EQUAL PARTICIPATION FOR ALL:
STRATEGIC PLAN 2016-19
Summary
Vision
Equal participation for all
Mission
We are disabled people leading change
Our priorities for 2016-19
1. Independent living: getting a life
2. Career opportunities – getting work, education and skills
3. Influencing public attitudes and behaviours: seeking a sea change in
perceptions of disability and tackling hostility, bullying and hate crime.
Vision
Equal participation for all
We want a society where everyone can participate equally.
Mission
We are disabled people leading change
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In 3 years we will enable at least 50,000 diverse disabled people to have
voice and influence, connecting with each other and with us. We support
change agents and enable disabled people to exert power and influence.
We will work in partnership with other Disabled People’s Organisations
(DPOs) to showcase approaches to social, economic and public participation
and share learning, including through joint projects.
We will work with many organisations in a position to act, in all sectors, to
support them to put disabled people’s priorities at the heart of their policies
and practices
We will campaign to strengthen and protect disabled people’s rights.
DR UK is itself led by people with diverse experiences of disability and health
conditions, from different communities. We work with allies committed to equal
participation for all. Together we can be stronger.
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Our priorities for 2016-19
Subject to resources we will do the following work
1. Independent living: getting a life - we will:
 create research led by disabled people
 enable thousands of individuals to share experiences backed by
specialist information and advice
 showcase new independent living models, with other DPOs
 run campaigns to reverse institutionalisation and coercion, to secure
finance needed for independent living and to achieve improved
accessibility.
2. Career opportunities – getting work, education and skills - we will:
 enable thousands of people to share experiences backed by specialist
information/advice
 showcase approaches to youth employment, peer support for skills and
career development, working with other DPOs and partners
 run campaigns on youth employment, peer support for employment,
and government enablers of education, skills and employment
opportunities
3. Influencing public attitudes and behaviours: seeking a sea change in
perceptions of disability and tackling hostility, bullying and hate crime we will:
 do research led by disabled people into what will influence attitudes
and behaviours
 develop a new narrative to replace ‘scrounger’ or ‘superhero’
 show how cultures can be changed in education and workplaces
 support a network of safe hate crime reporting centres
Picture: Sport England
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Why equal participation matters
A good society relies on human difference – for new ideas, resilience, problemsolving and innovation
A good society depends on everyone’s contribution
Our rights to participate have been recognised in national and international law
Rights to participate make sense in terms of pure economics: when everyone can
participate, everyone benefits
Rights to participate are vital to social justice and a thriving society
We want a society where everyone can participate equally
Successes and challenges
Disabled people, people living with mental or physical health challenges, Deaf
people – all have achieved amazing social change, from civil rights to independent
living. But we face massive inequalities
The future we want
We want to see equality and human rights – as enshrined in the UN Convention on
the Rights of Persons with Disabilities - implemented in practice across society. Then
we can participate and contribute equally with other citizens. The link between
disability and poverty will be broken and independent living will be a reality.
We want measurable, year on year progress towards equal social participation,
equal economic participation and full respect across society. Disabled people should
decide the most important measures and we will hold decision-makers to account.
Our route to impact: theory of change
1. Enabling disabled people to engage with each other and with us: enabling at
least 50,000 individuals to have voice and influence, individually and
collectively
2. Showing not just telling – showing how life could be different, through
research, programmes, projects, working with other DPOs
3. Campaigns to influence local/national decision-makers, based on evidence
from experience, from research and ‘showing not just telling’ what works. We
will use different systemic levers such as transparently comparing progress in
different areas, influencing procurement, working with allies to put our
priorities at the heart of decision-makers’ agendas, using strategic legal
powers and holding governments to account for overarching progress.
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Working with members
We are led by our members. We will:
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engage with our organisational members and share opportunities for
partnership working, promoting good practice and shared voice and influence
set up a network of champions to link disabled people from different areas,
with different experiences to opportunities for influence
enable individual members to exert voice and shared campaigns.
Working with partners
We will work with partners in all sectors where we believe that working together will
help achieve equal participation for disabled people. We will work hard to be an
effective partner. In everything we do we aim to be inclusive, to model disabled
people’s leadership and to help make change happen.
Future debates
We want to debate with others:
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how best to achieve change and
how best to be inclusive of people with very different experience of health
conditions and impairments, from different communities, who identify in
different ways
Where we have come from
Disability Rights UK was formed in 2012. Since then we have moved from set-up
to impact:
We serve over a million people every year with free, independent information on
rights: over 90% find it useful, whether to claim the benefits essential to family
and social life, or to stop drop-out from college
We run demonstration projects to showcase participation in practice, often with
partners – from rights to participate in physical activity to a Leadership Academy
that is developing a critical mass of disabled leaders who can change
organisations and cultures
We influence policy: for instance, in 2015 Government responded to campaigns
by DR UK and our members and announced plans for 25,000 more disabled
people to receive Access to Work. For our achievements see
http://www.disabilityrightsuk.org/membership/achievements-and-successes
We can only reach our goal of equal participation by working together and we
celebrate the achievements and contributions of all our members, partners and
funders.
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THE RIGHT TO PARTICIPATE:
STRATEGIC PLAN 2016-19
Vision:
Equal participation for all
‘Disabled people should have [the] opportunity to be fully integrated members of
a society that actively prevents segregation into ghetto style institutional
accommodation and living situations’ (DR UK member)
A high proportion of our members supported the original vision of a society where
everyone with lived experience of disability or health conditions can participate
equally as full citizens - but wanted it shortened, so it ‘rolled off the tongue’. We have
shortened it.
Why equal participation matters
A good society relies on human difference, for instance:
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People who acquire a health condition or injury go through loss, change
and adaptation, which give them huge resilience and empathy, qualities in
high demand from employers and communities
People who think differently from others help generate new ideas. Some
people living with mental health challenges make more associations, more
quickly than other people – and can harness them for social, business and
other creative developments
DR UK works for a world with deep respect for our common human rights
– and for the importance of our differences. We value the huge strength of
people who live with everyday challenges
We want disabled people to be able to influence cultures and countercultures
‘Don’t make me normal, make me welcome’ (Micheline Mason)i
A good society depends on everyone’s contribution:
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One in five of the UK’s population lives with a long-term health condition or
disability (11.9 million people) – and the number is growingii
When the social world, the physical world, the economic world, the cultural
world, the on-line world are open to everyone, then more people can get
active in their communities, get a good education, get on at work - and be
equal citizens. That requires changing those worlds so everyone - from
people on the autistic spectrum to people with visual impairments or
learning difficulties – can take part. It requires removing the barriers to
participation
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Research shows inclusive communities bring rewards for the whole
community: improved health, strong political institutions, improved
economic development and more effective public services iii
DR UK works for communities where all citizens can participate. This
benefits the whole of UK society
‘As people living with mental and physical challenges, as disabled people, we don’t
want to be tolerated or asked to ‘fit in’ to society as it is. We want to be included
unconditionally and contribute in a society where everyone belongs’. (DR UK
member)
Our rights to participate have been recognised in national and international
law:
‘[The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities] takes to a new
height the movement from viewing persons with disabilities as "objects" of charity,
medical treatment and social protection towards viewing persons with disabilities as
"subjects" with rights, who are capable of claiming those rights and making decisions
for their lives based on their free and informed consent as well as being active
members of society’.
Under the Equality Act 2010, we have rights to be free of discrimination; and public
bodies have a duty positively to promote equality. Disabled people have secured
other rights – for instance in relation to hate crime, and choice and control in
services.
Rights to participate make sense in terms of pure economics, for instance:
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If the skills of disabled people rose to the level of non-disabled people it could
add billions to the UK economy: calculated at £13 billion in 2007iv
When people feel they can be open at work about their health condition or
disability – rather than putting energy into keeping their ‘big secret’ – then
well-being and productivity rise. Britain lags behind other nations on
productivity: creating cultures where people can be open if they choose would
help
Rights to participate are vital to social justice and a thriving society:
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On standard measures 1 in 3 people living in poverty is in a household that
includes a disabled person; and almost a quarter of disabled people (over 2.5
million) live in poverty. But given extra costs of disability, JRF states this
under-estimates the number of disabled people in poverty by around a
millionv. Poverty can stop people doing simple things like going out with
friends and exacerbates isolation
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Disabled children are much more likely than any other group to get excluded
from school; and more likely than any other group to be bullied. Being bullied
is associated with low educational attainmentvi.
Disabled people make up the largest group of working age people who are
out of work: about 3.5 million at end 2014vii . Almost half of all UK households
where no one works is headed by a disabled person – that is 125,000
householdsviii.
Anyone concerned about routes out of poverty, or educational attainment, or
employment opportunities will find they need to think about disability if their
strategies are to have any chance of success.
And these figures show how far we have to travel to achieve the UN
Convention’s rights in practice: for instance the right to education, to social
protection, to work.
We want a society where everyone can participate equally.
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Our mission:
We are disabled people leading change
‘When we speak things change and [people] suddenly see me not the walking
sticks or the wheelchair’ (DR UK member)
Nearly all of our members agreed with our mission.
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In 3 years we will enable at least 50,000 diverse disabled people to have
voice and influence, connecting with each other and with us. We support
change agents and enable disabled people to exercise power and influence.
We will work in partnership with other Disabled People’s Organisations to
showcase approaches to social, economic and public participation and share
learning, including through joint projects.
We will work with many organisations in a position to act, in all sectors, to
support them to put disabled people’s priorities at the heart of their policies
and practices.
We support leaders: we believe in ‘distributed leadership’ – not one or two people
‘leading’ from the top but many people leading change in their own lives and more
widely.
DR UK is itself led by people with diverse experiences of disability and health
conditions, from different communities. We work with allies committed to equal
participation for all.
Together we can be stronger.
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Our priorities for 2016-19:
Subject to resources we will do the following work
1. Independent living: getting a life. Over 3 years, we will:
 Build and communicate our own evidence, led by disabled people, to inform
effective new independent living approaches: through DRILL (Disability
Research into Independent Living and Learningix) and joint programmes
including on user-driven commissioningx
 Advise and enable disabled people: enabling ‘communities’ of people to share
experiences and information; backed by expert advice and information on
rights and entitlements (including PIP, ESA, Personal budgets, Disability
Rights Handbook)
 Showcase new models to support independent living, with other DPOs: choice
and control for social participation (for instance, our Get Yourself Active
projectxi) and leading new technologies (for instance, our Fab Labs projectxii)
 Campaign 1: A campaign, with partners, to reverse growing institutionalisation
and coercion (drawing on positive alternatives, from DRILL).
 Campaign 2: finance needed for independent living (ESA WRAG, PIP,
personal budgets). Partners: Disability Benefits Consortium
 Campaign 3: A participative member campaign on access - broadly defined overcoming barriers locally and nationally
2. Career opportunities – getting work, education and skills. We will:
 Build and communicate our own evidence base: through DRILL
 Advise and enable disabled people: enabling ‘communities’ of people to share
experiences and information; backed by expert advice and information on
rights and entitlements (eg DSA, student advice, Access to Work, Universal
Credit; Guides like Into Apprenticeships and Into HE)
 Showcase new approaches to improving career opportunities, with other
DPOs, for instance tackling youth unemployment (I Can Make Itxiii), career
development (our Leadership Academy and its alumnixiv); and potentially a
skills for employment programme and peer support for skills and employment
(subject to funding)
 Campaign 1: Led by young disabled people – I Can Make It, for improved job
opportunities
 Campaign 2: Influence Government (showing not just telling) to invest in peer
support for skills and careers
 Campaign 3: Influence the incentives and enablers for skills and employment:
Access to Work, DSA, carrots and sticks to incentivise employer actions
3. Influencing public attitudes and behaviours: seeking a sea change in
perceptions of disability, and tackling hostility, bullying and hate crime.
We will:
 Build our own research, led by disabled people: what will influence public
attitudes and behaviours?
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Develop a narrative and messages, tested with both disabled people and
the intended audiences. We want this to go beyond benefits OR work; to
move from disabled people as ‘costs’ to disabled people as ‘contributors’;
to get beyond the false dichotomy between scroungers and super-heroes
Show how cultures can change in education, workplaces, media
Prevent hostility and hate crime: a national network of safe reporting
centres with widespread promotion of how people can report
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The successes of activism and the challenges we face
Disabled people have achieved amazing social change – campaigning for:
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Our fundamental freedoms: pioneering alternatives to institutions, like direct
payments to arrange your own support as you need it; influencing
governments to turn that into national policy; getting many large mental health
and learning disability institutions closed down and replaced by better support
Civil rights: achieving the UK’s first disability anti-discrimination law (the
Disability Discrimination Act 1995) and progressive improvements to it –
covering education, transport, and positive, proactive duties on the public
sector to work for equality (not just give redress after discrimination has
happened)
Financial support for independent living: a benefit that recognises the extra
costs of disability
Practical changes by organisations: working with allies, like companies who
genuinely want to ensure their services are open to all, and public sector
organisations who want to get it right
But we face massive inequalities that damage our potential and stop us
contributing
Social participation, choice and control?
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Over 80% of adults living with impairments report restrictions on participating
in leisure activities – things like visiting friends, spending time with family,
going to the cinema or playing sport (ONS 2015 xv). Finance was one barrier
amongst several
Material deprivation has grown amongst disabled people – and the gap
between disabled and non-disabled people has widened (EHRC 2015) xvi
Adults living with impairments are more likely to say they have seen only one
or two people, or nobody, they are close to in the last week (27% compared to
18% of non-disabled people) (ONS 2015). Isolation is worse for your health
than obesity, lack of exercise or excessive drinking xvii – so anyone concerned
about public health should be deeply concerned about disabled people’s low
levels of social contact
One barrier to seeing people is time. For non-disabled people, the main
problem they report is being busy. For disabled people, the main problem is
other people being busy (ONS 2015)
Disabled adults are nearly 3 times more likely than non-disabled adults to
report little or no choice in how they spend their free time (26% compared to
9% of non-disabled people) (ONS 2015)
There is growing use of coercive powers to treat and/or detain disabled
people against their will: people with learning disabilities and autistic spectrum
issues too often live in institutions against their will; and in 2014-15 there were
58,400 uses of Mental Health Act compulsion, 10% higher than the 201314xviii figures which were in turn 30% higher than in 2003-4xix
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In 2016 we still find new housing and infrastructure projects that are
inaccessible; services from pubs to theme parks that turn disabled people
away; and websites that many disabled people can’t use
Economic participation?
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There is a 30% gap between the employment rate of disabled and nondisabled people. If the gap was halved, a million more disabled people would
be working.
46% of disabled people are working – but in the North West and North East of
England it is under 40%; and for people with learning disabilities or serious
mental health conditions it is under 15%.
Where disabled people are working, they earn on average nearly £1 per hour
less than non-disabled people (EHRC 2015).
Disabled people are less likely to be in high or intermediate level jobs than
non-disabled people (48% surveyed by ONS, compared to 60% of nondisabled people) (ONS 2015)
Part of the problem lies in unequal access to skills and qualifications. The gap
between disabled and non-disabled people in getting 5 good GCSEs widened
from 2008-2013; so did the gap between disabled and non-disabled people
having a degree (EHRC 2015). More promisingly the gap between disabled
and non-disabled young people being NEET (not in education, employment or
training) narrowed (EHRC 2015), as did the gap between disabled and nondisabled 19 year olds getting A-level equivalent qualifications (ODI 2013, cited
above)
The ‘purple pound’ ie the collective spending power of disabled people and
their families is estimated at £212 billionxx – but is not yet collectively
exercised to demand improved products and services
Full respect in society?
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The British Social Attitudes Survey found the public becomes less comfortable
interacting with disabled people the closer the link becomes: it is OK for a
disabled person to be part of your quiz team, less so if they move in next door
and much less if they marry a close relative
The public is also much less comfortable interacting with people with mental
health conditions or learning disabilities than people with mobility, hearing or
visual impairments
Over 50,000 disability hate crimes occur each year – far more than are
reportedxxi
There has been a recent increase in media stories covering alleged benefit
fraud and describing disabled people as a burdenxxii
All these inequalities are exacerbated for people experiencing multiple challenges,
for instance homeless people and migrants and refugees.
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The future we want
We want to see equality and human rights – as enshrined in the UN Convention on
the Rights of Persons with Disabilities - implemented in practice across society. Then
we can participate and contribute equally with other citizens. The link between
disability and poverty will be broken and independent living will be a reality. We will
finally feel that everyone belongs.
We think disabled people should decide what should be measured to demonstrate
progress or lack of it - and governments and commissions should get on with the
measurement, so we can see disabled people’s progress in comparison to other
citizens, set in context. Here are some of the specific things we want to see change
– and we would like the most important figures published transparently for each area
of the country, so we can celebrate the best and campaign for change in the worst
areas.
Equal social participation:
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Independent living in practice: a reduction year on year in the number of
disabled people living in institutions and/or subject to coercion, right across
the spectrum of different impairment experiences
An increase in disabled people having a secure home, living with who they
choose (or alone if they wish)
Each year, a smaller gap between the leisure and social life experiences of
disabled and non-disabled people; and their levels of social isolation
More equal choice and control in everyday life reported by disabled and nondisabled people
Fewer reported access barriers in services and transport
Equal economic participation:
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Breaking the link between disability and poverty – with steps towards that year
on year
Reducing the disability employment gap, year on year; and the employment
gap between different impairment groups
Reducing the disability pay gap, year on year
Reducing the qualifications and skills gap, year on year
Increasing the numbers of disabled people in senior and leadership roles,
year on year (including in politics, business, public services, charities…)
Extra costs of disability covered, including access to benefits for those who
need them
Full respect across society:
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Reduced discrimination and hostility/hate crime experienced by disabled
people
Public attitudes focused on respect, not desire for social distance – across the
impairment spectrum
Fair media coverage
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Debating ideas to underpin our work
We want to debate an interactive, social model of disability:
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The barriers in our world need to be demolished – they stop us participating
and curb our contributions. This is true of the social as well as the physical
world: for instance, schools and workplaces need to change their cultures and
behaviours if people living with challenges of neuro-diversity and mental
health are to fulfil their potential. Physical barriers must also be removed
We as people living with different challenges want to exercise leadership,
seizing our own power to generate change: our individual power as people in
families and communities, our collective power as campaigners, consumers,
employees, community leaders. Between us, we have thousands of leaders,
in every sense of the word.
We want to debate our identities:
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The leadership of people identifying as Disabled People – disabled by society
– has been critical in enshrining the social model in our work
We know that people identify in all kinds of ways – as ‘living positively’ with
HIV, as ‘mad’ or ‘survivors’, as Deaf, as living with MS or heart disease. We
want to respect how people identify themselves and reach out, so people
know their rights and can join with others in securing change. The Equality Act
rightly covers people with health conditions like cancer, whom the public (and
people with cancer) often don’t think are ‘disabled people’. With only 24% of
people considered ‘disabled’ by the Equality Act identifying as ‘disabled
people’ (ODI 2013) we want to debate ways to be inclusive, to enable
everyone to feel they belong.
Several of our members said they wanted us to do more in the interests of
people with multiple impairments and people whose impairments are not
always apparent. It is actually more common to have more than one
impairment than just to have one (ONS 2015). A ‘stronger together’ campaign
that brings everyone together across different impairment groups was one
strong suggestion.
Picture: Sport England
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Our route to impact: theory of change
Our ‘route to impact’ is based on:
1. Enabling at least 50,000 disabled people to engage with each other and with
us: enabling communities and numerous individual voices to secure changes
individually and collectively (through negotiating adjustments, consumer
power, campaigning power). We offer specialist information and advice – to
enable people to claim their rights and pursue participation individually and
together
2. Showing not just telling – showing how life could be different, through
research, programmes, projects on our priority topics, working with other
DPOs. Campaigns targeted at local/national decision-makers, led from
disabled people’s voices and experience; based on evidence from research
and examples of new approaches, to see what works and then spread coproduced initiatives
3. We will explore use of systemic campaign levers such as:
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enabling people to come together to exercise consumer and campaigning
power
showing – with other DPOs – better ways of doing things
transparency (finding out progress in different local areas and
organisations and praising the pioneers, naming the laggards)
influencing procurement to achieve universal design and policies
working with a range of partners to enable them to put the participation of
disabled people at the centre of their work
using law strategically
working with many different allies to increase voice and influence
holding decision-makers to account for progress on the overarching ‘future
we want’ (see earlier section). We will work with ally organisations to agree
important measures and hold policy and practice leaders to account for
whether disabled people’s participation is or is not improving.
We believe that to influence change we need to seize our own power as disabled
people – enabling communities, enabling individuals to secure participation and
drawing on consumer, campaigning, legal and leadership powers to impact on
decisions across society.
Evaluating impact
We will track our impact on independent living, career opportunities and public
attitudes and behaviours through:
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Evaluating the impact of our work to enable disabled people to engage with
each other and with us – in terms of how they make use of information, advice
and peer support and what changes they make as a result. We will track
whether these changes advance their independent living or career
opportunities
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Evaluating the impact of our work to ‘show not tell’ through our programmes
and projects. Each project will have defined outcomes related to independent
living, career opportunities or public attitudes and behaviours, which we will
report against. We will also evaluate take-up of the learning from each project
by DPOs and other organisations, and thus sustainability
Evaluating the impact of our campaigns. Each campaign will have specific
targets relating to independent living, career opportunities or public
attitudes/behaviours, and we will track achievements against those targets
Our objectives are mutually reinforcing and we aim to learn from how the areas of
work interact. For instance:
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If through our independent living work we enable more disabled people to
have choice and control over daily life, it will make it easier for some to
engage with education and employment
If more disabled people gain work and leadership roles, this in itself is likely to
impact on public attitudes and behaviours – since we know that contact
between disabled and non-disabled people, where people get to know each
other and work on common goals, changes non-disabled people’s attitudes
more than any amount of information or advertising.
How we will work with our members
We are led by disabled people and organisations led by disabled people.
In the next 3 years we will:
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Engage DR UK organisational members in discussion and share opportunities
for partnership working; for promoting good practice across our network; and
for shared voice and policy influencing
Let our individual members know the opportunities for shared campaigns and
voice
Set up a ‘champions’ network, to offer a channel to disabled people from
different areas and different experiences – linking them to opportunities for
influence
Ensure our offers to organisational members, like expert 2 nd tier advice, are
well tailored to them.
How we will work with our partners
We will work with partners in all sectors where we believe that working together will
help achieve equal participation for disabled people. We will work hard to be an
effective partner, delivering what we say we will, communicating honestly, making
connections between the rights of disabled people and our partners’ main agendas.
In everything we do we aim to be inclusive, to model disabled people’s leadership
and to help make change happen.
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Selecting priorities for 2016-19
Our criteria for selecting priorities were:
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Need: voiced as a major priority by our members (disabled people and
Disabled People’s Organisations), with demonstrable evidence of inequality
and/or lack of rights
Effectiveness: interventions that could move the needle, where we have the
skills and expertise
External opportunity: opportunities for impact, where our work complements,
rather than duplicates, that of other organisations
Niche: fits our niche as ‘disabled people leading change’, with a panimpairment approach
Funding: fits our business model and is fundable
We agreed to continue 2 priorities from our 2012-15 Strategic Plan, to have
sustained impact:
Independent Living – getting a life
We want to see more disabled people exercising choice and control over our support
and our lives, to realise the human right to participate fully in society
Career Opportunities – getting work, education and skills
We want greater equality at work - a reduced gap between disabled and nondisabled people’s employment and pay
We asked our members’ views on specific suggestions for work within and beyond
those 2 priorities – and the top 3 issues were:
1. Seeking a sea change in perceptions of disability, and tackling hostility,
bullying and hate crime
2. Reversing growing institutionalisation and coercion – for all disabled people,
including those with learning difficulties, mental health challenges and neurodiversity
3. Access – for instance, inaccessible infrastructure, housing and continuing
inaccessible customer service
We have built these 3 top proposals into this Strategic Plan.
Members also showed interest in:
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The impact of inequalities on disabled people facing ‘extreme exclusion’
New (and existing) technologies: ensuring disabled people gain from them
from the outset (through digital inclusion, and input into new developments)
We will explore how to address these 2 proposals within our priorities
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DR UK members’ comments on the vision:
‘Yes I agree with Disability Right’s vision – empowering people with health
conditions to participate fully in society BUT not just as a ‘concession’ ie ‘oh all
right if we must’ – positively as ‘yes, we value your difference and your
experience enriches us as a culture and as individuals’.
‘Totally agree and I am hoping to put this into situ as soon as possible’.
‘Yes but need to be aware of the effect of multiple discrimination with some
people who have even less of a voice or chance to participate fully in society’
‘I would extend “participate” as meaning that disabled people should have
opportunity to be fully integrated members of a society that actively prevents
segregation into ghetto style institutional accommodation and living situations’.
‘I agree but we need to recognise that adequate income and accessible housing
are critical’.
DR UK member comments on the mission:
‘It’s good because some groups say ‘leading with and on behalf of’ and it should
be about disabled people speaking their own voices and leading change at the
grassroots’
‘That’s how it should be. Unless you’ve lived with disability you can’t fully
understand’
‘Yes. I am pleased with the progress DR UK has made so far and are a
recognised voice of disabled people’
‘Yes. Voice of disabled people is rarely heard. My experience is people are often
shocked to see a disabled vicar. When we speak things change and they
suddenly see me not the walking sticks or the wheelchair’
‘Could not agree more. Totally fed up with being talked over and treated
differently’
DR UK member views on priorities:
‘More direct influence on Social Policy informing members to promote
Independent Living’
‘We are stronger and better together campaign – giving disabled people a united
voice across organisations and conflicts to lead the way for a better, and
inclusive, vision of societal living. Challenging Ableism – fighting ignorance,
privilege and prejudice’
‘The socially excluded: the people who disappear from society, for a variety of
reasons, but would benefit from a social or public life. Those who are hard to
reach for reasons that may be practical, cultural or due to lack of accessibility.
These are the ones who commit suicide due to benefit change or suffer in
silence.’
20
‘Benefits – ensuring that disabled people get the benefits they need. Making the
fighting of disability discrimination easier’
‘Put out good news story and life histories to help others change their views about
us’
‘Introducing disability issues into the school syllabus’
‘Public attitudes… wherever they originate including from government and political
parties’
21
22
Facts and Figures in full:
89% of DR UK members supported the original vision of a society where
everyone with lived experience of disability or health conditions can participate
equally as full citizens - but wanted it shortened, so it ‘rolled off the tongue’
92% of DR UK members agreed with our mission
Over 80% of adults living with impairments report restrictions on participating in
leisure activities – things like visiting friends, spending time with family, going to
the cinema or playing sport (ONS 2015 )
Adults living with impairments are more likely to say they have seen only one or
two people, or nobody, they are close to in the last week (27% compared to 18%
of non-disabled people) (ONS 2015).
On standard measures 1 in 3 people living in poverty is in a household that
includes a disabled person; and almost a quarter of disabled people (over 2.5
million) live in poverty. But given extra costs of disability, JRF states this underestimates the number of disabled people in poverty by around a million.
There is growing use of coercive powers to treat and/or detain disabled people
against their will: people with learning disabilities and autistic spectrum issues too
often live in institutions against their will; and in 2014-15 there were 58,400 uses
of Mental Health Act compulsion, 10% higher than the 2013-14 figures which
were in turn 30% higher than in 2003-4
There is a 30% gap between the employment rate of disabled and non-disabled
people. If the gap was halved, a million more disabled people would be working
23
References
Mason, M. (2011) Sorry, I don’t have the time: poems about modern life, London,
Micheline Mason
i
ii
Office for disability issues 2013: see
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/32051
5/building-understanding-main-slide-deck.pdf. Numbers are growing as children with
complex impairments are surviving longer, and -as the population ages - the number
of people living with impairments is growing
iii
See http://www.disabilityrightsuk.org/policy-campaigns/reports-andresearch/inclusive-communities
iv
See http://www.smf.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/Publication-Disability-Skillsand-Work-Raising-our-ambitions.pdf
v
https://www.jrf.org.uk/sites/default/files/jrf/migrated/files/Reducing-poverty-reviewsFULL_0.pdf#page=146
vi
http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/sites/default/files/documents/triennial_review/ho
w_fair_is_britain_-_complete_report.pdf
vii
See
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/40636
9/labour-force-survey-disabled-people.pdf
viii
JRF (2015). See https://www.jrf.org.uk/report/what-explains-growth-never-workedhouseholds
ix
http://www.disabilityrightsuk.org/policy-campaigns/drill-programme
x
A joint programme with Economic and Social Research Council and University of
Bristol
xi
http://disabilityrightsuk.org/how-we-can-help/get-yourself-active
xii
http://disabilityrightsuk.org/news/2014/august/about-our-making-project
xiii
http://disabilityrightsuk.org/how-we-can-help/i-can-make-it
xiv
http://disabilityrightsuk.org/how-we-can-help/leadership
xv
ONS (2015) Life Opportunities Survey. The figures used here for disabled people
are those for people who lived with impairment at 2 stages of the ONS survey, ie
people with more long-standing impairments. See
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/los/life-opportunities-survey/wave-three--final-report-october-2012-to-september-2014/index.html
24
xvi
EHRC (2015) Is Britain Fairer?
xvii
Holt-Lunstad, J Smith, TB and Layton, JB (2010) Social relationships and
mortality risk: a meta-analytic review. Plos Medicine 7(7): e1000316.
doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000316
xviii
http://www.hscic.gov.uk/article/6781/Mental-Health-Act-detentions-rise-by-almostten-per-cent-on-previous-year
xix
CQC (2015). See
http://www.cqc.org.uk/sites/default/files/monitoring_the_mha_201314_report_web_0303.pdf.pdf
xx
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/high-street-could-be-boosted-by-212-billionpurple-pound-by-attracting-disabled-people-and-their-families
xxi
http://www.report-it.org.uk/files/ho_hate_crime_statistics_201415.pdf
xxii
http://www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_214917_en.pdf
25