Tweeting out: Broken of Britain

Despite barriers to full access, the internet is a place where disabled people can, at least in theory, have the opportunity to make ourselves heard as much as other people. The new digital based lobby group The Broken of Britain is a great example of this. Founder member Kaliya Franklin - aka Bendygirl - tells more

Borne of frustration after the Comprehensive Spending Review announced cuts disproportionately impacting on disabled people, the founders of Broken of Britain effectively use the various social networking tools available online to quickly morph one person’s idea into a loose collective of several hundred voices.

Our previous experience of using social media to lobby for increased disability rights and access meant that we could effectively and rapidly target our campaign to the right people and places. Using sites like Twitter we can immediately alert the media to issues, directly contact politicians to ask their support, seek out celebrity support and interact in real time with each other to work as a group. The real time element of social networking means that with just a mouse click, people we contact can help share our message with their followers. We can direct our concern about things like the removal of the Higher Rate Mobility allowance from care home residents both to our own MPs and to those we know to be more supportive, such as Anne Begg, the disabled MP who is also chair of the Work and Pensions Select Committee.

The group was launched through Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and the existing network of disability blogs and forums, enabling us to inform other disabled people of our plans and ask them to join us immediately. There is a vast array of individuals and groups with physical disabilities, learning difficulties and mental health problems already using the internet to work together, so at Broken of Britain we work with a very wide definition of disability to include and complement all those groups. We believe the principle that individual voices are a whisper, but together a group can shout and demand to be heard.

By encouraging others to share their personal stories, using just a first name or pseudonym if they prefer, we have been able to quickly build up a collection of case studies highlighting the already woeful inadequacies in welfare, health and social care. The common theme through all these stories is how much people long to work, how they have contributed and paid tax wherever possible, and how very frightened and vulnerable this constant onslaught of announcements of
“reforms” is making those genuinely unable to work, whilst leaving fraudulent individuals untouched and unafraid. Social media gives us a platform to alert the media and wider public to the impact of these cuts on the very people they most wish to protect.

• To join the Broken of Britain group, go to thebrokenofbritain.blogspot.com