Baroness Campbell: your disabled legend

Back in our April issue we asked you to vote for Disability Now's Disabled Legend in our readers' poll. The 50 candidates, all disabled, were drawn from people from past and present. They included artists, entertainers, writers, musicians, scientists, politicians, sports people, campaigners and activists. They were nominated by Disability Now staff and freelance contributors, all of us disabled. Some of the nominators championed their favourite nominee...then it was over to you! And now we publish the result of your vote.

WINNER: BARONESS JANE CAMPBELL

Member of the House of Lords, co-chair All Party Parliamentary Group on Disability and former commissioner at the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

No one better illustrates that working behind the scenes doesn't mean you're not appreciated or don't produce results.

With a long and incredibly impressive history of parliamentary campaigning, Baroness Jane Campbell of Surbiton DBE continues to be an inspiration to the disability sector, including some who were shortlisted in our Disabled Legends survey.

Baroness Campbell tells Disability Now why she values our poll: "I don't think any of our different contributions to the world of disability can be graded. I just think what I'm doing currently probably resonates with a lot of disabled people and our allies... It's a very good way of consulting people I don't know, so thank you Disability Now readers! This gives me energy and drive."

Having recently been appointed co-chair of the All Party Parliamentary Disability Group (APPDG) alongside Anne McGuire MP, Baroness Campbell is busy working on the implementation of the UN Disability Convention, an access­ible democracy and disabled people's priorities for the new parliament.

Within parliament Baroness Campbell is working on expanding the Right to Control to cover health services and any other public support services.

"I'm fighting anyone or any group who attempts to weaken the criminal justice system with regard to assisted suicide and a right to portability of personal support packages."

From 2006-2009 she worked as a commissioner at the Equality and Human Rights Commission and from its inception in 2000 to its demise in 2006 a commissioner at the Disability Rights Commission. Additionally in the 1990s, Baroness Campbell authored several disability rights-based publications.

Commenting on her relentless energy and drive, she says she has "an incurable curiosity and desire to make things better for everyone, including myself. I think I am hyperactive, so that gives me the drive one probably needs to constantly remove barriers in pursuit of the prize. The prize for me is emancipation.

"I can't do anything without other disabled people beside me telling me where we should be going next. There really is 'nothing about us, without all of us, or at least a lot of us'. I'm definitely not dead yet so watch out, there's more to come!"

IN SECOND PLACE: ALAN HOLDSWORTH AKA JOHNNY CRESCENDO (Performer and disability activist)

Alan Holdsworth, or Johnny Crescendo as he is known to fans, is a singer with a difference: his rhymes aren't the atypical love story, they're about disability rights. British but now living in north America, he tells Disability Now he is "pleasantly surprised" to come second in our inaugural Disabled Legends poll.

"I don't know why people voted for me but I am glad that activists, that is people who campaigned to improve the lives of disabled people, finished ahead of 'role models' or famous people.

"Perhaps people voted for me because, as that guy who was arrested many times on Direct Action Network actions, I have a certain Robin Hood charisma?" he jokes.

Alan said he is currently planning a tour of the UK and Northern Ireland in early 2011.

"It's called the Songs of Freedom tour. I've reached a time in my life when I believe it's time to pass on what I've learned and to share the successes and failures with audiences in the hope that we can rekindle the activism of the '90s and ensure that no group of disabled people is left behind."

- For tour dates or more information, visit Alan on facebook facebook.com/JohnnyCrescendo

IN THIRD PLACE: TANNI GREY-THOMPSON (Sportswoman and campaigner)

She may have retired three years ago but Tanni Grey-Thompson's working life is far from over. One of the most successful disabled sportswomen in history tells Disability Now how honoured she is to be placed third in our poll.

"It's really interesting that even after three years I guess I am still in the public consciousness. To have disabled people themselves vote for people who aren't known because they have some celebrity status, who are activists, feels more 'real'," she says.

"I recently became a life peer in the House of Lords so at the moment I am learning a huge amount from Jane [Baroness Campbell]. It's great to finally be putting something back in now, I want to go in and make a difference on the issues that matter to me as a disabled person, mother and human being. There are really interesting times ahead in terms of personal care, benefits and education and I think there may be a bit of a fight - but I'm ready!"

Your top ten:

1st: Jane Campbell

2nd: Alan Holdsworth

3rd: Tanni Grey-Thompson

4th: Stephen Hawking

5th: Douglas Bader

6th: Lord Jack Ashley

7th: Ian Dury

8th: Tom Shakespeare

9th: Helen Keller

10th: Stevie Wonder

Shortlisted (in alphabetical order): Rick Allen, Muhammad Ali, Ludwig van Beethoven, Colin Barnes, Jean-Dominique Bauby, David Blunkett, Louis Braille, Patricia Chambers, Sir Winston Churchill, Ian Curtis, Chris Davies, Albert Einstein, Michael Flanders, Michael J Fox, Stephen Fry, Frank Gardner, Evelyn Glennie, Goya, Joseph Grimaldi, Adam Hills, John Hockenberry, Rachel Hurst, Dr Samuel Johnson, Frida Kahlo, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, T E Lawrence, Sir Bert Massie, Curtis Mayfield, Spike Milligan, Claude Monet, Christopher (Christy) Nolan, Mike Oliver, Oscar Pistorius, Sylvia Plath, Franklin D Roosevelt, Nabil Shaban, Vincent van Gogh, Peter White, Brian Wilson, Sir John Wilson

Disability Now Editor Ian Macrae says: "Thanks to all those readers who took the time and trouble to vote in our poll. Each of our top three shows that the cause of disabled people's rights and equality can be advanced in different ways. Each one of them has credibility in their own field. Baroness Campbell, having moved from activism into the establishment has taken the battle with her. Alan/Johnny Crescendo has used his talents as a performer and zealot in the fight for more choices and rights. Tanni Grey-Thompson has used her status as a world-class athlete and public figure to challenge perceptions. They've all done their bit to raise the profile of our community".