Disability

We cannot be certain about the number of disabled people in Great Britain. However, the OPCS surveys published in 1988 estimated that there were 5.8 million disabled adults (over the age of 16) living in Great Britain and 360,000 disabled children.

This meant that one in four households in GB had at least one member with a disability. However the latest Government research estimates that there are considerably more disabled people, placing the number at 8.6 million disabled adults living in private households, i.e. 1 in 5 of the adult population.

The number is likely to rise further with an increasingly elderly population, as the likelihood of disability increases with age.

Discrimination and Attitudes

Disabled people continue to face discrimination and difficulties imposed by society in every area of their lives. The common experience of disabled people are of rejection and enormous difficulties to take part in even the most ordinary activities such as shopping, going to the cinema or to the pub.

Discrimination is present education and employment, leading to lifelong dependence on welfare benefits.

Many polling stations are inaccessible, therefore disabled people are denied the right to vote on equal terms with non-disabled people. In addition, disabled people are forced into dependence, suffer humiliation and struggle with an inaccessible environment every day.

As a consequence many disabled people give up the struggle of attempting to take part in society and stay at home.

The exclusion of disabled people from society mean that some non-disabled people never met a disabled person and therefore do not have the opportunity to develop opinions and attitudes about them based on personal experience.

Lack of awareness and fear of the unknown is compounded by the predominantly negative media images of disabled people and disability generally. For example in a survey conducted by The Leonard Cheshire Foundation nearly one-third of people questioned thought that wheelchair-users were “less intelligent”, and 44 per cent of opinion leaders thought that using a wheelchair would present a major obstacle to gaining employment. Such misconceptions lead to a vicious circle of rejection, discrimination and exclusion.

Language

The language we use reflects that we think. It also shapes the way we think. The language we use about disability is an important way of influencing our own and society’s attitudes.

Words and phrases to avoid include: handicapped person, spastic, wheelchair-bound, sufferer, the disabled.

Use the following instead: disabled person has cerebral palsy, wheelchair-user, has impairment.

Social versus Medical

Social versus medical model of disability behaviour towards disabled people is governed by the picture or ‘model’ of disability that others carry in their minds. These models, in turn, affect the way in which society is organised.

The two main models are:

The social model - this recognises disabled people as equals who are battling against very unequal odds - i.e. society’s attitudes. The emphasis is on society’s responsibilities and changing attitudes rather than the disabled person’s problem.

The medical model - this sees disability as an illness, and disabled people as patients in need of a cure so that they cab fit into ‘normal’ society. The emphasis is on the condition rather than the person.

Education/Inclusion

Discrimination against disabled people begins from the moment they are born. Disabled children are often segregated, with medical consideration predominating, undermining a wider approach and the possibility of enjoying a normal life alongside non-disabled peers.

Early school experiences can have a profound impact on how disabled people fell about themselves and influence expectation about their future role in society.

Meanwhile, the controversy over special schools continues. Some people argue that whilst special segregated education exists, most non-disabled children never come into contact with disabled children. Their attitudes therefore are formed from the attitudes of adults and the media, perpetuating negatives attitudes and stereotyping. Disabled and non-disabled children learning and growing up together takes away the fear of the unknown and makes disability part of the norm.

99 per cent of all children are educated in mainstream schools.

Around 1.5 million children in schools in England are identified as having Special Educational Needs. Primary schools have a slightly higher proportion than secondary schools.

From 1993-98 the total number of pupils in special schools remained constant at around 98,000.

Of pupils with SEN Statements, 58 per cent are now educated in maintained mainstream schools, 39 per cent in special schools or Pupil Referral Units, and 3 per cent in independent schools.

Figures underline a long-term trend towards greater inclusion of disabled pupils in mainstream schools, with a corresponding drop in the percentage in special schools.

(Figures taken from School Censuses January 1997 and 1998)

Employment

Many employers still favour non-disabled applicants over disabled people. This happens for a variety of reasons ranging from fear or prejudice to misunderstandings about people among fellow employees against disabled colleagues. Once in employment disabled people do not have the same promotion prospects as able-bodied colleagues or have to work harder to maintain heir position within the organisation.

Disabled people are only half as likely as non-disabled people to be in employment. When employed, they are 6 per cent more likely to work part-time. Their likelihood of being long-term employed is also higher.

Of those looking for work, 62 per cent of disabled people felt that they had been refused a job or interview because of their disability and 85 per cent thought that employers were reluctant to offer them jobs because of their disability.

Disabled people are six times more likely to face discrimination when applying for a job than their able-bodied counterparts.

35 per cent of disabled people had been unable to accept a job offer because the building was inaccessible.

Goods and Services

In Scope’s Disabled in Britain report, one in three disabled people said they had been refused service in a public place such as cinema restaurant, pub/club, theatre, sporting event or leisure centre. The disability Discrimination Act has acted as a catalyst for commercial and public sector providers of goods and services to improve physical access as part of their service to disabled people as reported in Scope’s research report, In Good Company?

Families and Carers

In 1995, Scope published the result of its study into carer’s live –one of the largest studies ever undertaken-in Disabled in Britain: behind closed doors- the carers’ experience.

The needs of different families and carers differ widely, and may reflect partly the type of support available to them, and partly the needs of the person for whom they care (ranging from young carers and young disabled children, to elderly carers and elderly relative being cared for). Here, we are only able to give a partial picture of the needs of some families.

Emotional/Psychological Needs

Carer, whether family, relations or friends, play a crucial role in the lives of disabled people. As well as being a potentially rewarding and satisfying role, caring for disabled people is very often stressful and undervalued, in economic and status terms and in terms of its central role in supporting disabled people.

Caring for a disabled person also affects other members of the family, especially siblings. Parents may fell guilty for not giving enough time to siblings and siblings may harbour feelings of resentment about the lack of time parents give to them.

Three quarters of respondents in Scope’s 1995 survey who cared for disabled children between six and 15 felt they were sometimes neglecting other family members.

About physical needs, caring for a person with a disability can be hard wok. Many carers feel both physical tired and mentally fatigued because of the effort involved in obtaining and providing the services needed. Carers often put their own health and safety at risk through physical activity necessitated by lack of equipment, or through the mental worries brought by the constant anxiety.

Financial/Economic needs

’Caring cost’ said Scope’s 1995 report on caring. It found that many respondents bear many of the costs themselves: their carers suffer; they experience financial hardship and are frequently stressed and unwell.

Legislation

In 1995 instead of full, enforceable civil rights legislation the Conservative Government introduced the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA).

The parts of the Act are as follows:

Part I - Definition of disability

Part II - Employment

Prohibiting discrimination in relation to recruitment, training, benefits, management practices, etc. In trade organisations and contract work. Currently, this does not apply to companies with fewer than 16 employees.

Part III - Goods and services

Requiring service providers and those selling, letting or managing premises to enable disabled people to make us of their goods, facilities and services.

Part IV - Education

Special requirements are outlined for amending existing education legislation and providing other duties in relation to information for disabled people.

Part V - Transport

Providing the Secretary of State with powers to establish minimum access criteria for new transport vehicles to b phased in over time.

Part VI - National Disability Council

Requires this to be set up and details its duties and powers.

Part VII - Miscellaneous issues

Including the restriction of publicity, government appointment, regulations and interpretations.

Goods and Services

Since December 1996, it has been unlawful for service providers and those responsible for selling, letting or managing premises to refuse service, to provide a worse standard of service or to offer a service, to provide a worse standard of service or to offer a service on worse terms to disabled people. Further provisions require service providers to make reasonable steps to:

a) Amend policies, procedures and practices which make it impossible or unreasonably difficult for disabled people to access the service from October 1999.

b) Provide auxiliary aids and services where this would enable or facilitate disabled people’s use of a service from October 1999.

c) Overcome physical features which:

- make it possible or unreasonably difficult for disabled people to use a service, by providing the service by a reasonable alternative method from October 1999.

- amend or remove physical features of the premises which make it possible or unreasonably difficult for disabled people to use a service or provide a reasonable means of avoiding it from 2004.

Disability Rights Commission

In December 1997, the Government set up the Disability Rights Task Force, chaired by Alan Howarth, Minister of Disabled people, to report on how to secure comprehensive and enforceable civil rights for disabled people. Its first task was the production of recommendations to the government on the role and functions of the Disability Rights Commission (DRC). The DRC Act has now received royal assent and work has begun on setting up the commission which will take office in April 2000, protecting rights and work in a similar way to the Equal Opportunities Commission and Commission for Racial Equality.

However, the establishment of the DRC is only one step towards fully enforceable civil rights for disabled people. The DRTF are considering how civil rights in transport and education might be attained and it is possible that the DRC’s role could be extended to include these powers and any others covered by future legislation.

OPCS surveys of Diability in Great Britian. Reports 1-6. HMS, 1988

Grundy et al. Disability in Great Britian. DSS/Corporate Document Services, 1999

Knight, J & Brent, M. Access Denied: Disabled People’s Experience of Social Exclusion. Leonard Cheshire, 1998

Labour Force Survey, Winter 1997/98

Lamb, B. & Layzell, S. Disabled Britian: A World Apart. Scope, 1994

Graham & Lamb, B. An Equal Chance or No Chance, The Spastics Society, 1987

Lamb, B & Layzell, S Op.cit.

Ibid

Stewart, J. In Good Company? Scope, 1996

Lamb, B & Layzell, S. Disabled in Britian: behind closed doors, Scope, 1995

Eight hours a day and taken for granted? The Princess Royal Trust for Carers, 1998

Stewart, J Op.cit.

Disabilities - Issues Donnelan, C. Independence, 1998

Excluding Attitudes: Disabled People’s Experience of Social Exclusion. Knight J. & Brent, M. Leonard Cheshire, 1999

Right from the Start. Leonard, A. Scope, 1994

Scope Publications list contains many useful items in addition to the reports listed above e.g talking about disability bookmark, reading lists, awareness posters and leaflets.

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