Sisters in arms

In May, disability activist Sue Maynard Campbell died. Her sister and fellow campaigner, Alice Maynard, reflects on a relationship that went beyond family ties to tackle the barriers they both faced in an unreceptive world

It was so self-evident that I didn’t even notice she’d given me the key to my freedom and my future.

Sue had just been speaking to the Class of ’91 at Ashridge – my fellow MBA students and me – about disability. This was different from what I knew, though. She introduced us to the social model, using an every-day example of non-disabled people being provided with the access that disabled people are denied.

For me, it was the start of a new understanding of disability. For years I had struggled hard to be “normal”. I had a normal career, a relatively normal house and a relatively normal car – indeed, as normal a life as I ever could hope for, I thought.

But things were difficult and I was acutely aware that my normality was built on flimsy foundations. I realised just how flimsy when I emerged from the MBA and failed miserably to get a job.

Sue showed me that I was already normal and didn’t need to work at it. With her enthusiasm for spreading social model principles, she encouraged me to join her in setting up Equal Ability – the consultancy company she ran till the day she died.

Sue was a trailblazer. She was the first student at Nottingham University with such high support needs; and she became a solicitor in the days when it was very difficult for women, never mind a woman with Sue’s level of impairment.

In 1981, the International Year of Disabled People, when I was still distancing myself from all things “disabled”, Sue was starting to find her political bearings. She thereafter consolidated her links to the disabled people’s movement through her work in the Association of Disabled Professionals and her involvement in the establishment of BCODP (the British Council of Disabled People), now UKDPC (the United Kingdom’s Disabled People’s Council).

Throughout our work together, she was always there to keep me on the straight and narrow. She had a clear understanding of what a social model approach would be in all situations and she always let me know if I was missing the point! And no doubt she’ll still be there, making her views known. I’ll just have to listen a little more closely.