Why should it be that bin day in an area is a no-go day for many disabled people?
For many people with mobility or visual impairments, it is difficult to impossible to get around on bin day. Pavements are blocked, dropped kerbs are blocked and anyone using sticks or a wheelchair does not have complete access to the footpaths in that area - for some people, it means they cannot get about at all, or can only move around by walking/wheeling on the road, which is far from ideal, and not very safe.
Does the problem lie with the size of the bins, the places householders leave them for emptying, or the places that the bin men leave the emptied bins?
Surely a better system needs to be in place to prevent this discrimination in terms of freedom of movment?
What about systems like Spain where there are no private bins to empty - you take your rubbish to large recycling bins at the end of the road, which are emptied every other day. Of course we would need to make syre these communal bins were accessile, but they certainly dont block the pavement, as they are placed on the roadside.
Which is best for disabled people, mainstream education or “special” schools?
I went to a mainstream school that had excellent academic standards, so I had access to a wide range of educational tools. There were also a few things that I was prevented from doing on the grounds of “Safety”. But my school seemed to take a somewhat quixotic approach to this: I was prevented from studying Chemistry (in case I had an eplieptic fit in the lab), but was permitted to do fencing as one of my games options. I was prevented from doing swimming, but allowed to throw the javelin - there’s a bit of a pattern here - chemicals bad, pointy objects okay.
Apart from these odd bannings, I am eternally grateful for the standard and range of education I was exposed to. I am certain that if I had gone to a special school (or a lesser mainstream school) at the time, my education, and my life would have been much poorer.
Things have changed now, and with part 4 of the Disability Discrimination Act providing rights to physical access around schools as well as access to the curriculum for disabled pupils, it’s reasonable to think we finally have an educational equality.
In Wolverhampton vast sums of money have quite rightly been spent in making school buildings and facilities accessible. But what of equal access to the curricuum, to the lessons themselves?
That doyen of education, philosopher, and architect of the 1981 Education Act (where statementing comes from) Baroness Warnock, says that the inclusive education system is failing to meet the needs of lots of statemented children - particularly those with autism.
In recent years reports have said that head teachers would prefer some disabled pupils out of mainstream education and back into special schools. And a recent opinion piece by a scottish journalist has ignited a debate - his main arguement is that mainstream education does not serve visually impaired kids well because it relys too much on visual media for it’s teaching method.
So which is best - well resourced, well led special schools like Pen Hall, or mainstream schools where there is not enough support, where teaching methods are not sufficiently accesible, and where many head teacher may not want you anyway?
I think that any system that attempts to integrate us into the manistream is a good thing. The important point is that it is done properly, so that we really do have equal access to learning. It seems that at the moment this is not happening. The Government needs to address this if the Educational Equality project is not to be a failure.
I was at a meeting for the Long-term impairment partnership board yesterday, where a presentation was given from the UK Vision strategy, talking about macular degeneration, the speaker said “fruit and veg in bright colours tent to have high concentrations of Lutein which improves the condition of the macular region of the eye. So it’s not only true that carrots are good for your eyesight, tomatoes and broccoli too - eat your veg!
The Paralympics have come a long way since 1948 where Sir Ludwig Guttman organised a sports competition for World War 2 veterans with spinal cord injuries. Olympic style games were first organised at Rome in 1960 where 400 athletes from23 countries took part to 3806 athletes from 136 countries at Athens 2004. Beijing in 2008 will be even bigger, there is also a special song for the Paralympics titled ‘Everyone is Number One’, the mascot of the Paralympics is Fu Niu Lele, a multicoloured cow which to quote from the Beijing 2008 official website “derives its inspiration from the farming cultivation culture of ancient Chinese civilization”. Also the website goes on to explain …”The determined, optimistic and diligent spirit of cows reflects a positive attitude to life. The Paralympic Games calls for people with a disability to enjoy the same rights to compete in sports as anyone else, and to achieve sporting excellence and inspire and excite the World, and thus develop their strength to add vigor and vitality to social progress.” I’m sure that these will be the best yet but the Paralympics starts 12 days after the end of the Olympics finishes on August 24. Why not have the two events together, integration not separation.
This is one of the excerpts from the excellent Disability Rights Commission video on the barriers disabled people face.
It gives a good understanding of the social model of disability - One Voice uses it in training sessions.
It shows a world turned on it’s head, where impairment is the norm, and the people who are disabled by social barriers are those without impairments.
Hettie has been to watch a few test matches now including the famous Ashes win at Edgbaston, while the rest of the ground was in uproar she was snoozing away.
One week before England was due to play South Africa at Headingley I was told that I had a ticket; I was annoyed at first because I like to inform the ground well in advance that I’m deaf and will be arriving with an Assistance Dog, specifically a Hearing Dog.This is done for a number of reasons such as out of courtesy, so they are aware we are coming so no access issues at the entrance and so security staff can keep an eye on us to ensure to ensure the safety of Hettie. Read more..
The Government plans to end incapacity benefit need a lot more work if they are to seriously get disabled people back into paid work.
Yes, the benefit tends to end up being a benefit-for-life for many disabled people, and yes, it does nothing to encourage us to believe in ourselves and what we can do. So the Government is right to change the focus so that we start thinking about ourselves and our employment prospects in a positive “i can” way.
But come on, seriously - does the Government really believe that the only thing keeping disabled people from working is Incapacity Benefit?
Unless employers are forced into employing disabled people in meaningful jobs, the impact of ending incapacity benefit will just be to put many of us into poverty, and do nothing to promote our equality as citizens.
It will also save the Government money - or is that the point of the proposals?
Two recent legal decisions will have a massive impact on disabled people’s rights, and they pull in opposite directions.
Firstly, and distressingly, the Law Lords in a majority decision have overturned the Court of Appeal decision in Malcolm v Lewisham.
The shocking thing is the grounds on which they have overturned it, which runs roughshod over judgements from other case law, and it now seems it will be almost impossible to have a successful disability defence to a repossession order. But this has a much wider impact than just housing law, and calls into question employment side judgements too.
As I understand it, past case law meant you compare the disabled person with themselves if they didn’t have the impairment to find out if there was disability-related discrimination, whereas this decision says you compare the person with a non-disabled person.
The question in Malcolm then, according to the Law Lords is - would a non disabled person have had a repossession order for breaking the tenancy agreement in this way?(yes) If so, then Malcolm is not protected by the law. Which pretty much renders that part of the law meaningless. It seems to overturn a body of case law arising from decisions on long-term absence, absense to do with medical appointments etc.
The bottom line is it severely weakens disabled people’s protection under the law.
At the other end of the spectrum, European Law Lords have this week found in favour of Coleman - this was a case where a non-disabled mother of a disabled son had extra time off to care for her son and was sacked for it. The European Court say she should have protection from this under the law, on the grounds of “discrimination by association”.
Is it possible now that carers of disabled people will have greater rights under the DDA then disabled people themselves?
A company called Kids Like Me (www.kidslikeme.co.uk) produces inclusive educational resources, including wheelchairs for dolls, and dolls interestingly called “disability dolls”, which their catalogue has described as “dolls designed to fit the hearing aid, glasses, guide dog and cane, crutches and the leg braces”.
Sounds a bit too much like the real world doesn’t it? They’ve made toy crutches, glasses, canes, hearing aids and wheelchairs, and now they’ve got to name some doll the disability doll to fit into these aids. The dolls don’t look disabled, and like Jesus, you can take away their impairments in a moment by throwing down their crutches, removing their hearing aids etc!
Not sure that this is sending the right message to kids about the nature of impairment or the disabling barriers we face in society. In fact it is probably sending exactly the wrong message. Read more..
