24 special report: 40 years of disability rights

adults

Battle for equality contin

EMPLOYMENT 7.5% of adults with learning 3.4% of adults in contact 48% of all disabled people
disabilities known to social with secondary mental are in employment
services were in paid health services were in paid
employment in England employment in England

7.5% 3.4% 48%

Sources: NHS Information Centre Social Care & Mental Health Indicators 2008-9;
Office for National Statistics Labour Force Survey 2008

ACCOMMODATION 50-55% of the population 30% of people with 15% of people with learning
of adults with learning learning disabilities live disabilities have a secure
disabilities live with in residential care long-term tenancy or
their families (33,000 people in England) own their own home.

50-55% 30% 15%

Source: Valuing People Now, 2009

INCOME AND PREJUDICE 42% of disabled people 55% of disabled people 90% of disabled people
are finding it difficult or have no savings believe there is prejudice
very difficult to live on against disabled people
their present income. in Britain

42% 55% 90%

Source: Leonard Cheshire Disability, Disability Review 2009

‘1996 act had much
more impact for me’
The 1970 act didn’t do much for me, and I’m
not sure it did a lot for many people with
learning disabilities either.
I was just 19 when it came out and
had already been locked up in a mental
institution called Calderstones in Lancashire
for over four years. There I was treated as a number, not
an individual. The act didn’t change that.
Six years later my dad died and my mum’s health
got very bad. I just wanted to go home to be with her.
A woman told me that she had arranged for me to go ‘Activists have
been key’
home. I jumped into the car and off we went, only to find
out that I was being taken to a hostel for the “mentally
handicapped”. I stayed there for the next five years.
Eventually I got a job and went home to look after Disabled people’s
mum. After she died social services moved me into a lives have broadly
flat, I had no choice. The law that changed things for me improved. A key
and some other people with learning disabilities was the change has been
Community Care (Direct Payments) Act 1996. I got my about the part
direct payment in 1998. I haven’t looked back since. disabled people have played
in their own emancipation.
Andrew Barbour is vice-chair of Tameside People First Organisations were set up to
and trains on advocacy and disability awareness champion disabled people’s rights

www.communitycare.co.uk ❘ 13 May 2010

COM_130510_024 025 24 10/5/10 11:27:21


tinues
HOW THINGS HAVE CHANGED:
DECLINE OF LONG-STAY HOSPITALS
Sources: Valuing People white paper, 2001;
Valuing People Now delivery plan 2010-11, 2010
via principles of independent living,
developed by disabled activists.
Locally this led to the
development of centres for
independent living and direct
payments schemes. Nationally this
led to the civil rights campaigns
resulting in the Disability
Discrimination Act 1995 and direct
payments legislation.
All government policy has been
influenced by the disabled people’s
movement, culminating in the
excellent Improving the Life Chances
13 May 2010 ❘ www.communitycare.co.uk
COM_130510_024 025 25
of Disabled People report in 2005.
On the contrary side, increasing
rationing of social care and the rise
of poverty among non-working
disabled people have undermined
these aspirations.
Disabled people require a truly
national care service, free at the
point of use.
Andy Rickell is a member of
disability advisory body Equality
2025 and chief executive of the
Vassall Centre Trust
25
adults
‘Eligibility rules the next battle’
There has been a shift in how the government understands,
promotes and offers social care to disabled people and
also how it thinks about the rights of disabled people. The
improvement in social care has given disabled people greater
choice, control and flexibility over the services provided by the
state. Equality laws have reduced some discriminatory practices towards
disabled people and increased their opportunities and life chances.
But far too many people are being let down by tight eligibility criteria
for care and charging. This has resulted in many disabled people surviving
without proper support structures, being forced to live in unacceptable
conditions and therefore becoming a burden on others.
The diverse needs of disabled people continue to be poorly addressed by
many service providers, who categorise disabled people as a homogenous
group.
Disabled people still do not have equal participation in society. We
should have achieved this by now, 40 years after the passing of the act.
Michelle Daley is a former member of government advisory body Equality
2025 and is a freelance trainer and consultant on disability equality
‘Businesses must do better’
There have been many key moments for people who are
deaf or hard of hearing over the past 40 years, including the
Disability Discrimination Act 1995, and the recognition of
British Sign Language as a language in its own right by the
government in 2003.
These advances, combined with growing social awareness and significant
technological and medical developments, have enabled greater equality for
people who are deaf or hard of hearing and an increasing recognition of the
skills and talent that would be otherwise lost to society.
However, most businesses and public services are neither deaf aware nor
prepared to make reasonable adjustments for staff or customers, whether
they use BSL or communicate in English. This attitude is something that we
must all challenge, but RNID recognises its special responsibility in this area.
We need to ensure all providers are educated in deaf awareness so that
deaf or hard of hearing people have full access to all of the same services as
the rest of the population, and that they are actively encouraged to seek all
the benefits, help and support that is available to them.
Caroline Cousins is a trustee for the RNID and is deaf
‘Transport is much easier now’
Since I just turned 40, my experience should measure the
impact of the act.
My parents understood that inclusive education was key to
my life chances. I went to one of the first secondary schools to
integrate disabled children, after attending a special school
that refused on “moral” grounds to let pupils take exams.
At 18 I was off to university. As an alternative to funding the support I
needed to live on campus, the local social services director suggested that
“someone like me” would be better off staying at home and studying with
the Open University.
However, disabled people are definitely out and about more these days.
The activist Dave Morris, who died recently, played a leading role in getting
every London bus made accessible. He described the opportunity to take
any bus as “feeling like a kid in a sweet shop”. The novelty hasn’t worn off for
me either, and I still find myself going on unnecessary journeys just for that
warm feeling of inclusion.
The 1970 act played its part, but we now need far more robust rights to
independent living.
Nick Danagher is an independent consultant on disability equality issues
10/5/10 11:28:00