On ‘fixing’ disability
Molly Burke, a blind YouTube vlogger, posted a video of her speech last month at the London (Ontario) Music Hall as part of an evening on "Belonging" organised by the Walrus, a Canadian magazine...
Category: Disability
Review: Unrest
Unrest is a film about ME, made by Jennifer Brea (right) and which tells the story of her life with the condition since it forced her to cut short her degree. It also tells...
Justice for LB: Southern Health pleads guilty
In another chapter of the ongoing battle to bring to book those responsible for the death of Connor Sparrowhawk (known as Laughing Boy or LB) in a bath in an NHS learning disability facility...
Charlie Gard and NHS versus private care
So, the tragic story of Charlie Gard, the terminally-ill baby boy whose parents have fought a legal battle to stop doctors at Great Ormond Street in London from turning off his life support, has...
Seven Days of Action: poor excuses for poor care
This week sees the third Seven Days of Action event to raise awareness of the people with learning disabilities who are trapped in psychiatric units, usually so-called Assessment and Treatment Units, sometimes for lack...
Jail for poor taste, and May and ‘autism’
Somebody has already been imprisoned for offences relating to the Grenfell Tower fire in west London, and it's not someone who signed off on the dodgy cladding; no, it's a local who had been...
Protect your rights — vote the Tories out
This will be the last blog post I make before the election starts tomorrow (Thursday) morning. The front pages of the two biggest-selling newspapers are full of propaganda against the Labour leadership, branding them...
Before you trust the Tories on mental health …
So, today it was announced that Theresa May has promised new legislation on mental health if her party wins next month's election, which will "rip up" the 1983 Mental Health Act under which people...
BADD 2017: On dignity
This post is part of Blogging Against Disablism Day 2017. For the past couple of years, my BADD posts have focussed on the issue of people with autism and learning disabilities and the way...
On the problem of proving hate
Yesterday I saw a post on the Disability Hate Crime Network group on Facebook about a crime in which a 'vulnerable' man was kept captive and tortured for more than a week by a...
Why should disabled people work for peanuts?
Last week Rosa Monckton, wife of Dominic Lawson (son of Nigel and former editor of the Sunday Telegraph when it emitted four of Will Cummins's Islamophobic rants in as many editions — and before...
Big hospital or small unit, bad care is bad care
On Wednesday night, Channel 4 aired a Dispatches special, Under Lock and Key, which exposed the abuse and neglect of patients at St Andrew's hospital in Northampton, an enormous campus which started out as...
Why is age discrimination in housing allowed?
This blog entry is by a friend of mine who is being evicted from her father's flat where she has been living for some time. She has long-running mental health problems and is a...
Treaty rights versus legal rights
A couple of days ago there was a demonstration in Dublin to pressure the government there to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (CRPD), which Ireland has signed but...
How to make sure wheelchair users can ride the bus
'Wheelchair v buggy': Disabled man wins Supreme Court case — BBC News Today the Supreme Court gave its ruling on whether FirstBus, a major provider of bus services throughout the UK, discriminated against a...
Regarding Brandon Reid
Brandon Reid is a 16-year-old boy with Asperger's syndrome whose family home is in Sheffield. He was in the news in November when a local paper and then the Daily Mail reported that the...
Time to change the law on disability hate crime
Update 12th December: The Disability Hate Crime Network has written to the Attorney General to seek a review of James Wheatley's sentence. Last week in Newcastle, a man who had imprisoned and tortured to...
A waste of a life
Last Wednesday, Nicky Reilly, who attempted to blow up a restaurant in Exeter with a home-made bomb which exploded in the toilet, injuring only himself, died in Manchester prison (otherwise known as Strangeways) where...
Cure or accommodate? It’s not an either-or
Yesterday I saw an advert for a free public lecture at the University of Melbourne (won't be going; bit too far for me to travel) on the subject "Persons with Disabilities: Cure or Accommodate?"...
Welcome home and happy birthday
Back in February, I featured the story of Joshua Offer-Simon, who was at the time being held in a hospital unit in Birmingham. He had been under section for two years as a result...