Even just trying to get a bus or relax in a local green space can be impossible. Being constantly constrained by external barriers is exhausting.
Unsuitable housing
The levelling up committee published the disabled people in the housing sector report that highlighted that a wheelchair user joining a local authority waiting list may have to wait up to 47 years for a new build wheelchair-accessible home, and that 1 in 5 disabled people in social housing live in unsuitable accommodation.
Living in an inaccessible home can mean people can’t go out, can’t wash, or can’t prepare their own food; it’s undignified and prevents independent living. Urgent steps need to be taken to increase accessible housing.
Assisted dying bill
Labour MP Kim Leadbeater introduced a private members bill to legalise assisted suicide in England and Wales, a bill opposed by many disabled people who know, through bitter experience, that we cannot rely on the state or the health service to fight for our right to live – just ask people with learning disabilities who had Do Not Resuscitate orders added to their medical notes en masse during Covid.
In countries where assisted suicide is legal, even if it starts out for terminally-ill people only, it can quickly expand and end up with a situation where people are being approved to die because of eating disorders, depression, or a lack of suitable housing. Leadbeater’s bill passed its second reading and disabled activists are rallying to oppose the next stage.
The ‘meh-lights’ for disabled people in 2024
The election
I think I can speak for most people when I say that any quickening of the pulse that happened when the General Election exit polls were announced was purely at the prospect of the Conservatives no longer being in charge. My own, brief sense of joy was 99.7% schadenfreude.
The truth is that there was little hope that Starmer’s Labour government would actually make anything better. We could only will them to be less awful than the Tories, who the UN had accused of “grave” and “systemic” violations of the rights of disabled people.
Unfortunately, Labour have so far been profoundly disappointing, with ministers launching straight into blaming disabled people and people on benefits for pretty much everything that’s wrong with the country’s finances.
The highlights for disabled people in 2024
Disabled People’s Manifesto
Ahead of the election, the Disabled People’s Manifesto was a breath of fresh air at a time when political parties were falling over themselves to either demonise us or placate us with false promises.
As a guide to what disabled people actually want and need, it’s a decent place to start.
John Pring’s The Department
Few books are as meticulously researched as The Department by John Pring, which documented how, since the John Major government, the DWP has devolved to the punitive institution it is now. Through sensitive storytelling and precise documentation, Pring lays out the role of the DWP in the deaths of numerous disabled people.
The Department is a harrowing read, but absolutely vital for anybody who cares about improving the landscape for disabled people.
Disabled people’s climate campaigns
Because disabled people might object to car-free spaces, many people believe we are somehow pro-climate change (rather than simply tired of seeing the space we can exist in shrinking by the day).
So it’s been heartening to see disabled people joining Friends of the Earth in a judicial review challenging the government for inaction on the climate.
Inclusion on TV shows
Ross on Married at First Sight UK, Patsy on Love Island and Mollie on The Traitors have all been part of increasing disability representation on TV this year. Having long enjoyed Chris McCausland’s comedy, I was thrilled to see that he won Strictly Come Dancing this year. I love the increased visibility and the creative thinking that must have been involved in his participation.
It’s been quite the year for disabled people. And I know better than to place any hopes or expectations on 2025, so will just end with a plea: may it not be worse.
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