Sunday 29 November 2015

The Wales We Want

I was party to a discussion recently that made me so angry. It made me realise the Wales we have is one where:
  • If you have enough money to buy equipment for yourself, you aren't so disabled, but if you have to wait for the State to sort it out then you are stuffed
  • If you have a parent who listens to you and has the ability to fight with you for what you want, you get the kind of support you need to lead the life you want. Otherwise, you get what you are given - and that's not much of a life, certainly not a life of independent living where you have choice, voice and at least some control over your own life.
  • If you are dying, you can have extravagant wishes that people will help you fulfil, but otherwise wanting anything more than support to stay clean and alive is greedy.
  • If you have a learning difficulty, you are expected to be grateful for 20 years of unpaid work experience; if you don't have a learning difficulty, then it's controversial enough to have to do the short term Work Programme of unpaid work experience.
  • If you use a wheelchair part time and get out of it when you're out and about, it's ok for those who see you to vilify you for being a fake-disabled person either at the time to your face or in online forums & on social media later.

That is NOT the Wales I want.

This is not the Wales wanted in the SocialServices and Well-being Wales Act either.

If the Act is going to work, we don't just need The Services I Want - we are going to need The Wales I Want.
Is The Wales We Have really what the people of Wales want?

Come on Wales, let's get real about what disables people. It's not people's "disabilities" that disable them, it's The Wales We Have.

If you want to find out more about how we can have The Wales We Want - check out the new disabled people led research programme, DRILL UK.

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