Disability Activism 101

The millionaire wreckers now in government are determined to continue with the wholesale destruction of our National Health Service and welfare state, both of which most disabled people rely on.

The NHS and the welfare state were fought for through generations of poverty and misery by working class people. Likewise, disability rights were fought for and won due to the strength of those disabled people who would not accept less than their human rights. Everything worked for is being destroyed in the biggest onslaught on social justice in our lifetimes.

As with most things disabled people do in life, disability activism requires detailed thought and planning. To be as fully inclusive as possible we have to take into account the diverse requirements a range of impairments requires.

Sometimes these can compete. For example, while we might want to make a lot of noise to help draw attention to our presence, for many people with neuro-diverse conditions (autism, Asperger’s syndrome), loud noise would mean they couldn’t take part in the action.

Providing BSL (British Sign Language) interpreters is expensive and often difficult as they don’t want to be involved in direct actions, yet without this it is difficult to be fully inclusive to deaf activists.

We also have to provide supporters to guide and help anyone with a visual impairment, so that they can take part safely and know what is going on around them. Using social media to organise things which we don’t mind the police knowing about is really helpful but most of those with visual impairments cannot access Facebook and Twitter, so we need alternative means to communicate with them.

Anyone who needs a PA (personal assistant) to come with them needs 4 weeks notice to ensure they have enough time to arrange this plus travel. Taking your PA on a direct action is also technically illegal, as you are only supposed to use your Individual Budget (money from social services to pay for care and support) for legal activities. Fortunately we’ve never had any problems with this.

So having taken into account how you can meet everyone’s needs, you then have to start to plan where you can hold your direct action, and choose somewhere that is not only accessible but can be easily reached by public transport. It’s also important to know where things like accessible toilets are and so on.

Ideally we hope that our actions will be fun and enjoyable, even though we seem to do most things in the pouring rain! Actions are certainly somewhere people can meet up with friends from different parts of the country whom they may not otherwise see. This is important to help us build solidarity as a group of people facing similar attacks against our rights.

For people who might otherwise have little control over their lives, direct actions are enormously empowering. They are a crucial part of giving people the confidence to fight back and to win.

Occupying buildings or blocking major roads and causing chaos in central London is, of course, designed to raise awareness of the way we are being treated as disabled people, and to make sure the public, politicians and everyone else know we won’t sit back and accept the attacks we face. Direct action demonstrates the power disabled people have when they mobilise and take action together. We have never backed down as a movement – and we don’t intend to start now. We said after the Regent Street action that we would continue to create spaces for disabled people to come and have their voices heard, and we will.

We welcome our many non-disabled allies, whose support is often crucial in helping disabled activists, and we hope to take part in many more actions together until we achieve the changes to society that we seek.

By Disabled People Against Cuts who also tweet from @Dis_PPL_Protest