2013 has been great year for me and I believe most years have pushed me forward in my life in one way or another. If this year was going to be defined in terms of having a theme, a goal that has been achieved, it would the fact that I had got myself a voice in terms of being a blogger for the Huffington Post, which was something that happened through a series of coincidences. If I had not had politely raised my concerns about the way Mik Scarlet has misrepresented what I had said in one of his articles, asking for a right to reply, I would not got the wonderful and important opportunity to ensure my opinion, so different to my peers in the work shy movement, would be heard.

 

Before this, I was frustrated at the many negative articles being lapped up in the Guardian and other anti-disabled pro-welfarism media by some of my peers, but now I can redress the balance and ensure a silent majority of disabled people are heard. I admit the reaction I received was a shocked but I quickly got used to being regarded by some, especially those in that work shy and anti-government communities, as the most hated disabled person in the UK!

 

With 30 articles so far and plenty more to come, having a voice will prepare me for the next step of changing the world for the better and ensuring real disabled people can be regarded as citizens able to make meaningful contributions to society, not objects of plenty, I just hope the theme for 2014 involves making an awful lot of money!

 

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  

 

It has always been hard to explain exactly what I do because it is so wide and varied, and often unique. I never get work from an interview or the traditional methods but often because I am the right person at the right place and time who is uniquely qualified to do whatever the activity entailed. While I want paid work, sometimes I have to do unpaid work, like the Huff blog, to get paid work. Since there can often be a lot of gaps between paid work, managing my money can sometimes be difficult but I have realised that it is a part of my life as helping others is never going to make me rich.

 

While some people think all I care about is myself, this is simply not is case. I have to look after myself so that I can help others since if I can not pay my own bills, I am not really in a position to help much. If this makes me appear selfish than I do not really care as who said being selfish is a bad thing?! My passion is indeed helping others and I do not need to always shout the loudest to be happy and yes, proud, of those I have helped, often in small ways that not even those I have helped may realise.

 

My passion is indeed helping others to discover who they are and enjoy the life opportunities and experiences available to them, even if they do not realise that themselves. I do not see why anyone should like in misery and that as I have said many times, it is all about attitudes, and if I can help people become positive about their attitude then I am good to what I do. And this is why I attack those who need disabled people to be negative and miserable to feed off them and exploit them for their own agendas. Disabled people should be free, not trapped of their own negative attitude.

 

So this explains a bit about what I do but without meeting me, I am not sure anyone will understand what I hell I do!

 

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  

 

Since writing for the Huffington Post, I had quite a number of trolls make abusive personal comments about myself from people I have never met but who believe they know everything about me from the myths that have been created about me. It has to make me wonder that if they actually met we in person, would they actually dare say any of these insults and lies to my face?

 

My volunteer reckons they would say they would, but he acknowledges that they would probably not have the courage to go through with it, while I know I am very consistent in what I say. I think when they realise how fully significant my impairment is, compared to their scale of what impairment is, they will be too shocked for much else. I think it will be hard for them to look at me without that face of pity and for me to challenge their understanding of disability issues.

 

And I indeed dare anyone to arrange to meet me and I would find it interesting as I sure have a lot of questions for them, which I am sure they will be unable to answer.

 

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 am a big user of Twitter, but clearly not as big as many people, and I am proud of my 3181 followers. When I look at followers, especially people I do not know who comment on my tweets, I have devised a quick scoring system to see how creditable they are, rather than just looking at their followers. 

 

I basically take their number of followers and divide it by the number of tweets they have written by doing some simple estimated maths. Right now, I have roughly a score of just under 1. Someone else may have a lot more followers of me, but has ten times as tweets as followers, and so their score would be 0.1. Someone who is well known may have a lot of followers and very few tweets, giving them a very high score, something I am never lightly to achieve!

 

This scoring system is not perfect but it helps me judge how creditable comments are, especially when they are hurtful. One day, this scoring system may catch on and be included on everyone’s twitter page, as a way of rating people!

 

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  

A lot of people who do not agree with me say I am angry when I am either telling the truth as far as I say it, and I am frustrated. For many people with cerebral palsy, including myself, we find it harder to hide our emotions. The result of cerebral palsy is that we send either too little and too much communication or energy through our nerves to our muscles so that we either don’t move or spasm. When we get frustrated, the amount of energy is increased unconsciously and so we can appear angry.

 

One of the reasons for my frustration is that I see things very clearly and I have a good world view. I have the mental skills to knock the socks of anyone but because my typing is much slower than my thought processes, I am left frustrated at wanting to say so much. Twitter adds further frustration and so I am left with keyboard rage!

 

I am not sure that is ever going to be a solution to this and it is just a matter of understanding it and embracing. It is also about recognising this frustration in my other friends and foes with cerebral palsy, like Matthew Goodsell, and while not tolerating any abuse from them, understanding they own situation and help out when they are willing to be helped. 

 

Frustration could be argued as one of my weaknesses but it is something I have embraced.

 

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  

 

Matthew is someone who also has cerebral palsy and 30ish. In recent weeks he is decided to launch a systematic attack on myself after he had finally discovered my Huffington Post articles, two months after everybody else, because he says I have betrayed his community, which I assume he means the fake disabled who are offended at the notion disabled people can work, and see disabled people as inferior beings who should be paid off to suffer in silence, or be killed by their families.

 

I had to admit for a lazy boy, he has been busy. He has set up a petition to have my articles removed from the Huffington Post, demonstrating his hatred of free speech and therefore human rights. He has also put when intelligence abuse on my wikipedia page, linking it directly to hate speech. This boy has appeared to put his hands up to all the abuse against me and therefore i must assume was involved in the Wow Petition’s attack on my free speech, as well as DNS, in terms of going to the Labour Party conference. I must also assume he knows whoever ‘Edward Lee’ is and supports his weekly threats against me.

 

As the new self-appointment hit-boy of the Wow Petition or any other abusive organisations who wish me to disappear, I should explain his background. Despite having a PhD, he does not work and has never worked. He is not involved in any organisations and never helped anyone but himself. Despite pretending to be a working class socialist, like a lot of part-time disability activists, he is in reality a middle class Tory, who has abnormal fetish for David Cameron. He thinks because he went to university and knows a few big words, he is a world-class commentator on a blog only he himself comments on and this means he can attack me with a degree of arrogance I have never seen before. He has had nothing published and does not understand ‘his community’ in any way.

 

The joke is he tells me I do not understand disability and I should but out. Well, I do not obey stupid boys who know nothing about nothing, especially those who support a community which is demonstrating a hatred for disabled people as inferior beings hidden by their irrational hatred of ATOS. I am trying to improve the situation for disabled people, including those who deal with ATOS, and this boy is trying his hardest, which is not a lot, to make it much worse.  He wishes to have blood on his hands, but it will not be mine. I just hope one day he is forced to pay back the government for his higher education he is clearly refusing to use.

 

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  

 

dibasic 

 

 

I believe that whether someone wishes to work or not is about their attitude to life rather than anything else. And for myself, this means the idea of working and working hard, to achieve what I want in life, has been very natural to me and just a normal part of being an active contributing citizen.

 

I am not sure if this is because I went to a mainstream school from the age of 11 and so I adopted a mainstream approach to life, as well as having an unique one, or that working hard is just a part of who I have always been. In either way, it is just normal for me to make the most of every moment of my life and to take up any opportunity that comes my way with little hesitation. As far as we know, we only live once and I intend the make the most of my life.

 

Because I do this, some people call me lucky but I have only taken up the opportunities available to many people, and often I have faced many additional barriers in comparable to my non-disabled peers. I do not have rich parents and any connections that I have not made myself. I achieved what I have from hard work, no more and no less.

 

I could be just another disability whinger, complaining about all the difficulties in my life, but I do not see where that would get me and I prefer to work hard at what I enjoy to achieve the happiness I deserve.

 

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