We disabled people, who are we?

Well in Camden, according to the Council’s own figures (Camden Profile 2023), we are the 31,882 people who struggle to some extent or another to carry out day-to-day activities, which is how the Equality Act 2010 defines disability.

That’s over 15% of the population.

This is the second highest percentage of disabled people among all the London boroughs. Additionally, Camden has the third highest proportion of people living with bad or very bad health in the capital, with just over 1 in every 20 residents falling into these categories. It is not clear how many of the people in poor health are also disabled.

But while our numbers are significant, we do not enjoy unity among us. Sadly, we are divided according to our impairment groups (visual, hearing, mobility, mental, learning and so on), our level of impairment (think low vision compared to blindness), the number of impairments or conditions we each have (ranging from one to multiple) and the degree to which we are politicised disabled people.

But while our numbers are significant, we do not enjoy unity among us.

The multi-faceted nature of being disabled and the many different ways the term itself is defined and understood, including through the lenses of the social model of disability and the Equality Act 2010, make combined action difficult.

In this way we are the poor relations of those challenging racism and homophobia. LGTBQ+ and anti-racism activists have been very successful in putting pressure on authorities to not only get their voices heard, but also have their needs met. They still have a long way to go but they are getting there.

 

By contrast, our voices are rarely ever heard and our needs are not catered for. We are the group it’s still ok to ignore.

 

Compare the huge coverage given to LGTBQ+ issues recently (9th February 2024) in the Camden New Journal, to the same paper’s almost total absence of coverage of Disability History Month. Or look at how Transport for London completely ignored our protests against their plan to refurbish Kentish Town tube station without installing a lift.

Our voices are not heard and our needs are not catered for. We are the group it’s still ok to ignore.

Meanwhile Sainsburys’ Camden Town branch removed all of its cashiers over the summer, making shopping much more difficult for customers with a range of impairments and conditions.

And then there’s the council, which is long on rhetoric but short on delivery when it comes to us. For example, it repeatedly publishes material, including consultations, that are unreadable for those of us with a visual impairment or learning difficulties.

It also makes it unnecessarily difficult to get a blue badge for parking. My own attempt to get a blue badge took weeks and weeks as I was required to jump over hurdle after hurdle. And council staff do not routinely use speech-to-text apps to communicate with people with hearing impairments. Furthermore, it’s my experience that requests made to the Council to allow the vehicles of blue badge holders and their carers to move through low traffic neighbourhoods are not heeded.

On the positive side, the council set up the Disability Oversight Panel (DOP) to fight for our rights. At the DOP meeting on 5th December 2023 we heard one horror story after another about disabled people struggling to communicate with the council’s housing department while trying to get themselves transferred to Council flats which meet their needs.

Unfortunately, the cabinet minister for housing, Councillor Apak, had another pressing engagement that prevented him attending.

Part of the DOP’s working mechanism is its team of disability champion councillors. In theory these champions give the DOP its teeth, although they are not always as pro-active as they need to be.

Fortunately, the chairs of the DOP, Councillors Revah and Atolagbe strive hard for our cause. Unfortunately, they do so in a culture that permits council officers to ignore and/or mistreat the most vulnerable people in our Borough, many of whom are disabled. This site and the local press provide many examples.

Arguably the most shocking example of this behaviour was the trashing of the tents and worldly possessions of “unhoused” people outside University College London Hospital on 10th November 2023. I have emailed the responsible cabinet member asking for information on what has happened to these individuals. I await a response.

The broader political problem in our Council is that there is virtually no opposition. The 45 Labour Councillors, and particularly the ten of them who are cabinet members, brook no opposition. It’s my belief that embers who did not toe the party line were deselected at the last election in 2022.

Meanwhile, the three Tory members are nowhere to be seen and the five Lib Dems are in the main too timid to put their heads above the parapet, not surprising given they get shot down whenever they do.

So, how we do we disabled people bring about changes to our lot if the very people we elect ignore us? Perhaps others might care to answer.