Ministers and commissioners are both important for ensuring fairness in human rights. They also reinforce diversity. They are appointed by the Queen. The UK has both.
However, the difference between a minister and a commissioner, is that a minister is a person who is commissioned by the government for public service, while a commissioner is a member of a committee.
Disability Minister
Responsibilities
The minister’s responsibilities include:
responsibility for the departmental strategy on disability and disability employment
cross-government responsibility for disabled people
Employment and Support Allowance
Personal Independence Payment
Disability Living Allowance and elements of Universal Credit that relate to disabled people, including severe disability premium
work and health strategy including sponsorship of the joint Department for Work and Pensions and Department for Health and Social Care Work and Health Unit
disability benefit reform
devolution framework
Carer’s Allowance
future relations with the EU
Motability
arms-length compensation schemes
Disability Commissioner
Responsibilities The Commissioner conducts visits to help raise the standards of human rights protection in all Council of Europe member states, in accordance with his mandate.
Visits aim at pursuing a direct dialogue with the authorities and looking into one or several specific issues. The Commissioner is currently carrying out more targeted country visits focused on specific topics. A report may be published, containing conclusions and relevant recommendations to help redress shortcomings. Some of these reports may also relate to crisis situations and human rights in conflict areas.
Based on my research, I think it is more effective and beneficial to have a Disability Minister to help advocate for disability rights because their role is multifaceted and unrestricted. They have more legislative privileges.
Welsh Parliament There are 60 Members of the Senedd (MSs) of the Welsh Parliament. To vote in the Welsh Parliament elections you must:
• be registered to vote • be 16 or over on the day of the election (‘polling day’) • live in Wales • not be legally excluded from voting
MSs are elected using the Additional Member system. You vote once for your constituency MS and once for an MS to represent the wider region.
Wales is in the west of Great Britain and is part of the UK. It has a population of 3 million. The capital city of Wales is Cardiff. People in Wales speak English and many people also speak Welsh which is quite different and older than English. Street signs in Wales are written in both languages. Wales has been politically linked with England since 1542. Wales was an independent country until it was defeated by the English army. Wales has some independence in making its own laws, but it is still very much part of the UK political system.
An estimated 20% of the population are disabled, but only 1.5% of councillors are known to have a disability.
About 600,000 people in Wales have a disability, but very few councils hold data on how many councillors are disabled.
BBC research showed of the 1,254 councillors elected in May, just 19 are known by local authorities to be living with an impairment or long-term health condition.
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.
The Legacy International Group has launched The Purple Vote Campaign. This group was started by Sara Flay and Leighton Morris who lead a team of 15 people with various disabilities.
The Purple Vote Campaign was launched in February. This campaign was created to raise awareness about what concerns disabled people and how they can represent their constituents and to ensure that the disabled community have a voice in the democratic process which includes encouraging disabled people to vote in public committees and groups as well as communicating with their local assembly members and MPs. Purple is the colour of disability.
Elections are being held next year. This should see more disabled people in Parliament. This campaign endorses more inclusion in Politics. Welsh Government and Parliament want to champion disability inclusion. It’s about making politics accessible and influencing policy.
They also encourage people to pursue Access to Work. Hopefully this will expand to local and central government positions.
I like and approve of this initiative because it will cause society to reimagine law enforcement and legislation. This will also test how well MPs understand disability. For more information log on to http://www.legacyig.org.
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