• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • About DNS
  • Subscribe to DNS
  • Advertise with DNS
  • Support DNS
  • Contact DNS

Disability News Service

the country's only news agency specialising in disability issues

  • Home
  • Independent Living
    • Arts, Culture and Sport
    • Crime
    • Education
    • Employment
    • Housing
    • Transport
  • Activism & Campaigning
  • Benefits & Poverty
  • Politics
  • Human Rights
You are here: Home / News Archive / Cathedral service gives thanks for ground-breaking disability act

Cathedral service gives thanks for ground-breaking disability act

By guest on 1st November 2009 Category: News Archive

Listen

Hundreds of people have attended a service at Manchester Cathedral held to mark the 40th anniversary of the introduction of a “ground-breaking” piece of disability legislation.

The service was held on 6 November, nearly 40 years after the House of Commons first debated the bill which was to become the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act.

The act was introduced as a private members’ bill by the Labour MP Alf Morris (now Lord Morris of Manchester), whose idea it was to mark the anniversary with a service.

Music for the national service of thanksgiving was provided by Manchester’s renowned Halle Orchestra.

Lord Morris read from the speech he made to introduce the bill to the Commons, while Baroness Masham, president of the Spinal Injuries Association, who made her maiden speech in the Lords on the bill, read a lesson.

A number of disability charities were represented, including the British Dyslexia Association, the Disabled Living Foundation, Guide Dogs for the Blind, RNIB, RNID, Skill, the National Autistic Society, Sense and Scope.

The disabled peer Lord [Colin] Low, who is president of both the disabled students’ charity Skill and the European Blind Union, spoke about the act during the service.

Lord Low said afterwards that he told the congregation the act had been “ground-breaking” and was “a base on which a lot of provision for disabled people had been built”, although further campaigning work was later needed because of the bill’s “little bit less than mandatory” language.

He said the National Federation of the Blind had “made particular use” of a section which encouraged local authorities to co-opt disabled people onto their committees.

Another important section of the act created a duty on councils to provide a range of services for disabled people, he said.

Lord Low said the service had been “uplifting”.

He added: “It was a most important piece of legislation and certainly worth celebrating. It was a heart-warming occasion.”

Canon Gilly Myers, precentor of the cathedral, who organised and conducted the service, said Lord Morris has been “a tireless and tenacious champion of disabled people” and his act had “changed lives and lifestyles”.

Introducing his bill in the Commons in 1969, Alf Morris, then MP for Wythenshawe in Manchester, had told fellow MPs: “What most disabled people want more than anything else is to lessen their dependence on other people, to get on with living their own lives as normally as they can in their own homes amongst their own family, and, wherever possible, to have the opportunity of contributing to industry and society as fully as their abilities allow.”

10 November 2009

Share this post:

Share on X (Twitter)Share on FacebookShare on WhatsAppShare on RedditShare on LinkedIn
A photograph shows an audience raising their hands in a BSL sign. The words say: 'BSL Conference 2025. The future starts with us. Leeds 17-18 July. Be part of shaping the future of Deaf cultures and identities. Get 10% off with BDA10'

Related

‘Muddled’ blue badge reforms ‘are to blame for renewal delays’
6th February 2015
UN debate will be reminder of true inclusive education
6th February 2015
IDS breaks pledge on PIP waiting-times, as tens of thousands still queue for months
30th January 2015

Primary Sidebar

On the left of the image are multiple heads of different colours - white, aqua, red, light brown, and dark green - all grouped together, then the words ‘Campaign for Disability Justice. Sign up to support. #OpportunitySecurityRespect’
A photograph shows an audience raising their hands in a BSL sign. The words say: 'BSL Conference 2025. The future starts with us. Leeds 17-18 July. Be part of shaping the future of Deaf cultures and identities. Get 10% off with BDA10'

Access

Latest Stories

Government ignores warnings of new DWP deaths, and UN intervention, as MPs pass universal credit cuts bill

Urgent letter from UN to Labour government warns: We think your cuts continue Tory attack on disability rights

Race against time to secure DWP deaths evidence before parliament passes new benefit cuts bill

‘Complete shift in thinking’ needed on education of disabled children, says ALLFIE

Minister ignored concerns from disabled advisers, months before publishing cuts bill

Frustration after government only issues partial ban on new floating bus stops

Report suggests five big ideas that could transform disabled people’s mobility

My new book shows exactly why we need the disability movement, says disabled author

‘Disastrous’ cuts bill that leaves legacy of distrust and distress ‘must be dropped’

Four disabled Labour MPs stand up to government over cuts to disability benefits

Advice and Information

Readspeaker
A photograph shows an audience raising their hands in a BSL sign. The words say: 'BSL Conference 2025. The future starts with us. Leeds 17-18 July. Be part of shaping the future of Deaf cultures and identities. Get 10% off with BDA10'

Footer

The International Standard Serial Number for Disability News Service is: ISSN 2398-8924

  • Accessibility Statement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Site map
  • Bluesky
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Threads
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2025 Disability News Service

Site development by A Bright Clear Web