One Voice - action for disability
This spring newsletter is a little later than usual, as we were waiting to let you know whether One Voice will continue to be funded—and continue to exist—under the Council’s planned cuts. You can find out this and other news on page 3. On page 4 and 5 are related stories about hate crime and negligent deaths. With some lighter items on the pages that follow. The views in this newsletter are those of the article writers, they are not always what One Voice thinks.
A few weeks ago, One Voice long time Management Group member and founder , Mary Oaten, died.
Mary was part of the backbone of One Voice and played a substantial role in framing our Constitution. She was also a major source of support and help, and volunteered frequently for One Voice. Just last year, a few days out of hospital, she rang up to say “put me to work!”. That was always Mary’s approach: “Put me to work, I’ll do anything!”. And it wasn’t just for One Voice, Mary volunteered for many years at the Eye Hospital, was on the committee at the Beacon Centre making sure blind people’s voices were heard, and raised many thousands of pounds for guide dogs for the blind.
To look at Mary with her frequent smile and enthusiasm, you might think she was a primary school teacher, but her gentle, encouraging manner and appearance belied an iron will—there was nothing Mary couldn’t do if she wanted to—her blindness just seemed to spur her on—not only was she a European Blind Shooting champ, but also she had driven a racing car—even flown a plane.
Mary was a tireless worker and great ambassador for us all—we will miss her greatly, not just because of her fight for disabled people’s equality, but because she was a kind and lovely person—and they are always needed.
CBeastly
Just when we think we have come a long way in confronting stereotypes, we are forced to admit what an exhaustingly long road has yet to be travelled.
The BBC has employed a rather easy on the eye, well-qualified woman presenter on the Cbeebies children’s free digital channel.
And parents have complained.
Not because it’s yet another attractive blond on tv, but because one of her arms finishes just beneath the elbow. And parents have been writing in to website forums to complain that the sight of her will scare their children and give them nightmares.
Can our society still be this backward? At a time when we are assured that our schools have a mix of disabled and non-disabled children, and our children see all kinds of different kids in their daily lives, what hope that they grow up without prejudice when they go home from school, and some parents peddle this fear and hatred of difference?
How big a jump is it from “get her off my telly” to “get her off my street”?
What do we do about challenging these views, so that we can grow up as a society and stop pandering to fears that would be at home in the Dark Ages (or Nazi Germany)?
Should these parents be punished for saying what they think? Absolutely not.
No mind is changed without informed debate.
But we should ask ourselves how it is, in the twenty-first century, that for some citizens, disabled people are so absent from our screens (and perhaps therefore, our consciousness) that when they do see one, it provokes uninhibited fears.
You can find this and other opinion pieces in the One Voice blog online at:
www.1voice.org.uk/blog/
~You can comment on this or any of our blog pieces online—or why not become one of our bloggers, you can use an online name or your own, and as long as you don’t blog anything that breaks the law or our constitution, you can blog about what you want—all we ask is that it is about disabled people’s lives and interests. We welcome bloggers from any background or opinion, as long as they are disabled people and live in Wolverhampton or the surrounding areas.
One Voice News
One Voice and many other organisations, have had their funding renewed for another year. But the Council intends to cut the budget to the voluntary sector by 20% - this means many voluntary organisations like us are likely to lose some or all of their funding—so make sure you use us while we are here, because you may find that next year, many of the organisations you go to for help are not there. We will keep you informed of what organisations will be hit by these cuts.
EHRC in chaos?
The Equality and Human Rights Commission is having increasing criticism levelled at it’s Director Trevor Phillips. Several Commissioners have already resigned and disabled Commissioner and former chair of the Disability Rights Commission—Bert Massie—says he is looking carefully at his position. Massie has indicated what organisations like One Voice have been saying since it’s creation—that the commission is not making progress as quickly as it should. Disabled Peoples’ organisations have gone further, saying disability issues are marginalised, and no real progress has been made since the Disability Rights Commission was disbanded.
Paid holiday ruling
Employees on long term sick leave should not lose their annual leave rights according to a recent European court of Justice ruling.
If an employee leaves his job, through choice or dismissal, the employer must compensate him with holiday pay for any outstanding holiday, even if s/he has been off sick for the last 6 months or more.
UKSport’s unsporting approach to equality
The Government has allotted a budget of £9.3billion to the 2012 Olympics, many believe that the cost will be greater.
A lot of money is going on venues – the cost of the velodrome alone has increased by £25,000,000 on the original budget, and is likely to be built at a cost of £105,000,000
Meanwhile, UKSport have refused to fund the GB deaf football team to the tune of £3,000 per person, so they can get to the deaf Olympics in Tiawan – to defend their world champion status.
So some sports and champions are a lot more equal than others then.
Looking forward to Emmerdale
Emmerdale is to introduce blind character
Blind Stand-up Comedienne Kitty McGeever is due to start playing a blind character on Emmerdale in the next few months.
In a change from the usual person-as-issue way that disabled soap characters are presented, McGeever’s onscreen character is to be a bit on the wild side, and with a criminal conviction to boot!
Lets hope they stick with strong characterisation, instead of falling into the trap of believing that all disabled characters have to have storylines entirely about their impairment.
Did anyone watch See Hear last Tuesday (24 March 2009) as they featured two topics that are really close to my heart.
The first topic is hate crimes against Deaf and Disabled people, See Hear ran a feature about two Deaf and Disabled boys who had been attacked in Nottingham in 2008. Yet again disabled victims have to deal with not only with the trauma of the crime but the additional trauma of the way the police deal with the case. To me it’s being the victim all over again and I wrote about my own experience in a previous One Voice Newsletter.
This story raises the issue of police training and awareness in dealing with crimes against Deaf and Disabled people but it doesn’t stop there as there seems to be a failure throughout the entire justice system, including the CPS and the Judges. The report by charity SCOPE and the magazine Disability Now claims that the perpetrators of hate crimes against Deaf and Disabled people go unpunished and are now campaigning for hate crimes against Deaf and Disabled people to be treated as such. The Law does offer us protection in that that Section 146 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 allows courts to punish offenders more severely if a crime was motivated by the victim's disability or sexual orientation. The report by Disability Now investigated 50 crimes against disabled people in 2006 and 2007, 14 of which resulted in death, many others in serious injury and established that only two of them had been treated as hate crimes.
Sir Ken Macdonald QC former Director of Public Prosecutions, said the problem of "disability hate crime" was widespread and urged police and prosecutors to make sure that sentences can reflect the seriousness of the crime and the biggest barrier to effective prosecution was that disabled people were perceived as "easy targets" rather than as targets of hostility. See Hear added a positive featuring the spokesperson for the CPS who says recognised previous inaction and now twice as many cases are going through as hate crimes also the police seem to have taken this onboard as well.
If you’ve been a victim of a crime due to your deafness or disability, this is a hate crime so please report it to the police, or get someone to report this for you and make sure the police are aware and are dealing with this as a hate crime.
The second topic See Hear featured which is close to my heart was about Hearing Dogs For Deaf People and specifically the story of 7 year old Evie Crook and Team Hearing Dog, Gem. Gem and Evie were finalists in the annual Kennel Club 'Friends for Life' competition held at Crufts couple of weeks ago. They were runners up. Even though I’m a proud recipient of Hearing Dog, Hettie Evie and Gem’s story was heart warming and proud testimony to the joy/benefits Assistance Dogs can bring. Oh, before Hettie grumbles, yes she was also on See Hear, wasn’t that a beautiful close up of her striking a pose and then lying down with her jacket on. There was a quick glimpse of my leg, must say I was very proud of my acting.
Ian n Hettie
The Health Ombudsman has issued a damning report on the apparently negligent deaths of four people with learning disabilities while under NHS care.
The ombudsman referred to the standard of their care as “an indictment to society” and said that there was enough evidence to suggest problems were widespread across the services.
One man with learning disabilities and epilepsy died after not being fed for 26 days, because he couldn’t communicate his needs. It is hard to imagine how this happens when most patients’ experience of NHS care is that your food intake is recorded on your chart.
The Government says it is “taking steps”, but it remains to be seen whether any staff are to be held accountable for this negligent conduct.
It raises the wider question of why, if staff are unable to communicate with the patient, that they don’t try to work with an advocate for the patient, whether it is a family member or an independent person.
To do nothing, for 26 days, seems like a story out of the ‘fifties.
MENAP is to be congratulated for taking these cases forward, what we must all do is make sure that it is not allowed to happen again.
By Sue
Congratulations to Onbe Voice volunteer Nigel Driver who has been accepted onto a full time degree course at Stafford University!
The reason advocacy is so effective, in my opinion, is that the people who work in a partnership learn new experiences, gain understanding and hopefully resolve situations together. Those who have faced crisis periods of their lives may know that any support or even simply a person to listen to you is a blessed relief. To have someone come in to your lives and say that they KNOW what to do and take over can force people further into the crisis. They have no direction and no understanding of the situation. Therefore, to be able to simply actively listen, understand their situation and respect their point of view, the situation can seem less daunting. A simple thing as signposting people to an organisation or relevant professionals who could explain what everything means or what exactly is happening can take much of the strain of that person. The difficulty then arises when people try and ‘solve’ the issue themselves without full knowledge of the situation. We are not trained in law or benefits, housing or employment, however we may know the people who are and, most importantly, are committed to making sure the client understands. An advocate is not a person to take your options away from you and decide for themselves, an advocate may in fact give you more options with the information for you to decide. Whatever the situation you are faced with, you have the right to all of the information necessary to either understand what is happening and/or to make the correct choice for you. Even when the outcome of a situation cannot change, you still have the right to be informed and in control of your life. You can argue with service providers, you can challenge what they say, you can make your voice heard! This is your life situations, your choice to make and what you want should be respected.
By Michelle Ward
As technology is growing with its accessibility for the mass market, the scope for sensory impaired accessible entertainment should therefore increase however, in most cases, this is not true.
Very few DVDs offer audio description for their feature, even fewer offer audio descriptive menus, the main menus are usually cluttered in their design, and the many of the special features have neither subtitles nor audio description.
With use of embedding onto DVD layers, the scope for further improvements is available if the production and distribution companies would utilise the full potential of their medium.
Possible additions to a DVD could include: Audio Navigation Menus Audio Description for the main and special features Sign Language Interpreter for main and special features Large-Print, clear and easy to use menus
By addressing these accessibility improvements, disabled customer satisfaction could greatly improve and potentially increase their market.
Film/TV entertainment accessibility is improving however matters still need to be addressed and to be encouraged by other distributors.
For example: the BBC released a fully interactive and accessible box set of a series to the approval of The Royal Institute for the Blind. Stuart Snaith said he was "extremely proud to be able to offer the audio navigation feature on the ... box set DVD. This is something we're very keen to explore further."
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[Cassandra is an anonomous One Voice columnist who likes to stir things up - this is the second 'Cassandra' in One Voice's history]
This month, Cassandra has given up her column to the Editor for a comment piece. Cassandra will return to the next newsletter. The views in this article are not necessarily what One Voice thinks.