Excellence in Diversity Awards

Tag: Disability

  • NDA 2014 – Voices Where Heard

    Olley Edwards copyTo be shortlisted for the 2014 National Diversity Awards is a spectacular honour. I really did not let myself think for one second that I would be shortlisted down to last 5 in Disability role model from 21k nominations, I recall finding out via social media and friends saying well done, but it was the first I knew about it. I obviously check my notifications more often than my emails as sure enough when I checked emails I had the one I thought would never arrive, that I had been shortlisted. I rang my mother and jumped around rather like a salamander on hot coals for about an hour.

    Winning the award itself did not occur, and I am sure I speak on behalf of all the shortlisted nominees , taking home the NDA itself was a secondary thought, the actual gift and award we all felt that evening, and still now is that the awareness of the cause we have been working tirelessly to promote and the people who we are trying so utterly hard to give a voice to, was ,heard. That for me was the real award.

    I still work to raise awareness of females on the Autistic spectrum and to enable them to be recognised , supported and safeguarded. I have a new film in post production to be finished early 2015 that follows my own, late,adult diagnosis of Aspergers Syndrome.

    Autism women Matter advocacy group were invited  to the United Nations were I gave a speech about Autistic girls and women and we have also just returned from Marrakesh World human rights forum just a few weeks ago .

    I am now one of the panel members on the advisory board of Cambridge universitys autism and motherhood research.

    Id like to thank the NDAs for all they do for all change and diversity in the UK, so proud to have been a small part of it.

  • Shabang! ….Live Love Laugh Learn

    Shabang ThumbnailShabang! is all about raising awareness, promoting inclusion and acceptance, and celebrating difference.

    To this end we build networks of families with children with additional needs, bringing them together under the supportive umbrella of our arts  based projects – life enhancing and confidence building; and hopefully giving everyone a great time.

    As winners of the National Diversity Award Community Organisation for Disability it looks like we are making progress, in our Shabang! bubble at least!

    However, at the heart of what we get up to at Shabang!, it can feel like being in a strong magnetic field with forces pulling one way and then another.

    Whilst we celebrate difference, enjoying our little square pegs, trumpeting their unique qualities and giving space to our children to be themselves, we are also wishing the world would see them as just kids. See the child before you see their difference, lose the label, don’t judge a book by its cover, all men are equal etc.

    National Diversity AwardsLet’s look at the family model. When a baby is born with Down Syndrome for example, the family  will go through a phase of re adjustment  i.e. “this wasn’t the baby we were expecting but let’s get on with it”. A phase which can vary from a few fleeting moments to weeks, months or years.

    Nevertheless in most cases, acceptance eventually comes with love. The family love the child, see them as their own person and the extra chromosome no longer dominates how the child is included in the family.

    In Shabang world we aim for the same sort of acceptance – where all families value each other’s children equally. We would like to think that we have created a place where acceptance and love is the key to everything. The real trick however, is how we roll out this model into the wider world. 

    So how then do we help the world to love, celebrate, include and genuinely accept those with difference?

    Equality laws go a long way but changing hearts is the real trick.

    To be honest, we think people with an intellectual disability are too often regarded as somehow “less important”. They are seen as not having as much to give to society. There is an implication that people who are cognitively different are emotionally different too. That they don’t count in the same way. Could it be, we think that somehow they carry a lower price tag or are of less worth and consequently less human than the rest?

    Are you less of a human being because your brain works differently, or slower than your typically developing peers? In the end it has to come down to a belief system wherein we are all regarded as equal. We all have an equal right to be here.

    Let’s not forget that 90% of pregnancies in Europe with a diagnosis of Down’s Syndrome are terminated. We have a huge fear factor to work some magic on here too.

    So back to our magnetic field. How do we achieve this? Well at Shabang! we chisel away at the edges. Apart from helping families of children with additional needs feel proud, confident and proactive we also look for other ways to wave our flag at the world.

    We create beautiful calendars with models with additional needs – in the hope that the more walls they hang from, the more our children will be seen as “everyday”. 

    We post short films on YouTube promoting understanding so that the most common myths are challenged.

    National Diversity AwardsWe make children’s DVDs starring actors with additional needs – in the hope that the more exposure our children have in the media the more familiar they become. How we long for TV and film to embrace intellectual disability in the same way, then we really would be getting somewhere n.b. A Shabang! series on CBBC would be great, yes please!

    Once we reduce the fear, achieve familiarity and improve acceptance then we must work on inclusion, integration and equality. Equality doesn’t just mean “same”. Equality involves accepting, celebrating and embracing our differences.

    At Shabang! we say “Live, Love, Laugh, Learn” 

    We know we are only just starting to scratch the surface , but believe us – we will keep scratching! 

    If you would like to find out more or buy a Shabang calendar follow this link:

    https://www.shabang.org.uk/product.php?id=63

  • MY WORTH AS A DISABLED PERSON

    Chelsey Jay I am sad that this is the blog post I am writing on return from my holiday, but I guess, ignorance never has a desired time to rear its ugly head.

    This blog post is a little different. It is for you to read, but the weight of its content is not for your shoulders to bare.

    It is for you Lord Freud.

    To Lord David Freud.

    I always pride myself on the fact that, even though disability came into my life, uninvited and out of the blue, I have still remained the same person as I always was previous.

    Hard working, ambitious and with good morales.

    I was training to be a nurse before this.

    Before that I worked in a Accounts Office.

    Before that I worked in a Restaurant.

    Before that, a paper round.

    And what do I do now?

    I fight people like you.

    The small minded.

    The ignorant. 

    I feel so rude addressing someone whom I’ve never met with such vulgar adjectives – but then you have just addressed over 10 million people you’ve never met with your very own vulgarity, so, I guess, you’ve kind of out done me there sir?

    As one of those 10 million. I have to ask…

    What right do you have, to put a value on me?

    Is this value based on my intellect or achievements?

    No it is not is it Lord Freud? 

    Its based on your positively illiterate and shameful view, that disabled people, are not worth the same as able bodied people in the workplace.

    Which leads me to assume, that you are so full of your own self importance, that you can so carelessly share such a bigoted and inaccurate opinion in such a nonchalant manner, without even a second thought to how idiotic and vile you sound?

    “The Ego is not master in its own house. ”   – Sigmund Freud

    I believe that it was your Great Grandfather that made that quote was it not sir?

    How bittersweet and true.

    The PM has demanded you apologise for what you have said.

    But I argue you shouldn’t.

    A sorry means nothing if the person saying it has been directed to, not by their own culpability or guiltiness, but by other peoples.

    What do I think you should do? (I know right, advice from a £2 an hour disabled person?!)

    RESIGN.

    Resign on the basis that you do not feel you are worthy of your title, your position in Government, in society.

    That you are going to educate yourself in the real life of people with disabilities – given that you clearly are clueless and ill-informed.

    Then, and only then, dish out an apology.

    One thats heartfelt, thats nurtured, that has grown.

    Not one that your flustered party has forced you to muster up.

    Chelsey Jay