No, don't go! Have a wee listen to this podcast from the BBC. It's called Ouch and it's about disabled people. I hope they change the name soon, but the podcast is good. It's about Jared O'Mara, the MP for Sheffield Hallam, who has cerebral palsy.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/disability-40462699/the-only-mp-who-wears-a-t-shirt-in-parliament
If you heard an announcement on the news recently that MPs no longer have to wear ties and wondered why, it's Jared: he raised the issue with John Bercow and got full cooperation. He can't do up shirt buttons - or put on a tie, I imagine - so the dress rules of the House of Commons have been changed.
He's still left with other problems: the door he should use to get into Portcullis House needs two hands to open it, so he's having to come in the back door. There are going to be other problems but he has the support of the Speaker and of David Blunkett, also a Sheffield MP, who has been there before him.
Jared, of course, is trying to lead a normal life, so he hasn't got a big sign over his head that reads: Cerebral Palsy! Disabled! In the podcast, he mentions two things I find interesting:
Disability law expects employers to be 'anticipatory,' that is, to work out what will be needed for disabled people to play a full role in working life. And yet, the House of Commons, which passed the law in England, had nothing in place for a disabled MP: no one on the admin staff nominated as the point of contact for him on arrival; no procedures in place to make his induction easier; and no information in place to help staff in the House to work with him.
That brings me on to: education. It looks as if the mental health programmes put in place on TV and in the press over the last couple of years have got people used to the idea that many of us will experience a mental health problem in our lives and that men especially need to be more forthcoming about their mental health issues.
Do we have the same sensitisation programmes in place to deal with disability? Blindness and Down's are easy to recognise but do we know how to recognise autism, cerebral palsy, deafness? And if we recognise all of these, do we have a basic understanding of what to do and how to help? Notice I'm not suggesting schools should do this: the mental health campaign only took off when we stopped telling schools they had to do it and we - the grown-ups - started doing it ourselves.
As a volunteer, I've seen so many disabled people in nice accommodation with security systems in place, but stuck at the top of a block of flats with no lift, so effectively trapped indoors. Or even in blocks of flats with a lift, trapped by the weight of the fire doors which they can't open. The whole of the UK is alive with visiting 'carers': they're out there every day from early morning to bedtime; they rush around from client to client, underpaid and overworked; and some of what they do, I'm convinced, could be better done by the disabled clients themselves if they had the right kind of accommodation, inhouse cleaners, food preparers, and transport.
I heard a report on C4 news last night about housing: either we frontload the cost of housing by subsidising council house building (a one-off) or we endload it by giving private landlords a whopping subsidy (a continuing drain on the economy). The UK at present does the second version and it's costing us a mint. Property owners are doing fine though.
Support for disabled people is much the same: we can invest in suitable housing and make all buildings, pavements and facilities disability-friendly (a one-off), or we can spend money on carers because at present disabled people can't go out on their own or manage their homes or cook (a constant spend).
It used to be called joined-up thinking in the public services. But I gather there's no money in that: entrepreneurs these days like to hoover up the results of chaos in the public services.
Meanwhile I'm away to get a stick to use on those days when my energy is rock-bottom and my walking is kind of shaky. I know I'm not mobile enough to cope with crowds any more, as I found out at Glasgow University last week. I know how to behave in crowds but I can't cope with people who suddenly change direction and walk in front of me or elbow me as if I'm not there (thanks for that, people). I can't manoeuvre the way I need to in a crowd and I get kinda panicky when people jostle me. I'm grateful to my lovely family, without whom I would not have been able to manage the steps inside the university or at the Lorne Hotel or The Sisters restaurant.
But my concerns are as nothing compared to most disabled people's. I just wish I could see an end to the persecution (strong word - but I've thought it over and it's right) and exclusion of the disabled.
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