Revolting Disabled People
In the last few months it has become clear to disabled people in the UK that Equality is still one long way off. No-one can miss the media headlines about Cuts – Cuts – Cuts.
Various ministers have been rattling sabres over benefits and linking people on long term benefit to fraud.
The media went into a feeding frenzy and we also had the debacle of the Treasury Spending Challenge website. Hate Crime, gross ignorance and the result a police investigation by The Met.
It’s clear that people are unhappy, and not just the disabled. The Treasury spending review will be put on the table before Parliament on 23 October, and many insiders predict a ministerial blood bath.
It’s conference season too, so we have all the media attention on the Politicians again – daily. They do hold quite an unfair advantage. There they are in reinforced bunker conference centres with high level security. Anyone who would like to speak to the Politicians about reality, outside of the corridors or power and the subsidised bars of the palace of Westminster, just don’t get a chance.
There are some who believe in Marching and Public Protest, but that is ever so hard these days. There is so much bureaucracy, paper work, meetings, disaster management planning, limits imposed by fire services, ambulance and legal loopholes to jump through. It seems that bureaucracy exists to simply stop anyone saying “I Protest”. If you do it without all the paper trail you get arrested.
That bureaucracy really works against disabled people! It discriminates and after 15 years of the Disability Discrimination Act, local authorities and police have just not caught up! They are supposed to have been really crip friendly since November 2006, The Law Says So, but as so many know that has been a farce and the discrimination goes on.
So you are organising a march and the police decide that the route it will follow starts well away from a place like the Birmingham International Conference Centre (ICC). Some crips ask about access and are told they can get to the starting point of the march by bus and train.
Then the whole mess gets interesting. The train station is not fully accessible, so that will deny a number of people the chance to take part – they can get to the station, but can’t get out.
As each train only has access for one Wheelchair it also means that for all the wheelies to get to the start of the march they would have to travel one by one on every train to that station for 3 days! A relay of wheelchair users camped out at stations just to get to the start of a march. Then there is the issue that it’s illegal to camp at the station. You get arrested.
You have the whole issue of getting from across the country to the place where the march is going to take place. Then there is the restricted number of wheelchair spaces on intercity trains to fight over. Forget coaches and buses as most are still not accessible after so many years. Overnight accommodation for yourself and even a carer or two?
But what happens is that carer is employed by you? You can’t ask them to go with you until there is a full licence granted for the march. As an employer you are not allowed to ask any employee to take part in an illegal demonstration or undertake any illegal act. That’s The Law. So any arrangements you need to make get delayed more and more as the bureaucracy rolls on.
You need to rework rosters for care provision, calculate overtime and rates for over night, and also work out if you can afford it. One march can end up meaning you have to no go out of the house and shop for months, so you have to stockpile food and necessities – robbing accessible Peter to deal with inaccessible Paul!
How about having to make sure all your insurances are in order – Wheelchair insurance, Employers Liability Insurance, and even having to carry out a risk assessment before you even decide to turn up and take part. That is no joke. It’s what so many disabled people have to do, simply because they are disabled. Imagine the average Politician having to do all that just to go down the street and buy a pint of milk. They wouldn’t know what hit them.
The route is being decided and it ends up going up a hill that the average Joe can walk up with a bit of houghing and puffing, But what about the wheelies, the mobility restricted and walking crips. They raise the issue and are told It’s that route or stay home. So polite, so well informed and so compliant with Equality Duties! NOT!
You use an electric wheel chair, so will your batteries last the day? Simple logistics for a crip, but anathema to authorities who simply see the disabled as charity cases to be patted on the head and given a lollipop.
That’s just addressing issue faced by diverse wheelies – and then you have to look at the whole issue of other disabilities and how they have to be addressed by the organisers and negated and ignored by all the authorities who have a strangle hold of access by disabled people.
Reasonable adjustment is a joke when there has been no reasonable adjustment in the ignorant mind set of so many. 15 years of the DDA, millions in supposed training on Equality, and still they can’t get their heads around the Logistics that disabled people are experts in dealing with daily.
The whole bureaucracy and institutional ignorance of authorities and police act like a filter and just reduce the number of disabled people who can attend. Time and delay is their ally and the enemy of the motivated crip! Delays and obstruction mean that people simply can’t attend. They are defeated by time and ignorance.
So how can you protest when there is so much ignorance, inequality and bureaucracy that simply works against all disabled people?
Government ministers love their sound bites. And the latest is that so many are “Workshy”. Oh how so many disabled people would love to see those ministers in a crips shoes for 24 hours and then have the temerity to make such comments.
So how can you protest when political and bureaucratic ignorance are such disabling factors and work against the rights of disabled people to be equal in society?
So many disabled people have found that the Internet is a great leveller and gives them access and a voice. Even the government now prefers the internet as a way to provide information and access to services. They tweet, You Tube it and have ghost written blogs all paid for on expenses and by departmental budgets paid for by tax.
So, all those who are excluded by the failures of the Government and Statutory agencies to play catch up with Disability Discrimination and a few Equality Duties can use the net to say No!
All it takes is “#OneRedDrop” – being spread far and wide for one day. People can do it from home, from work and even by mobile phone whilst sitting at the bus stop waiting for an accessible bus after 3 have gone past and left you waiting – again.
#OneRedDrop, the protest meme for disabled people who have been excluded and ignored for far too long!
It can be embedded in posts via social networking sites, tweeted, blogged and sent about by email. It can be added to images and photos so that people see it where ever they look on the net.
So the question is, can you have a riot on facebook?
#OneRedDrop
