Disabled people are too often excluded from the political conversations and decisions that shape our everyday lives. From transport and housing to social care, employment, healthcare and accessibility. That’s why I’m really pleased to be part of this upcoming online conversation hosted by the Purple Collective and Our House.
We’ll discuss building a Disabled People’s Charter shaped by lived experience, collective discussion and practical ideas for change. If you’re disabled, working in disability inclusion, interested in policy and systems change, or simply want to contribute to a better future, we’d love you to join us.
Reimagining a society and democracy that works for disabled people.
Our House is proud to partner with the Purple Collective to host this one-hour online workshop bringing disabled people together to help shape a new Disabled People’s Charter.
This session is about more than individual policies or political parties. It’s about asking a bigger question:
What would society look like if disabled people were genuinely heard, valued, and included in decisions that affect our lives?
Together, we’ll explore the changes disabled people want to see across areas such as:
Transport Housing Healthcare Employment Education Social care Participation in public life
The ideas and outcomes from this session will help feed into Our House’s wider People’s Charter initiative, which seeks to build a fairer and more inclusive future for everyone.
Who Is This For? Any disabled person who wants to see their voice at the heart of power and their experiences and ideas used to help shape a better future. You do not need any political experience or expertise to participate. Just your lived experience, ideas, and willingness to contribute.
Too often, disabled people are consulted after decisions have already been made. This session is an opportunity to come together earlier, share experiences openly, and help shape a collective vision for what disabled people need from society and from those in power. Bringing together Our House’s expertise in people-powered democratic methodology and Purple Collective’s dedication to authentic disability representation and inclusion, we will draft a Disabled People’s Charter.
You’ll be invited to decide the next steps and build on what we cover in the session. So, if you’re passionate about disabled people’s rights, disability justice, or just want a better political system, come along and help shape the beginning of the Purple Chartist movement!
We hope this will be the beginning of an ongoing conversation that grows into a community focused on building lasting change together.
Under the Equality Act 2010, customer service providers must treat all individuals equally and fairly, avoiding discrimination, harassment, and victimisation based on protected characteristics.
Protected Characteristics The Equality Act identifies nine protected characteristics that cannot be used as a basis for unfair treatment in services:
Age
Disability
Gender reassignment
Marriage and civil partnership
Pregnancy and maternity
Race
Religion or belief
Sex, and sexual orientation
Service providers must ensure that customers are not discriminated against due to these characteristics, either directly or indirectly.
Types of Discrimination in Customer Service Direct discrimination: Treating someone less favourably specifically because of a protected characteristic. Examples include refusing to serve a person due to their ethnicity or sexual orientation. Indirect discrimination: Applying a neutral rule or policy that disproportionately disadvantages people with a protected characteristic, unless the rule can be objectively justified. For example, a “no head coverings” policy may indirectly discriminate against customers who wear religious attire. Harassment: Any unwanted conduct related to a protected characteristic that violates dignity or creates a hostile, degrading, or offensive environment.
Victimisation: Unfair treatment of someone because they made a complaint about discrimination or supported another person’s complaint.
Reasonable Adjustments for Accessibility Service providers have a duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled customers to ensure they can access services equally. This includes measures such as ramps, alternative formats for written information (Braille or large font), assistive technology, and staff training to accommodate different needs. The duty is proactive; providers must anticipate barriers and not wait for requests to be made.
Practical Implementation in Customer Service Inclusive culture: Train staff to respect diversity, listen actively, and respond sensitively to customer needs. Policy development: Implement equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) policies that guide recruitment, service delivery, and day-to-day operations. Communication: Use inclusive language, provide alternative communication methods for customers with language barriers, and accommodate cultural or religious practices. Positive engagement: Regularly review services to identify potential barriers and improve inclusiveness, potentially conducting Equality Impact Assessments for public or large-scale service projects.
Legal Scope and Exceptions While the Act prohibits unjust discrimination, some exceptions exist, including age-based concessions, health and safety requirements, financial services risk assessments, and single-sex or regulated services where necessary. Any differential treatment must be objectively justified or in line with permitted exceptions.
Benefits of Compliance Complying with the Equality Act enhances the organisation’s reputation, fosters customer loyalty, and demonstrates respect for diverse customer needs. Inclusive practices also attract top talent and ensure fair, equitable service delivery. In summary, customer service under the Equality Act 2010 requires fairness, respect, and proactive accommodation of diversity, encompassing all nine protected characteristics, preventing discrimination, harassment, or victimisation, and ensuring accessibility for disabled individuals.
I am writing this report about crowdfunding campaigning in the UK, as part of my research for the Purple Vote Campaign, in conjunction with the Legacy International Group.
Before carrying out my research for this report, I was of the assumption that crowdfunding campaigns were only politically driven. However, to my surprise I am wrong.
What is crowdfunding? Crowdfunding is a different way to raise money for good ideas. People are increasingly bypassing more traditional funding routes such as bank loans or grants and turning instead to the people around them and in their community to support their venture. It’s been around for centuries but the internet makes it possible to reach much bigger audiences than before.
There are various types of crowdfunding campaigns such as:
donation-based crowdfunding
Reward-based crowdfunding
Debt crowdfunding
Equity crowdfunding
DISABILITY CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGNS IN THE UK
Crowdfunding Campaigns are quite popular in the UK.
SUCCESSFUL CAMPAIGNS
According to my research, there have been some successful disability related crowdfunding campaigns within the UK.
For example, Access Enable 1st Start Up is one disability related crowdfunding campaign, that was created to break down the social barriers disabled people face in everyday life by educating businesses about Disability, Access, and Inclusion. On 27th February 2018 they successfully raised £125 with 6 supporters in 56 days.
Another campaign is Brainhead which was launched in 2013. BrainHead is an app developed by the Autism Diagnostic Research Centre which was successful because it ultimately led to £10,000 being raised through Crowdcube, (a crowdfunding platform) in addition to the project’s £150K grant.
Disabled People Against Cuts in London also held a ‘Rights not Charity’ crowdfunding campaign. On 25th November 2019 they successfully raised £1,929 with 53 supporters in 28 days.
Ability Today had a ‘Turning Disability into Ability’ campaign which was successful because they raised £6,700 on November 13th, 2019 with 160 supporters in 69 days.
Alan Barnes Fund was successful, because they topped £300K in four days. The original target of the Alan Barnes Fund was £500. The Alan Barnes Fund was a personal appeal for health and medical reasons.
On the other hand, there have also been unsuccessful disability related crowdfunding campaigns within the UK.
For example, Support disabled people in society. Their goal is to make websites accessible for everyone. Their vision is to support disabled people in society. Unfortunately, this project was not successful. https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/make-websites-accessible-for-everyone
AME Communicate offers three app-based products for people who are visually impaired, hearing-impaired, and non-native English speakers. They comprise AME Sight (an all-in-one screen magnifier, reader, and character recognition app), AME Translate (which enables users to communicate in other languages via pre-loaded phrases and words) and AME BSL (a British Sign Language interpreter and translator). This campaign was unsuccessful.
Why?
“Crowdfunding didn’t allow us to fully represent our goals and show the products off to their best advantage,”
Teleford admits.
Grippoz, an innovative wheelchair push-rim cover, crowdfunding made the prospect of developing and mass-producing the product feasible, but it failed, unfortunately, because the Grippoz Kickstarter campaign was only able to raise £5195 of the team’s £22,500 goal.
The Peers Connection Group was an unsuccessful disability crowdfunding campaign.
Disability Snowsport UK was also an unsuccessful disability crowdfunding campaign.
Additional reasons why crowdfunding campaigns are unsuccessful
Another reason why crowdfunding campaigns fail is due to the lack of momentum within the first 48 hours of launching. It is crucial that you reach a third of your target within 48 hours of launching. If you do not achieve that, studies have shown that campaigns are not likely to succeed.
People with disabilities should not need to crowdfund in order to afford basic independence.
However, I suppose crowdfunding campaigns are a good alternative to charity in the face of austerity. Crowdfunding campaigns for a disability focussed political campaign sounds very effective.
For example, Cambridge Green Party raised £300 from 10 supporters. Unfortunately, campaigning also requires money for leaflets, letters, posters, ads and more. https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/VirgilGreen
Additionally, Wales People’s Assembly against austerity, is another crowdfunding campaign that was successful. This was an anti-austerity campaign involved in organising events to protest, protect and fight austerity which negatively affects the most vulnerable. On 25th June 2015 they successfully raised £10 with 1 supporter in 28 days.
Based on my findings, there is seemingly more successful disability focussed crowdfunding campaigns in the UK than there were unsuccessful disability focussed crowdfunding campaigns.
As a result, I conclude that crowdfunding campaigns are the best and most effective way to make money, especially for a disability focussed political campaign. It will also be the most modern and effective way to build momentum and raise awareness for disability advocacy and political causes.
Over the years, classifying and defining disability has become quite tedious. There are various examples to describe disability.
Disability is seen as a ‘social construct.’ It is the idea that society and its’ institutions have the authority to construct disability around social expectations. In medieval times, disability was constructed around a person’s moral behaviour.
Disability is defined as a physical or mental condition that limits a person’s movements, senses, or activities. According to an article I read from meriahnichols.com, ‘dis’ is another way of doing and being. The term disability is an ability to do or be in another way. The term disabled is an ability to do or be something, in another way-https://www.meriahnichols.com/3-reasons-say-disability-instead-special-needs/.
Even though, I’ve only identified three models of disability, according to research there seems to be loads more.
Models of Disability are tools for defining impairment and for providing a basis upon which government and society can devise strategies for meeting the needs of disabled people.
Medical Model of Disability
The medical model describes disability as a consequence of a health condition, disease or caused by a trauma that can disrupt the functioning of a person in a physiological or cognitive way.
This model is a conceptualization of disability as a condition a person has and focuses on the prevention, treatment or curing of the disabling condition.
Functional Model of Disability
This model is similar to the medical model because it conceptualizes disability as an impairment or deficit. Disability is caused by physical, medical or cognitive deficits. The disability itself limits a person’s functioning or the ability to perform functional activities.
Social Model of Disability
The Social Model of Disability includes people’s views, opinions and attitudes. It has been the prominent approach to disability over the last 30+ years.
It was developed by disabled people based on real life experience of discrimination, inclusion and challenging disabling barriers. It is outward looking and focused on the things in society that can be changed or improved, like, the environment, information, communications and people’s attitudes.
It’s a problem solving approach which gives disabled people greater control over vital, even basic decisions, like, from what time to get out of bed on a morning to employability and education choices.
This approach enables you to better understand how reasonable adjustments can be implemented. It also focuses on the things you can influence or change and promotes valued skills.
In conclusion, the purpose behind the models of disability is to highlight the political struggle of disability. It analyzes the ‘problem of disability.’ It also affects policy making, so that we can make positive change in our society for people with disabilities.
Since laws are already created to discriminate against disabled people by default, we need to make sure that the Social Model of Disability is pushed to ensure equality.
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