the country's only news agency specialising in disability issues
Serious concerns have emerged over advice being given by Public Health England (PHE) to people with long-term health conditions after the Commons Speaker, who has diabetes, insisted he had been told he can continue to work in the Houses of Parliament. Next […]
The government has been accused of “acting recklessly” by trying to force MPs who are disabled or have long-term health conditions to return to parliament next week, while the country is still in the grip of the pandemic. At least three MPs […]
Disabled politicians – including both government and opposition MPs – have joined campaigners in expressing anger at the actions of the prime minister’s chief adviser, who has refused to apologise for breaking the government’s own coronavirus lockdown rules. They have contrasted the […]
The right-wing thinktank responsible for designing universal credit has launched a new “Disability Commission” that it hopes will influence the government’s planned disability strategy. At least half of the 12 commissioners, who will not be paid for their work, are disabled people, […]
More than 350 disabled people have secured the right to be added to a supermarket’s priority shopping list, in the first success of what is believed to be the biggest legal class action of its kind. Tesco also appears to have agreed […]
A disabled shadow minister has called on the government to show that it has analysed how its strategy for recovering from the coronavirus pandemic will affect disabled people and other minority groups. The government has failed so far to publish an equality […]
Trying to force disabled people into work by threatening to sanction their benefits is ineffective and likely to harm their health, and even put their lives at risk, according to research co-produced with a disabled people’s organisation. The fear instilled by the […]
New research shows that more than four in ten people who have been told to “shield” at home because they are “extremely vulnerable” to COVID-19 have lost at least a fifth of their income since the pandemic crisis began. The research, published […]
Official figures showing how many disabled people are dying due to coronavirus will finally be published next month, Disability News Service (DNS) can reveal. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has told DNS that it recognises the importance of providing the figures […]
The government is facing calls to publish two coroners’ reports that link the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) with the deaths of benefit claimants. New information shows that the missing reports were written by coroners in 2015 and 2016, but neither […]
Accessible transport campaigners in London are continuing to fight for greater clarity around sweeping measure announced by the capital’s mayor as England begins to ease its coronavirus lockdown. Sadiq Khan has announced plans to create what he has called one of the […]
The major supermarkets and the UK government must do more to solve the “food crisis” that is still affecting millions of disabled people months into the coronavirus crisis, MPs have heard from a national disabled people’s organisation. The environment, food and rural […]
A disabled campaigner has secured an “important victory” that has forced a transport company to bring in new measures to protect the rights of wheelchair-users to use buses. Wheelchair-user Nina Grant, from north London, began legal action against Arriva after repeatedly being […]
A new five-year, lottery-funded project is set to bring to life the history of the disabled people’s movement over the last half-century. The user-led disability arts organisation Shape has secured £142,000 from the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) for the development stages […]
New user-led research has highlighted how the coronavirus crisis has entrenched social isolation among many disabled people. More than three-fifths (61 per cent) of the disabled people questioned by disAbility Cornwall & Isles of Scilly (DCIS) said they felt socially isolated, while […]
Two international disability rights groups say governments and health authorities are putting the lives of disabled people at greater risk during the coronavirus pandemic because of their failure to take “concerted action”. International Disability Alliance (IDA) and International Disability and Development Consortium […]
Disabled people have attacked the government’s decision to start lifting the lockdown that has been in place since March, and have warned that some people with long-term health conditions could pay for that move with their lives. The prime minister, Boris Johnson, […]
A second NHS trust in England has refused to provide people with neuromuscular conditions with the replacement ventilator filters that help keep them alive, because they were being reserved for patients with coronavirus. Last week, there was outrage on social media after […]
Significant numbers of disabled people in Scotland have had their care and support packages cut or stopped because of the coronavirus pandemic, new research by a national user-led organisation suggests. Inclusion Scotland said that 30 per cent of those who responded to […]
Disabled and union activists have joined family, friends and politicians in paying tribute to Seán McGovern – a principled, tenacious and influential fighter for disability rights – who died last week. He died suddenly, only a day after the death of his […]
NHS England has agreed to change its policy on hospital visitors so that it no longer discriminates against disabled people, in the face of at least two legal challenges. It was facing the threat of legal action after refusing to update guidance […]