Westminster Diary 9th March 2006

Thursday, 9th March 2006

There are approximately 10 million people in this country who have a disability and 6 million who care for them, so when we discuss the problems faced by disabled people we discuss the lives of a great many families. It has been brought home to me by a number of individual cases that disability is something which any of us could have to deal with at any point in our lives.

I suspect that many of us still see disability as something you are born with but the truth is that it is something we can acquire – accidents being a common means of doing so. We all have a potential vested interest then in improving the accessibility of our society to those who have a disability. By accessibility I do not simply mean making it easier to get into and out of buildings or on and off buses or trains, though these things are important. We must also think about the accessibility of services. State benefits are administered by a system of labrynthine complexity – the application form for Disability Living Allowance alone is 51 pages long, finding a house that is adaptable for the needs of a wheelchair user or making the necessary alterations so that persons’ own home is difficult.

If you have a disability, you are likely to have a range of other medical conditions too, many of which will be long lasting. We must be sure that the NHS is as committed to chronic care as it is to acute medical cases.

Governments of both parties have improved the situation substantially with the Disability Discrimination Act in 1995 and subsequent legislation, but we can all help. Nobody wants to be patronised, but consideration for disabled people is always welcome. Two of the issues I hear most often about from disabled people have to do with the parking of cars. Those who park on pavements and in disabled spaces when they are not entitled to do so cause significant difficulty and inconvenience to those who have mobility problems. We should all regard that as unacceptable. One day it could be out lives which are being made harder.

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Updated on Thursday, 9th March 2006