Why last week was a grim week for inclusion

Last week, over the Easter break, three stories made the news that highlighted the ongoing exclusion and discrimination that disabled people experience in modern Britain.

First, a photography firm offered parents of pupils at Aboyne Primary School in Aberdeenshire the opportunity to have the disabled pupils omitted from the class photo.. One parent, whose daughter, Natalie, has additional support needs said: ‘I can’t understand how a human being can think it is okay to effectively give people the choice to erase children from their class and their history.’

Then, actor Sally Phillips said her son, Olly, who has Down's syndrome, was not allowed to go to a trampolining park because staff insisted he needed a letter from his GP. In response, Sally said ‘that being singled out for being different has a big psychological effect on our children. This sort of administrative burden on special needs parents, just to be part of the community, to take normal risks that everyone is allowed to take is just unbearable.’

Lastly, on the complex and nuanced issue of assisted dying, commentator, Matthew Parris, said in the Telegraph ‘we can’t afford a taboo on assistant dying and that hastening the death of old & frail people is not a bad thing as it will save society the cost of looking after them.’

We start by dismissing the lives of disabled people, regarding them of being of less value,  excluding them from daily activities. We end by making quality of life judgements about older and disabled people to ‘save society the costs of looking after them.’ 

These three examples demonstrate how rights fought for over decades can swiftly be lost overnight.  Sadly, it also reflects the daily reality of too many disabled people who have to constantly validate their existence, which is wrong and exhausting for every individual. Stereotyping, stigma, and discrimination are challenges disabled people face every day. It leaves disabled people feeling that they are second class citizens and that they don’t have the right to belong in society.

So little has changed for disabled people when it comes to accessing goods and services. Whilst many businesses run inclusive and welcoming services, too many provide no reasonable adjustments, leaving ordinary, everyday activities beyond the reach of many disabled people. People with guide dogs are still being asked to leave supermarkets, wheelchair users are forced to crawl up steps in stations and young disabled people are excluded from enjoying trampolining.

Change needs to come from the top and government must be seen to actively oppose discrimination on every level. You can have all the strong policies, legislation, and good practices in place, but it means absolutely nothing if perceptions and attitudes are not aligned with them.

We need to have a national conversation about inclusion. We need to ensure that disability awareness becomes a commitment – not just a ‘nice thing to do’.  A successful public awareness campaign would mean that less disabled people experience stigma and discrimination and feel more empowered and ensure more social contact.

But inclusion needs to be addressed, not just at a government level but also on a community and individual basis. What we can do is really think about how we use language and if we see things that aren't right or practices that are discriminatory, we should be able to challenge them too. It's not about accepting everything that we see or experience.