Month: July 2013

I’m discriminated – So what?

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As someone with cerebral palsy from birth, I have been discriminated in countless ways through my life. Because I have a speech impairment, which is still quite a taboo, I am constantly having my intelligent undermined but I never let any of this stop me. I always believed in order to have a good life, things are going to be difficult and working hard is just a part of the course. If there is a barrier in the way of something I want, I remove it anyway I can, it is that simple and I have now learnt to do it with the same expertise, skill and elegance of Hannibal, metaphorically of course.

 

Disability is hard and I really confused to where people have got the idea it is anything else, it is by definition about struggling and I very odd for people to demand the royal treatment just because they believe they are disabled.

 

If you like what I say, have a look at my site at www.simonstevens.com or follow me on twitter, @simonstevens74, or even leave me feedback on +44 (0)121 364 1974 or email simon@simonstevens.com  

 

They treat us like animals

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When I read some of the articles written in newspapers, even those that are supposedly written by disabled people, it is as we are animal as they describe our existence and our supposed need for fairness and compassion. There is firstly not a single group of disabled who all look, feel and think the same as we are all unique individuals. Secondly, I find the way the opposition to welfare reform has allowed so many people use disabled people as merely objects of pity easily available to be voiceless pawns to their political games disgraceful.

 

Disability is about the inclusion of people, it is not a welfare issue for the middle class to discuss at the dinner table in their ivory towers. We are not that comparable to saving the whale or preventing the fur trade, disability is certainly not the clean and tidy article people want it to be as its a messy and sometimes vail issue about people’s emotions, difficulties and hardships.

 

I will not the middle class liberals put disabled people in the neat box, wrap it up and stick a bow on as they stick us next to animal rights as an issue they can take pleasure from with their patronising pity.

 

If you like what I say, have a look at my site at www.simonstevens.com or follow me on twitter, @simonstevens74, or even leave me feedback on +44 (0)121 364 1974 or email simon@simonstevens.com  

 

You are not a charity

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It is clear to me that many charities have grown so big, so powerful and so commercial that in reality they are no difference than commercial enterprises. Many charities no longer provide money to individuals to help them in whatever way but simply ‘third sector’ providers of government services on the cheap and with the endless excuse of “we are a charity”. I find it very worrying that in the name of Big Society, public services are handed to charities on the shy that depends on the portion of staff being so-called volunteers, as a new form in slavery enters this country.

 

I feel we should accept the era of charities as charities is over and require them to convert themselves to proper ‘social’ enterprises who are be honest about how many of donations in spent on staffing costs and doggy research, and how little is spent actually helping the people are claim to represent. And its shameful they claim to be the allies of whoever when they have a vested interests in creating victims so they can get bigger government contracts.

 

The illusion of charities must end and the public should smell the coffee and see how they are being fooled.

 

If you like what I say, have a look at my site at www.simonstevens.com or follow me on twitter, @simonstevens74, or even leave me feedback on +44 (0)121 364 1974 or email simon@simonstevens.com  

 

Negative Labels are for life

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I believe society should be very careful when they impose negative labels upon people, especially disabled people, because the effects for the labels can last for the rest of their life. Declaring someone unfit for work for example can leave people in a mindset where they feel can never work so they never try to work or improve their situation, leaving them unnecessary unemployment for the rest of their life.

 

I also seen and argued that many children are incorrectly labelled with learning difficulties and other conditions, which is not negative in themselves but the way others inappropriately response to the label can have major consequences to their quality of life in their adulthood which no one in interested or worried about when they impose the label. Wrongly used labels can make people live unto that label and so often make it impossible to change.

 

 

If you like what I say, have a look at my site at www.simonstevens.com or follow me on twitter, @simonstevens74, or even leave me feedback on +44 (0)121 364 1974 or email simon@simonstevens.com  

 

Does the car industry encouraging benefit fraud?

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The motability scheme used to be a small scheme that enables disabled people receiving DLA to exchange the mobility component of the benefit for a car on the 3 year lease scheme. Over the years it has grown in public awareness and popularity as the public acceptance of disability has grown. But when you start to hear adverts on the local radio from car dealerships focus on the fact they have motability cars, you must start to wonder what is carrying.

 

While more non-disabled people are unable to afford to run cars, cars remain a status symbol and maybe something people will try and succeed to be disabled for. A recent WeRspartacus report suggested one reason not to tighten the eligibility for PIP was the number of obviously non-disabled jobs that would be lost in the car industry. As the age of the car slowly dies for a number of reason, it could be argued it is artificially kept afloat by the motability scheme and therefore it is in the best interest for the numbers of disabled people claiming benefits to increase rather than fall.

 

We must therefore be careful to see the vested interests the car industry and others to encouraging the growth of disability for their own financial reasons.

 

If you like what I say, have a look at my site at www.simonstevens.com or follow me on twitter, @simonstevens74, or even leave me feedback on +44 (0)121 364 1974 or email simon@simonstevens.com  


The godsend of wetsuit booties

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Now the real summer is upon us, I can think about doing some watersports including maybe surfing in Newquay. Beaches and lakes can be great fun but as something who finds it hard to walk barefoot in anything but carpet or smooth surfaces, moving around can be an uncomfortable experience. This is where I can wetsuit booties a godsend, whether I am also wearing a wetsuit or not. These can be solid full ankle style boots or softer pool shoes, either way they provide comfort within a wet environment.

 

It is often these small pieces of equipment and clothing that can greatly improve with life experiences and opportunities for disabled people. It is be knowing about the small solutions and being willing to give things a try, even when it is not normal to do so, that can make a big difference. An example is I have been wearing a wetsuit shorty in swimming pools, as well as lifejackets, long before it was acceptable and even sometimes fashionable to do so, because it met my own needs.

 

So thank you wetsuit booties and all the other devices that as helped me over the years.

 

If you like what I say, have a look at my site at www.simonstevens.com or follow me on twitter, @simonstevens74, or even leave me feedback on +44 (0)121 364 1974 or email simon@simonstevens.com  

 

Deep down feelings on disability

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Disability is a very complex issue and for many people, its leads to very complex feelings deep down with they themselves may not realise or understand. The normality of disability and therefore the true and meaningful equality of people with impairment, is not universally accepted and our existence is constantly being challenged. It is still regarded as a tragedy to become impaired or to have disabled people, and it is politically and socially impossible to welcome and celebrate disability still despite the claims we are equal.

 

Deep down, when people are confronted with disability they are often confronting their own attitudes to morality and vulnerability which may be positive or negative. Those who have recently acquired an impairment will be going through a process of change with a range of emotions and this is going to affect the way they see other disabled people, which can make them our ally and our enemy and this is shown by the increasing desire for pity by so-called disabled activists.

 

The deep down feelings are hidden and politically we are not comfortable enough as a society to debate them in a mature way, it is indeed going to many years before we get to the bottom of how many people feel.

 

If you like what I say, have a look at my site at www.simonstevens.com or follow me on twitter, @simonstevens74, or even leave me feedback on +44 (0)121 364 1974 or email simon@simonstevens.com  

 

Understanding Hate Crime

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I feel in terms of disability, the concept of hate crime is very misunderstood. While there are instances of hate crime, it is not the widespread epidemic some people would like it to be seen. I feel it is very unfair and incorrect there is a link between the welfare reforms, any imagined scrounger rhetoric and supported hate crime. It has become fashionable to suggest disabled people can not walk down the high street without encountering verbal abuse.

 

When you examine supposed hate crime, it is often linked to general anti-social behaviour where youths or others have picked on the first they see with little regard for the politics of what they can saying, if it was not disability, it may be race or hair colour. Also, because of socially’s general pity of disabled people, their contribution to the troubles is ignored and forgotten, so they get away with provoking others with their chip on their shoulders, dislike for others and/or demand from pity for others. Disabled people can be as spiteful as anyone else and there are of course some disabled people who look for trouble and over react at any sign of hardship, despite that being a product of equality.

 

Hate crime has become a political gimmick people need to understand before simply taking at face value to provoke undue sympathy. 

 

If you like what I say, have a look at my site at www.simonstevens.com or follow me on twitter, @simonstevens74, or even leave me feedback on +44 (0)121 364 1974 or email simon@simonstevens.com  

 

I worry about Free Schools

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From what I understand, Free School, has been set up as social experiments that can provide any education they decision since they do not need to follow the national curriculum or are inspected by OFSTED. The scheme allows parents, charities and companies to have government funding and red carpet treatment to build schools based on what parents want and maybe not what children need.

 

I worry free schools are a back door for a new generation of so-called special schools which not only excludes disabled children but enables professionals and parents to do whatever they want including the latest fashion in treatment which could be seen as torture deemed legal since its medical treatment in the ‘best interests’ of the child.

 

I fear it will be years for my understanding the damage free schools are doing to children and society.

 

If you like what I say, have a look at my site at www.simonstevens.com or follow me on twitter, @simonstevens74, or even leave me feedback on +44 (0)121 364 1974 or email simon@simonstevens.com  

 

We must value everyone

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I fundamentally believe we must value everyone without exception and there is no level of impairment that warrants being too severe to exist although I appreciate some people have naturally very short lives regardless of any medical intervention. If a person can make someone else smile, and I challenge anyone who says that does include everyone, then they have proven their value to the human race.

 

It is very easy to some people to talk about the stresses and strains of being up a disabled child, listing all their problems, but fail the see the value and strengths that individual has brought into the world with human potential which as equal importance to anyone else. We must value everyone and if we fail to get this one right, then we will never achieve a fully inclusive society.

 

If you like what I say, have a look at my site at www.simonstevens.com or follow me on twitter, @simonstevens74, or even leave me feedback on +44 (0)121 364 1974 or email simon@simonstevens.com