Guest column

NHS: barriers to equal treatment

With the Care Quality Commission reporting inadequate levels of care with dignity in hospitals, research by Ruth Bailey indicates that disabled people in need of healthcare encounter a system largely ignorant of access needs and how they should be met

Credit where it's not due

A recent social policy award has had Professor Peter Beresford seeing red not only because he feels it’s gone to the wrong person, but also because it rewards regression in the field of independent living

No business like show business

Following this autumn’s Naidex South exhibition in London, Sophie Partridge asks whether big trade shows like this are still of value to disabled customers

"Dwarf throwing": not just rugby's shame

The England rugby team’s off-the-pitch activities appear to have done little to improve their performance on the field. But as they slink home, Mike Shamash says it’s more than a nation’s sporting pride which is damaged

Leonard Cheshire's challenge allergy

Activist and advocate for disability rights Professor Peter Beresford recounts how internal emails reflect a negative attitude to criticism of human rights failures

Just hangin' around

While being disabled is a social rather than a medical thing, many of us do have to attend routine hospital appointments for treatment. Kate Monaghan ponders the frustrations of playing the waiting game

Relating to the wrong problem

It’s all too common for disabled children in families to be seen and presented as a problem. Therapist and counsellor Simon Parritt says a new initiative by Relate aimed at such families fails to define the real problem: social exclusion

Hate crime: the only way is Essex

With abuse of disabled people once more making the headlines, Faye Savage describes how one disabled people’s organisation has tapped its members lived experience to get at the facts on hate crime

Loud echoes of past errors

In examining the current welfare reform agenda, Jim Elder-Woodward has spotted the continuance of past trends in current policy

Anger grows

Most observers agree that disabled people are being hit hard by cuts but members of WinVisible, writing here, argue that women are being hit even harder

Hearing the wrong voices

The current welfare reform activity means that disabled people are as much as in the news as we've ever been but where, asks Tara Flood, are our actual voices in all this coverage

Victory of rhetoric over substance

The Coalition's mental health strategy, launched in early February, looked on the face of it like a piece of joined-up thinking. We asked Professor Peter Beresford to scratch below the surface

Knowing our own strength

As definitions of disability become wider and more inclusive, Professor Peter Beresford argues that an increase in numbers should turn us from an easy target for cuts into a powerful lobby

Hard times getting harder

Being the director of a Disabled People's Organisation (DPO) is challenging according to a recent report from the Disability LIB Alliance. But, says Tara Flood, in the last 6 months it feels like things have got a whole heap worse

Double whammy

People with physical impairments and users of mental health services may each be receiving increased attention, but in a recent study Julia Smith has examined whether mental health services in the UK are currently meeting the needs of individuals who fall into both categories

Seeking asylum... in the community

It's 20 years since the National Health and Community Care Act (1990) became law. The Act signalled the end of the old County Asylums. John O'Donoghue was a patient in three of them, Claybury, Friern, and Banstead. With only around ten of the original 120 County Asylums still functioning, perhaps, he says, it's time to take stock

Paralympics: the class question

Having just come back from the IPC World Championships after winning gold in the S3 50m backstroke, Fran Williamson is able to say she's one of only 12 world champion swimmers in Great Britain in 2010. But what makes her rarer and more unique is her level of impairment

Putting the personal into personal care

The terms "personalisation" and "personal budgets" are much bandied around these days. Here, Martyn Sibley, a user of personal assistants (PAs) talks about the reality of what it has meant to him

Charities: put up or shut up

With disabled people and our benefits under attack, says Professor Peter Beresford, it's now time for charities to take the Government on in support of and alliance with those they purport to represent

Come in if you can get in

In the access lottery, tickets to music and sporting events often make disabled people losers says would-be gad-about Lisa Davies

Social work: are we in at the death

With high profile system failures such as the Baby Peter case, focus on social work provision has switched firmly to children. Professor Peter Beresford asks whether this is a good or a bad thing for disabled people

Unsuitable cases for treatment

While campaigners call for more acceptance of mental illness, the definition of what it means is being broadened. This, says service user Maureen Sellwood, is having a direct effect on provision for and perceptions of severe mental health conditions

Laying bare the care scare

Veteran activist and academic Mike Oliver says it’s time to debunk a few of the myths currently being pedalled by politicians of every stripe

Taking it to the streets

Disabled people have willingly let things slip. It’s time, says former activist Mandy Redvers Rowe to shake off complacency, relight the torch of action, march the streets of protest and wear again the T-shirt of pride

Closing off our options

People with mental health problems are facing a difficult and uncertain future. Services are closing, many have already gone, and, as a result, people with serious psychiatric conditions may soon have nowhere to go for help and support writes mental health service user Maureen Oliver

Selling out on independence

Sources of impartial advice, or one-stop shops for your support needs? Frances Leckie, editor of www.independentliving.co.uk thinks that the move by some independent living centres from advice and assessment into selling is misjudged

Baby RB - love, life, death and rights

Disabled mother of a disabled child, Emma Bowler considers what the Baby RB case tells us about the judgements that continue to be made about the value of disabled lives

Amber alert on assisted dying

Following the publication by the Director of Public Prosecutions on assisted suicide, Baroness Campbell of Surbiton says this represents another step along the road to sanctioning the ending of what others regard as worthless lives

More than words

Careless talk may not nowadays cost lives as it might have during the war, but there is a price to pay for continuous thoughtless usage says Penelope Friday

Home truths for Leonard Cheshire

When a major disability charity is called to account to one of its service users, why, asks Peter Beresford is its first response to go on the defensive

Life and death - choices and rights

Lord Falconer’s amendment to the assisted suicide bill failed to make it to the statute book. Some say it would have clarified the position of relatives who help family members to die, Margo Milne unpicks the complexities

When Doctor doesn't know best

Why, asks Penny Batchelor, doesn’t the NHS embrace the social model of disability and empower us to help them by making our own informed decisions

Work and the inclusion illusion

Since her graduation in 2005, Lisa Davies has lost none of her drive to find a job, but is she headed for a brick wall

Calling for change

A consortium of groups concerned with the rights of deaf people is lobbying hard for that community to have fuller access to telephone communications. Christopher Jones highlights some obstacles and solutions

A bit of a facer

Chris Burke contacted Disability Now because after years of trying to fit in and being rejected, he felt he needed to let rip

Talk about supporting, not curing us

As with other impairments, society’s focus on autism is all wrong, says Anya Ustaszewski

Showing a public face

Ten years ago Natalie Salmon gave up a teaching career. Now Head of Equality and Diversity for a national nursing organisation, she believes passionately that disabled people should take high-profile public roles

Why mad is not bad

The psychiatric system is increasingly seen as an option for criminals trying to avoid jail. Peter Beresford says a social model of distress could be the answer

How prison saved my bacon

For many people with mental health problems, prison can be traumatic and degrading. But former prisoner Tracy Mackness, who now runs her own business, The Giggly Pig Company, shows that with the right support, people can survive the system

Shaking things up

Disabled activists turned the traditional charity collecting box idea on its head with a week of events. Bill Albert, their chief executive, describes how they did it

My high heels benefit ban

When Anna Morris was examined by a doctor as part of her disability living allowance application, she didn't expect to be grilled about her high heels

Barrier grief

The government’s new welfare reform plans will only stigmatise more disabled people, says disabled academic Ruth Patrick

Critical friends

As Disability Now, Scope and the United Kingdom’s Disabled People’s Council (UKDPC) prepare to publish a major report on disability hate crime, Ruth Bashall and Anne Novis, co-chairs of the Metropolitan Police’s disability independent advisory group (DIAG), describe how their work is slowly helping the force improve its attitude to hate crime

Personals