21st Century Britain – Society Guardian’s take on Disability Discrimination

In last Thursday mornings Guardian newspaper article The disability system is blocking people like Jaki from their benefits – literally Frances Ryan, tells of peoples experiences in accessing buildings for their re-assessment of Disability Benefits in total disregard for their rights.

From 5 inch steps to intercoms at the entrance that a deaf person cannot use, these people and many others have been deemed fit for work.

As examples:

Article 9 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities states

1. To enable persons with disabilities to live independently and participate fully in all aspects of life, States Parties shall take appropriate measures to ensure to persons with disabilities access, on an equal basis with others, to the physical environment, to transportation, to information and communications, including information and communications technologies and systems, and to other facilities and services open or provided to the public, both in urban and in rural areas. These measures, which shall include the identification and elimination of obstacles and barriers to accessibility, shall apply to, inter alia:

(a) Buildings, roads, transportation and other indoor and outdoor facilities, including schools, housing, medical facilities and workplaces;

(b) Information, communications and other services, including electronic services and emergency services.

2. States Parties shall also take appropriate measures to:

(a) Develop, promulgate and monitor the implementation of minimum standards and guidelines for the accessibility of facilities and services open or provided to the public;

(b) Ensure that private entities that offer facilities and services which are open or provided to the public take into account all aspects of accessibility for persons with disabilities;

(d) Provide in buildings and other facilities open to the public signage in Braille and in easy to read and understand forms;

(e) Provide forms of live assistance and intermediaries, including guides, readers and professional sign language interpreters, to facilitate accessibility to buildings and other facilities open to the public;

(f) Promote other appropriate forms of assistance and support to persons with disabilities to ensure their access to information;

(g) Promote access for persons with disabilities to new information and communications technologies and systems, including the Internet;

(h) Promote the design, development, production and distribution of accessible information and communications technologies and systems at an early stage, so that these technologies and systems become accessible at minimum cost.

Article 28 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities states

1. States Parties recognise the right of persons with disabilities to an adequate standard of living for themselves and their families, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions, and shall take appropriate steps to safeguard and promote the realisation of this right without discrimination on the basis of disability.

(c) To ensure access by persons with disabilities and their families living in situations of poverty to assistance from the State with disability-related expenses, including adequate training, counselling, financial assistance and respite care;

These are just 2 of the Articles that the UK is signed up to and the Department for Work and Pensions has so far failed to comment to The Guardian article.

You may not be able to get access to the place of your assessment, or have assistance of someone to help you with your disability during and assessment, or you may be in hospital unable to communicate or in a Coma, it doesn’t seem to matter, the rules are rigid with total disregard for our rights.

It appears to me reader, that the Department for Work and Pensions is in breach of the UN convention (CRPD) and the UK’s own Equality Act 2010, you may disagree, that is your right.