About Maria

Maria is the training director for Wideaware who provide disability equality training online and face-to-face. She is a qualified access adviser and has worked in the UK, US and Italy as a trainer, project manager and employment placement worker for people with learning disabilities.

Maria is severely deaf, wears hearing aids and lipreads.

Hi Maria

Thanks for the emailing about this blog, actually i am thinking of setting one up for lifestages Training.

The video was great, it certainly make you think about how we disabled people are treated. i have a tale or two to tell.

Fortunately i have good parents who about the physical barriers that i face and are very helpful to say the least.

The video certainly made me laugh towards the end, how two can play tango. I think that there is a general lack of awareness within the deaf world and that with the disability world.

I am currently constantly emailing the shadow disability minister about bus travel across London in a Wheelchair it is not too much either, and something needs to be done about it. It is not just bus travel what about some of the streets and drop kerbs they are dangerous.

David Rolph 2 August 08

G’day Maria

Great work establishing the blog and I hope you won’t mind me picking the brains of all your bloggers and yourself.

I’m working on a thesis focused on the depiction of people with disability in the media and I’m am particularly interested in the degree to which journalists adhere to established media guidelines on the subject.

While the structure of the thesis is a work in progress, I’m seriously considering concluding a review of online contributions.

So, one, I’d love to know what you think and two, I’d greatly appreciate you spreading the word for feedback.

Again, great work.

Cheers

Shawn

Shawn Burns 4 August 08

Hello Shawn,

Thank you very much for the feedback. I hope you’ll continue to read and comment. I am very interested in the portrayal of disability on the media, I do not know if there are guidelines but the one thing I’ve noticed is that even with articles that try to portray disability positively, there is always a huge emphasis on the disabled person being a ‘hero’ overcoming huge obstacles and I think that’s a bit misleading. However, there are other factors to consider as well. Let me know what you’d like me to comment on and I’ll do it, no problem. I don’t know if you’ve heard of this at all but recently here in the UK there was a very successful programme on disabled fashion models – shown by the BBC – that generated a lot of discussion: http://www.bbc.co.uk/missingmodel/ and if you look at comments on the programmes on the BBC’s OUCH! website (http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbouch/F10471701 ) there’s been an avalanche of comments from the general public and I think the programme has started an interesting debate.
Will spread the word – this is actually a topic that will interest a good number of my disabled colleagues.
All the best,
Maria

Maria 4 August 08