Reaction to today's release of the National Disability Strategy

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The government has today published the much anticipated and delayed National Disability Strategy. 

What is the National Disability Strategy?

The strategy, described as: “the government’s vision to improve the everyday lives of disabled people”, sets out plans to address a variety of areas in which disabled people still face barriers and inequity, from transport and leisure to employment amongst much else.

You can visit this government webpage to find the National Disability Strategy publications, accessible in audio, braille, British Sign Language, EasyRead, large text and Welsh.

Scope’s response

If you were an early bird this morning, you might have seen our very own @Richard_Scope on Good Morning Britain speaking about the challenges disabled people encounter when accessing public transport, alongside a response to the strategy from James Taylor, Scope's Executive Director of Strategy and Social Change.  To watch, visit this Good Morning Britain clip from 6.12 onwards.

While in this statement Mark Hodgkinson, Chief Executive at Scope welcomes the aim of the strategy but highlights several shortcomings in it's production; from a lack of attention to disabled children and families, a failure to address how, and when, the disability employment gap will be closed and insufficient investment overall to bring about transformational change:

“The Government promised a National Disability Strategy that will truly transform the lives of disabled people in this country. The reality is closer to a one-year action plan.

Many of the short-term commitments made are to be welcomed, but the strategy as a whole falls short of the transformational plan that many disabled people expected and deserve. Unless we get clear detail beyond the next 12 months, it is difficult to see how life will be significantly different for the next generation of disabled people."

Broader response

Responses from the disability community on social media have largely echoed similar concerns. 

Many have pointed to a lack of consultation with disabled people in the strategy’s production. While others have highlighted that its release coincides with today’s court ruling that the government’s lack of BSL interpretation for COVID-19 briefings on Sept 21 and Oct 12 2020 amounted to ‘discrimination.’  Read this Metro article for more news.

Over to you:

• Have you had time to read the National Disability Strategy?
• What are your thoughts on the content and the reaction elicited?

Let us know in the comments below.

MarkM88

I’m working my way through the information on the gov website at the moment, I’m doing it in stages so I don’t read it all at once and get lost in it all.