The last three years have probably been the most threatening for disabled people and their families. After 15 years of sustained progress from the Conservative government’s Disability Discrimination Act in 1995 to the groundbreaking Making Rights a Reality for Disabled People in 2005; to the signing of the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities in 2007; to the Equality Act of 2010, there was an air of optimism, that disabled people were at long last being seen as having rights in modern Britain.

Alongside this came the recognition that disabled people had responsibilities too including participation in the workplace with support and ‘reasonable adjustments’, where needed, while at the same time recognising that work might not be an option for some disabled people who would then be entitled to receive support.

Within months of May 2010, that optimism was turned into anguish and anger as disabled people became the butt of headlines categorising them as scroungers. Analysis showed that the word ‘disability’ and ‘scrounger’ almost became interchangeable in the eyes of the general public.  To what end? To justify the coalition government’s radical welfare changes.  Fear replaced optimism; parents with disabled children became worried about their future.  People recovering from serious illnesses were told they were fit for work. Disabled people were referred to a work programme that could not deliver for them. Disabled people were being medicalised again and being categorised according to the ‘severity’ of their disability.

It was against this backdrop that Liam Byrne and I set out to have conversations with disabled people and their families across the country.  In pursuing our Making Rights a Reality for Disabled People discussions, we felt that in re-establishing rights, we had a better chance of getting policy right.

So the ‘right to work’ cannot be fulfilled if there is no accessible transport to get you to your job. The ‘right to a family life’ cannot be sustained from an already-stretched income if you cannot find extra money for an essential ‘spare room’. Or the ‘right to live without fear’ cannot be realised unless we take disability hate crime seriously.

It would have been all too easy to concentrate our conversations on the anger against the coalition government’s welfare changes, although it was never far away. People are rightly worried, and there is real distress about the changes. But we also wanted to listen to disabled people’s own experience of what their priorities would be to make their rights a reality. So we heard from young disabled people who wanted a career rather than job; how we should tackle negative images; how you give confidence to parents who want a secure and safe future for their children as adults; about flexible approaches to in-work support; how we take steps to ensure a fair benefits system; and how rights for carers should be recognised. These are the some of the challenges which Labour will have to rise to.

The distillation of these conversations, and the deliberations of the task force on tackling disability poverty, convened by Bert Massie, previously chair of the Disability Rights Commission, will now be taken forward by my colleagues Rachel Reeves MP, shadow secretary of state for work and pensions, and Kate Green MP, shadow minister for disabled people, as we move forward to May 2015. They will bring their own experiences and skills to the discussions and, in doing so, I know they will help re-establish the optimism that has been so lacking in the lives of disabled people over these past few years.

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Anne McGuire is the member of parliament for Stirling

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