Over 30 people attended the event held on 13 February at the Plexal in Stratford. NSUN and partners, CHANGE, Shaping Our Lives, Disability Rights UK and NDTi, have facilitated a number of workshops and events over the last month looking at the barriers and potential solutions around employment for disabled people.
This is part of the Health and Wellbeing Alliance work. There were many important experiences and ideas shared on the day, but one of the most poignant was the paradox of disabled people over decades campaigning for the right to work, for meaningful employment and for equal rights, and now are being told you can work, you must work. People felt that ‘disabled people’ are now perceived as campaigning for the right ‘not to work’.
There was a call for organisations and people in positions to send out a strong message that disabled people do want to work but need the right support to do so, they’re not campaigning for the right to not work. One participant said that ‘Charities that are campaigning for us as well as with us have a duty to say it’s because the system is so stacked against us, it needs a wider alliance to push for change to make sure the right perception is there and address the wider public’.