Your Letters - April 2010

No single way to campaign
I was disappointed to see, in the March 2010 edition of Disability Now, direct action advocate Mandy Redvers-Rowe (“Taking it to the streets”) and Jaspal Dhani (“Unity key for Council’s new chief”) of the United Kingdom Disabled People’s Council (UKDPC) arguing against each other on different ways of achieving disabled people’s equality.

Over 15 years, I have campaigned on a wide range of issues, from implementing the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and anti-discrimination legislation right through to disabled people’s equal rights to life, independent living and mainstream education.

During these campaigns I’ve had some memorable experiences of securing disabled people’s rights through direct action, representing disabled children in courts, advising on legislation and policy, and doing deals with government.

The most significant victories were won when disabled people engaged in different ways of campaigning. We must never forget that we needed our Disability Direct Action Network (DAN) actions in order for groups such as UKDPC to get at the table during our struggle.

When I was UKDPC campaigns officer, I was delighted to lobby the Labour Party conference at the same time as DAN targeted Tesco. While we couldn’t halt the welfare reform agenda, we managed to persuade the all-party Joint Committee on Human Rights to advise government that its welfare reform regulations might breach disabled people’s human rights. This wouldn’t have been achieved if we hadn’t combined direct action with policy work.

And in 2010 we needed DAN actions again when the Equality Bill Committee refused to take evidence and suggestions from our groups, preferring to deal only with longer established disabled people’s organisations.

I therefore look forward to direct action being taken outside government offices if after the election a Conservative education minister refuses an application to shut down a special school so resources can be transferred into a mainstream school. I’m also looking forward to negotiating with government to secure inclusive education rights.

Long live the different ways of campaigning. We need everyone to be there in any way they see fit.
Simone Aspis, by email

Student loans firm’s bid for “quick fix”
I wanted to get people’s opinions on the recent proposal by the Student Loans Company (SLC) to offer standard packages without a needs assessment for dyslexic students.

Given SLC’s inability to cope with applications, as reported by Disability Now (“News Update”, March 2010), it would seem to me that it is in search of a scapegoat and it would seem that course-related needs assessments are it.

As a dyslexic myself and having been through the Disabled Students’ Allowances process, I find the matter distasteful to say the least. Organisations such as the National Association of Disability Practitioners and Skill: National Bureau for Students with Disabilities have expressed their concern but my worry is that this is going to pass under the radar and that the guidance is going to be changed in the SLC’s bid for survival.
Jamie Prangnell, by email

Beware imitations
Can it be true? Heather Mills wanting to put Eamonn Holmes in a wheelchair in the interest of reality TV? No wonder she feels like the most hated woman in Britain.
Ted Ori, by email

Mothers and babies 1, Disabled drivers 0
I travel up and down this country on holiday break weekends in between hospital appointments. I’ve noticed year after year especially at a lot of Tesco stores in the south that they’ve been putting mother-and-baby bays each side of the door for easy access, and in some cases calling them “Mother and Baby Club”.

The disabled, by contrast, are made to negotiate crossing the car park roads to enter stores and again after they leave. That’s not very disabled-friendly, considering there’s no legal requirement for mother-and-baby bays, which are abused by parents with no children under seven. (Look for the compulsory child seat. It’s a giveaway.)

Before they start fining disabled people for using mother-and-baby places, supermarkets should start fining the abusers of disabled bays, I say.

Stop holding back because you are afraid you’ll lose customers. You’re losing customers of the disabled variety who are sick to the teeth that none of the big boys or their managers will go the full mile to stop all this discriminatory abuse.
Chris Potkin, by email

I found John Jewitt’s ideas on designated parking spaces unbelievably ignorant (“Your Views”, Disability Now, March 2010). He seems to think that disabled people use disabled spaces for convenience, but for most of us it’s a necessity, not a luxury.

If you’re a wheelchair-user and unable to walk, you can’t use an ordinary parking space. On occasions I’ve had to abandon my shopping trip because there were no suitable disabled spaces left and I couldn’t get out of the car. Parent-and-child spaces are for convenience only, and quite different. They have a choice and can park elsewhere: we don’t!
Elaine Rush, Eastleigh, Hants

I totally agree with John Jewitt about disabled people parking in child-friendly bays. What gives us disabled the right to park in a bay that’s solely for the use of people with children? We rightly get angry when Blue Badge bays are misused but that doesn’t give us the right to misuse other bays.

Trying to get a child out of a car seat in a narrow space can be very trying. You need the pram handy, not stuck in the back of the car, and you need room at the side of the car for safety and ease of lifting.
Marion Jackman, by email

Manchester man was victim of “hate killing”
It’s been widely reported that the death of David Askew was caused by the “abuse of youths” over several years. Surely this is a hate crime and should be treated as such.
Chris Channon, by email