DR UK will fight for disabled people’s rights following the Referendum.
After a long night of Referendum results, we understand the depth of feeling about the Referendum, on all sides of the debate. There are hugely different views in different regions of England, different nations of the UK, different communities, different age groups. DR UK has members everywhere from Tyneside to Cornwall, Blackpool to East Anglia (and more) – and we work closely with our sister organisations Disability Wales, Inclusion Scotland and Disability Action Northern Ireland. Many disabled people, on all sides of the debate, are angry that they have been left out of opportunities, left living in poverty – and we want to enable more people to have a bigger voice.
For us as a network of disabled people and our organisations, what is important next is to make sure that:
- Disabled people’s hard won rights are not eroded as the UK negotiates its way out of the European Union. For instance, there are proposals for new European Accessibility legislation covering accessibility of public sector websites and accessibility of a range of products and services. We need to make sure that as the UK de-links itself from EU law this isn’t at the expense of important new rights like that – and not at the expense of existing rights, like the protections in the European Convention on Human Rights, which have helped families to stay together and individuals to improve their care and support. We will press Government to ensure international rights are enshrined in UK law
- We put the full and equal participation of disabled people at the heart of the thinking of the new leadership of the UK. We profoundly believe that if all disabled people can participate fully it benefits everyone. We will press Government to ensure that in a potentially changed economic environment there is a commitment to support and income for independent living, and no further squeeze on funding of the supports that disabled people need
- We stand up to intolerance of difference and ‘othering’ of disabled people whenever and however it occurs
We will be inviting comments from members on specific things we should do together post-Referendum – and there will be an opportunity for debate at our AGM and event Equal Participation for All on 7th November – save the date.