Hi, I’m Maria. I’m a Disability Equality trainer and access consultant based in London. I’m passionate about disability rights and have worked my whole career, in the UK, Italy and US, to promote greater inclusion for disabled people. No, I’m not some crusader, just someone who has had to deal with so much ignorance and obstruction because of my own disability that I have plenty to say on the matter.
I also would like to see more bridges between ‘mainstream’ thinking around disability and the thinking of disability rights campaigners. I would like to see disability as less of a fearful and awkward subject to talk about and help others see it as part of the human condition. I very much welcome your comments on my blog, I hope it will be an opportunity for some constructive discussions.
Posts by Maria
I’m currently doing some research on a project supported by the Office of Disability issues and I’m looking to hear about disabled people’s experiences in approaching and engaging with their MP or their staff. Your replies are treated in confidence and will help to inform the design and development of an e-learning project, aimed at increasing MPs’ awareness and that of their staff. No real names will be used.
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The legislation could not be clearer: all public authorities must comply in demonstrating they are collecting vital information on their workforce and the service users they provide for. They also have to demonstrate they have objectives for change against discrimination.
This is the perfect opportunity to list training as part of your objectives, and demonstrating how could not be easier than with Wideaware’s online training in Equality and Inclusion.
Wideaware can also help in ensuring the information public authorities have to publish is inclusive and accessible for people of all abilities.
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Well done to Channel 4 for once again shoring up interest and helping awareness on disability and equality issues. Whilst many commentaries worried about the risk of further stereotyping and ridicule on some subjects – like the Guardian’s Vicky Frost mentions – the programme takes a fresh and non-judgemental look at the fun times, trials and successes of the seven dwarfs (or “short persons” as political correctness would have it).
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The law is not there to label anybody but to protect those who need it. So, someone with dyslexia can be disabled too. Being disabled does not have to be a negative label. People can proudly say they are disabled: it’s not only about their impairment but about how they are prevented from participating fully in society by irresponsible discriminating policies, prejudices and barriers in the built environment.
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Whilst the government looks up to “Big Society” – expecting volunteers, social entrepreneurs and corporate responsibility to solve society’s problems for them, they are also effectively washing their hands off of their electoral mandate of preserving the interests of those who are most vulnerable.
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Please let’s not make assumptions about disabled people: however much pain we might experience personally that is no-one’s business, unless we choose to share it with whom we feel like. The fact is that in pain or not, we deserve to participate in life and society just like everyone else. Our pain, no matter how intense, is not ammunition for a eugenic take on life that justifies murder to spare pain.
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While it’s understandable that like Charlotte, millions of disabled people with severe impairment do not want to be a ‘burden’ – it’s important that they are enabled to live with dignity through appropriate care: all of them still have a lot of living to do and much to contribute. Perhaps Charlotte would have not been so hasty in her quest for euthanasia if she felt confident her family would receive the best support necessary.
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I am appalled at what I feel is a misguided attempt by a charitable organisation to raise funds to help those affected by Motor Neuron Disease Association.
With so many people believing they would be better off dead than disabled, horror-style “awareness” campaigns such as this one alienate disabled people even further from the rest of society.
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A few nights ago I decided to stay up to watch “Hear and Now”, an award-winning documentary about an American Deaf couple who, after a lifetime of living with deafness decide to get a Cochlea Implant (CI) at the age of 65.
I wished I had seen this documentary 30 years ago, and perhaps many issues that affected me growing up with deafness might have been better understood and accepted.
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