Our disabled need help, not hindrance

IT’S no surprise that a comprehensive report from the Equality and Human Rights Commission on the status of disabled people shows that, in both Wales and Britain, they are in many areas seeing progress not just halted but reversed.

That’s what happens in a political culture where there is an increasing disconnect between the positive words uttered for the benefit of minority groups and the actions that are taken against them.

It costs nothing to make generalised comments in support of disabled people, telling them that their contribution to society is recognised and that legal changes have been implemented to make them feel they are on an equal footing with the majority of people who are not disabled.

It’s true that some positive steps have been taken to make their lives easier, but there is still a long way to go before dreams of equal treatment are a reality.

There are many horrendous stories about the way in which disabled people who claim benefits have been treated. Many have been humiliated by being forced to prove their disability, even when it is often clearly apparent. There can be no doubt that disabled people have been seen as a group that can be victimised by having money taken away from them.

There have been distressing examples of disabled people forced to pay the bedroom tax in circumstances where they need extra rooms for carers or for the storage of essential equipment without which their lives would be diminished.

So far as the UK Government is concerned, disabled people cannot be excused from the disadvantages that the pursuit of an austerity agenda makes inevitable.

A more compassionate administration would see disabled people as a potentially vulnerable group that needs assistance rather than punishment.

What’s especially sad is the fact that the Government’s regressive policies are making it more difficult for disabled people to acquire the sense of empowerment that legislation passed in their favour was meant to help them achieve.

It is easy for disabled people, whether they were born disabled or not, to feel unfulfilled and at a disadvantage. Inspiring figures like Tanni Grey-Thompson have done much in recent decades to prove that having a disability does not have to be a bar to success or accomplishment. It’s surely reasonable to expect that politicians will do their bit by helping such a cause rather than hindering it.

The negative conclusions of the Commission’s report should act as a spur to anyone with any influence over UK Government policy to take up the cause of our disabled community and ensure that measures to improve their lot come back into the ascendancy.

The next time the EHRC compiles a report on this issue, we hope it will be able to give heartwarming testimony to the way in which policies are being pursued that enhance, rather than diminish, the lives of our disabled communities. The Western Mail newspaper is published by Media Wales a subsidiary company of Trinity Mirror PLC, which is a member of IPSO, the Independent Press Standards Organisation. The entire contents of The Western Mail are the copyright of Media Wales Ltd. It is an offence to copy any of its contents in any way without the company’s permission. If you require a licence to copy parts of it in any way or form, write to the Head of Finance at Six Park Street. The recycled paper content of UK newspapers in 2014 was 78.5%