“The amount of people I’ve seen out in wheelchairs in nightclubs, I could count them – it’s under 10.” This is the dispiriting assessment of nightclub accessibility from Cardiff student Alex Kingdom, a wheelchair user who loves to go out to listen to music with his mates. However, he knows all too well that, for […]
A LEADING disabled activist has slammed council claims of progress on ‘mitigation measures’ for disabled people who have been effectively barred from the city centre by a blue badge ban as ‘pathetic’. Flick Williams, a visually-impaired wheelchair user and retired access consultant who is a part of the ‘Reverse the Ban’ movement said: “They are […]
Thousands of disabled people have had their benefits paused during extended hospital stays under a rule charities say penalises the most vulnerable. It comes after a court case was withdrawn which had been set to challenge the lawfulness of the so-called hospitalisation rule. One affected family lost more than £5,000 in benefit payments while their disabled son […]
Category of ‘mental retardation’ in NHS Digital’s annual statistics demeans patients, campaigners say The NHS has been criticised for using outdated and offensive terminology in its official statistics when describing people with intellectual disabilities. NHS Digital publishes annual statistics that record all admissions, appointments and attendances for all patients at NHS hospitals across England and is broken down by […]
‘We expect the police to fully investigate these hateful attacks and make sure the cowards who commit them feel the full force of the law’ ‘ Hate crimes against disabled people have soared to shocking levels – while only a tiny proportion of suspects have been charged. Between April 2021 and March 2022, at least […]
Michael McEwan explores disability representation in the media and how it can be improved to better showcase the varied lives we lead. When I was growing up, I didn’t see a lot of people with a disability on TV. While there has been progress in recent years, there is still a long way to go. […]