While watching TV coverage of the National Election campaigns over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been struck by the exclusion of Disabled people.
We do not appear to be among those delivering the programmes, nor, generally, are we catered for as audience members – either in terms of our access needs or political issues.
I haven’t seen any candidates, commentators or Members of Parliament with a visible condition and although some of the TV programmes have had a sign language interpreter, none have had speech-to-text screens for their audiences and nor have I seen any broadcasts delivered in more accessible language or formats, either for the studio audiences or us at home.
Immigration, stopping the boats, the cost of living, inflation, growing the economy, waiting lists for NHS treatment, pensioners and housing – all these have had many mentions.
But not once since the campaigning started have I heard anything said directly about Disabled people. Making Britain a better place for us to live in just doesn’t seem to be on any of the politicians’ agendas. Perhaps they don’t think it’s a vote-winning line.
By contrast, some of our leaders clearly believe they can boost their parties’ ratings by scapegoating us for, among other things, ‘costly welfare bills’.
Like the time Rishi Sunak announced plans to ratchet up the pressure on economically inactive people by making it harder for them to get signed off work with mental health conditions.
The proposal would strip doctors of their role in making decisions on whether an individual is unfit for work and hand it to ‘work and health professionals’.
My own experience of having non-medical organisations taking the lead on making judgements about my health and what I’m capable of has been alarming.
In one case, when I was applying for a parking permit, Camden Council officers visited my house and told me that there was nothing wrong with me – although I had just been diagnosed with chronic heart disease.
On another occasion, a parking permit officer repeatedly demanded I send him documentary proof of where I lived when I was in intensive care in hospital.
Even when the council has involved health professionals in their assessments of my eligibility for services, those assessments have been insensitively handled and of poor quality.
Like when a physiotherapist required me to show them “remotely” (by use of my smart phone) how far I could walk as part of my application for a blue badge. I was bed-ridden with Covid at the time.
Turning the screw on Disabled people by making it harder and more stressful for us to secure the adaptations we need to move around or the money some of us may need to live on, either temporarily or over the long term, is moving in the opposite direction to the one we need to go in.
We need more adaptations and full inclusion so we can reach our potential and participate fully in life.
Changes at a societal level will take time but it is our Council in large part that we can pressure to make changes. Glimmers of hope include the establishment of an independent appeals procedure for people whose bule badge applications have been rejected, stopping the abolition of paper parking permits, and CDA’s visit to the newly refurbished Town Hall to investigate disability access issues.
Small successes but a beginning. The protest about the failure of Transport for London to install a lift at Kentish Town Tube was widely reported in the local press and indicates that we will not be ignored.
Challenging Council officers is difficult for some people but if done in a public setting it works. At a planning meeting I attended a Council officer told our small group that he did not have to consult Disabled people. I outed him in the plenary session and I think he will not say such things again. There is a hill to climb locally and we are making the first steps thanks to the Disability Oversight Panel and Camden Disability Action.
In the wider society there is a mountain to conquer. To accept our current treatment and allow ourselves to be ignored will not bring about changes.
