives can be amazing and this award recognises the contributions that disabled people make. We also received the award in honour of one of our founder members Maureen McPeak who died suddenly the previous week and who was both an outstanding ambassador and role model for disabled people’s equality and human rights.”

A record 20,000 nominations and votes were received this year, paying tribute to grassroots communities across the UK. Over 600 organisations were nominated in the Disability Organisation category, so for a small local organisation to win such an award is outstanding. Among those also shortlisted were Edinburgh-based Scottish Women’s Autism Network (SWAN), and the Liverpool Signing Choir who, having performed at the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, wowed Friday’s audience with performances of popular and classic hits like John Lennon’s Imagine.

Opening the ceremony, NDA’s founder Paul Sesay, said:

“The grassroots organisations that The National Diversity Awards recognise are pioneering amazing initiatives on equality diversity and inclusion; and we need to promote, empower, profile and acknowledge their extraordinary achievements.” He was followed by David Isaac CBE, newly appointed Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission who shared his vision for what he hopes to achieve in his new role. GDA’s award was presented by the UK’s leading disabled fashion model Kelly Knox. Comedian and disability activist Sally Phillips presented the award for Positive Role Model for Disability, to Aston Avery for his achievements in theatre and dance.

Returning from the Rio Paralympics with two Gold Medals in tow, British Cyclist Jody Cundy said ”I am proud to be supporting The National Diversity Awards – a fantastic celebration of the achievements that would often go unnoticed, but ultimately have enhanced today’s culturally diverse society, bringing together and creating role models from all walks of life!”.

The full list of winners is as follows:

Positive Role Model for Age: Sajid Rashid BEM

Positive Role Model for Disability: Aston Avery

Positive Role Model for Gender: Dr. Sylvia Forchap-Likambi

Positive Role Model for LGBT: Moira Smyth

Positive Role Model for Race, Faith & Religion: Keesha Edwards

Community Organisation Award for Age: AIM Academy

Community Organisation Award for Disability: Glasgow Disability Alliance 

Community Organisation Award for Gender: Women4Africa

Community Organisation Award for LGBT: Mermaids

Community Organisation Award for Race, Faith & Religion: Black Cultural Archives

Community Organisation Award for Multi-strand: Victory Hants

Entrepreneur of Excellence: Neomi Bennett

Celebrity of the Year: Annie Wallace

Diverse Company: Channel 4

Lifetime Achiever: Qaisra Shahraz

Find out more about the Glasgow Disability Alliance at www.gdaonline.co.uk.

Sessions on specific barriers including access to the LGBT scene for disabled people

An event to explore the barriers faced by lesbian, gay, bi and trans disabled people was joint-hosted by Stonewall, the leading LGBT equality charity and Regard, the LGBT Disabled People’s Organisation. The conference at Coin Street, London on Wednesday 13 April was an opportunity for people to share ideas on how to achieve equality for all.

Sessions explored the unique experiences of LGBT disabled people, including some of the barriers they face. During one session, attendees discussed the difficulties LGBT disabled people can encounter when trying to access the LGBT scene.  The group also explored how to tackle hate crime when you have multiple minority identities and the role of volunteering and community support.

Sessions also investigated what best practice looks like in social care. Stonewall’s recent research report Unhealthy Attitudes uncovered some worrying findings for LGBT people. Almost six in ten (57 per cent) health and social care practitioners with direct responsibility for patient care didn’t consider sexual orientation to be relevant to someone’s health needs. It also found that a quarter of patient-facing staff have heard their colleagues make negative remarks about lesbian, gay or bi people, while one in five have heard similar disparaging comments about trans people.

A new study to understand more about the challenges LGBT disabled people face was also launched at the conference. It is funded by the NIHR School for Social Care Research and is a collaboration between the Norah Fry Research Centre (University of Bristol), the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), Regard and Stonewall.

Following the research, a range of online resources will be produced to support LGBT disabled people, their supporters and social care providers.  LGBT disabled adults who use social care in England will be surveyed and interviewed along with study groups of personal assistance and support workers who support disabled people.

Ruth Hunt, Chief Executive of Stonewall, said:

“We can only say we have achieved true equality when all LGBT people are accepted without exception. For LGBT people who are also disabled, or who have another marginalised identity, there are still far too many barriers to equality. We know from our research that experiences in health and social care for LGBT people can be extremely poor, and for those disabled LGBT people who have regular contact with health and social care services, this can be extremely distressing. There is also the fact that LGBT disabled people face barriers when accessing the community support which other LGBT people take for granted – such as local Pride marches, bars and clubs or social meet ups. It was vital we explore practical solutions together so that everyone, everywhere can be free to be themselves.”

Dr Ju Gosling, Co Chair of Regard, said:

“Regard was delighted to work with Stonewall to deliver this very important event. LGBT people are significantly more likely to be disabled than the population as a whole, for a variety of reasons. However, this is rarely recognised, and very little provision is made for us. This in turn causes social isolation and increases vulnerability to hate crime as well as impacting on wellbeing. With the support of Stonewall we want to achieve a cultural shift, so that disabled people are included on equal terms within LGBT communities in the future.”

If you are an LGBT disabled person living in England and organise some or all of your own social care support and would be interested in taking part in the new study, please contact David Abbott at d.abbott@bristol.ac.uk or on 011733 10972.

Further information about the NIHR School for Social Care Research: www.sscr.nihr.ac.uk.

]]> 41151 http://posabilitymagazine.co.uk/viewpoint-children-see-a-person-not-a-disability/ Thu, 19 Feb 2015 11:34:27 +0000 http://posabilitymagazine.co.uk/?p=36468 Caroline White’s son Seb has Down’s syndrome. Here she explains why she wishes more adults would treat him the way children do.

If you were asked who or what it was that taught you the greatest lessons in your life your first answer would most likely be a particularly inspiring teacher, your time at university, a year spent travelling, a best friend, an influential adult, a beloved parent or grandparent.

All of these people and experiences have undoubtedly influenced my outlook on life and, without question, have all shaped who I am today.

My steepest learning curve of all has been in the last seven years. The birth of my first baby, with an added diagnosis of Down’s syndrome, proved to be truly life-changing.

Within that experience I have learned so much – about me, about others, about priorities, and equality. But it is Seb himself, and the children around him, that have taught me the most.

My memories of being told my son had Down’s syndrome, at just a day old, are very bleak. I was devastated. My mind raced with fear of what the future held for us and I imagined a lifetime of exclusion and disability, of being on the outskirts, being stared at and feeling “different”.

For a time I thought the hurt would never lift. At that moment my baby didn’t just have Down’s syndrome, he was Down’s syndrome. I pigeonholed him into a box of outdated stereotypes and failed to see that actually he was still a baby, and my baby. Seb.

Bit by bit the pain began to ease as I fell hopelessly in love with this little boy. With each day that passed he showed me something new about him. He grew from a beautiful baby to an adorable, but sometimes challenging, toddler and from there to an equally adorable (and equally challenging) little boy.

He now loves football and scooting, ice cream and chips but hates having his hair washed and going to bed. He is a little boy who has learned to read and write, who loves going to the cinema and playing with his mates. Our lives together could not be further from the bleak outlook I had imagined.

But still I find myself faced with pre-conceived assumptions made by well-meaning adults on a regular basis. People will tell me that “children like Seb” are loving and giving or they will say that Seb seems to have “it” mildly. And if I am telling someone for the first time that I have a son with Down’s syndrome the most common response is “Oh!” and a palpable feeling of awkwardness, and on more than one occasion, followed with an “I’m sorry”.

But with children it is different. There is a beautiful innocence through the eyes of a child. They see a person, not a syndrome.

Seb attends a mainstream school. The children at the school don’t know that Seb has a “label”. They have no pre-conceived ideas of what he should or shouldn’t be, or what he can or cant do. He is just Seb. If asked to describe him, the other children would say how good he is on his scooter, that he loves football, that he is a fast runner or that he needs a little bit of extra help at school. If you asked the parents of those children the same question then I still think “Down’s syndrome” would be in the first sentence.

Seb now has two younger siblings and I have never told them that he has Down’s syndrome. I want them to grow up seeing Seb as Seb. I don’t want him labelled or excused.

So it took me aback when Seb’s four-year-old brother, out of nowhere, suddenly said to me: “Mummy, Seb talks funny doesn’t he?”

I was unprepared for the question and had to think fast.

“Well, you know, some of us are good at some things, and some of us are good at others,” I said, trying to buy myself some thinking time.

“You know how Seb is good at football, and you are good at talking? Well, we are all just different and good at different things”

“Oh yes!” he excitedly replied, “maybe he was talking in Spanish, Seb’s good at Spanish!”

And that was it. Nothing else, nothing more. He accepted the explanation and moved on.

I wish so much when I had been given Seb’s diagnosis that I could have seen the world through a child’s eyes. The news would have made little impact, if any. I feel so sad that I wasted those precious early days wrapped up in my own unnecessary fear. The panic I encountered was, without a doubt, based on ignorance.

I grew up in an era when children (and adults) with a learning disability were rarely seen. I don’t remember ever having the opportunity to talk to or get to know anyone disabled as a child. Children with learning difficulties, and disabilities in general, were not seen at school or at dancing or Brownies or on the football pitch or in the cinema.

In fact, “disabled” people were segregated into their own community and often the only time you saw anyone disabled was en masse at an outing to the seaside. This meant that I never got the chance to see beyond the label they were given and ultimately, when my son was given a diagnosis of Down’s syndrome, I was uncomfortable with it and felt devastated. I feel really ashamed of that now.

Caroline White blogs about having a child with Down’s syndrome here

BBC news

Your editorial on the same day highlights the scandal of indirect discrimination against female students, with a 26% drop in student places for female learners as opposed to a 13% drop for male learners.

These statistics suggest there has been little or no equality impact assessment on these cuts. This is an important issue because the inequality is not only in relation to gender. Research by the Scottish Consortium for Learning Disability has shown that part-time courses for people with learning disabilities have been cut by 34% and that some colleges have cut the entirety of their part-time places for such courses. Most students have had very little notice that their college place was being cut. There is little evidence of alternative provision being made for these students.

The sophistry of this Government knows no bounds, the mantra that they are “committed to maintaining full-time equivalent college student numbers at 2010 levels” hides the shame of their attacks on students with learning disabilities and female learners.

As your editorial points out, FE colleges, which are particularly relevant to students from poorer backgrounds, are paying the price of cuts on an unprecedented level. It would appear the rationale for picking on particular groups in Scottish society is that they may be less accomplished or successful in making their voices well heard. This does not bode well for the future of Scotland.

There seems little point in seeking independence from a state which ignores those in most need only to replace it by a Government in Edinburgh which will pile the pressure on to those who really need further education today.

John Kelly,
131 Corsebar Road, Paisley.

The General Secretary of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) is right to be concerned that teachers gaining Masters qualifications should be financially rewarded (“Teachers education plan hits stand-off over pay”, The Herald, November 7). The link between earnings and the quality of education our children receive from teachers is something they should be highlighting.

It seems a pity they could not see this same correlation when they agreed with Cosla to cut supply teachers’ earnings. The result has been an exodus of qualified teachers from the profession that has left schools struggling to find supply teachers.

Before the EIS starts pursuing extra pay for teachers gaining Masters qualifications, they might try and persuade Cosla to reinstate the pay of supply teachers otherwise no-one will be able to attend any professional development courses during the school day. It is what Larry Flanagan calls “appropriate investment in teachers”.

Donald Macdonald,
1 Clair Road, Bishopbriggs

Herald Scotland

Independent living can depend on things such as peer support from disabled people’s organisations, to enable people to participate in society as equals. Photograph: Shawn Gust/AP

Medical intervention is appropriate for people who are sick, but not normally for people who are well – whether they are disabled or not.

Norman Lamb has been the care services minister at the Department of Health for just a few weeks, and it seems that the integration of health and social care services is one of his key interests and policy aims.

But there appears to be scant consideration, by Norman Lamb, Dan Poulter or indeed the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, of whether such integration would actually deliver independent living for working age disabled adults – or, for that matter, for older disabled adults.

The pioneers of independent living, back in the 1970s and 80s, did not consider independent living support to have much in common with health services.

In the early days of the disability movement, doctors were seen almost as the enemy.

Disabled people such as the late Vic Finkelstein and others remember the torture they were put through as doctors and other medical professionals prioritised their ability to walk, for example, over their ability to get around and, generally, the normalisation of anatomical function over their ability to participate.

The fundamental issue for the independent living pioneers, worth remembering today, was that disability is not the same as illness, or sickness.

Medical intervention and the involvement of healthcare professionals is necessary and appropriate for people who are sick, but not normally for people who are well, whether they be disabled or non-disabled.

The government talks a lot about using the social model of disability, by which people with impairments are considered to be disabled by external barriers to participation, such as inaccessible buildings and a society which caters to non-disabled people’s needs.

But ministers conveniently forget that disabled people have long argued that one of the biggest barriers to participation and equality is the lack of personal assistance, by which is usually meant the lack of resources with which to employ sufficient personal assistants, for a sufficient number of hours, to enable independent living.

Since personal assistants do not need to be medically trained, there seems to be no good argument for the assessment of necessary personal assistance to be undertaken under the auspices of a health trust.

In my experience, doctors and other healthcare professionals, especially those based in hospitals, are often some of the least well-informed about disability issues.

This is not altogether surprising, since their training and expertise are driven by the need to treat disease, not to provide independent living support for disabled people.

Rather than medical treatment, disabled people need assistance to perform such varied everyday tasks as driving, bathing, dressing, typing, cooking, parenting activities etc.

None of these functions is normally carried out by medically trained professionals, so on this basis it is illogical for the Department of Health to be wedded to the integration of health and social care services.

Norman Lamb does talk about giving people choice and control, but choice and control on their own don’t add up to independent living.

A person can be given a choice about who comes to help them wash their hair and when, but this doesn’t result in independent living; it merely results in more choice and control over hair washing.

Independent living is much wider than choice and control and depends on the availability of funds and other resources, including peer support from disabled people’s organisations, to enable disabled people to participate in society as equals – contributing their talents, earning money and paying taxes.

This has little to do with health services but much to do with whether the government is prepared to devote the necessary resources to achieve the outcomes it says it wishes to see – disabled people actively engaged in their communities and, wherever possible, undertaking paid work and advancing their careers.

By Jane Young.

Jane Young is a disability consultant and campaigner.

Read more at The Guardian