• 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 / London 2012: Opening ceremony will provide a ‘world stage’ for disability rights

London 2012: Opening ceremony will provide a ‘world stage’ for disability rights

By guest on 29th August 2012 Category: News Archive

Listen

The opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games will provide a “world stage” on which to communicate the importance of disability rights, according to one of its two disabled artistic directors.

Jenny Sealey was speaking hours before the opening ceremony was due to begin, after being asked about the controversial involvement of the company Atos in the London 2012 Paralympics.

She told journalists that boycotting the event because of Atos – a London 2012 sponsor and the subject of protests this week by disabled activists over its role in carrying out “fitness for work” tests for the government – would mean that the disability movement “would just fade away and people would forget about us all over again”.

Sealey, who is also artistic director of the disabled-led theatre company Graeae, added: “So the Paras, and all of our artists’ involvement in tonight, is monumentally important to remind people that we are here, we have rights. We have a world stage to communicate those rights.

“I’m not saying we could change Atos but to go about this with real political and emotional integrity, I think doing this is really important.”

She revealed that the ceremony would begin with an appearance from Professor Stephen Hawking, who she described as “the most famous disabled person alive in the world”.

And she said it would offer “the most exquisite journey of discovery” and would be inspired by “the wonder of science”.

Sealey said that she and Bradley Hemmings – her fellow artistic director, who is curator and producer of Liberty, London’s annual disability arts festival – had a “very prudent” budget.

She said: “Bradley and I are both theatre makers and work for very well-funded companies, but to be given a world stage like this, and more money than we have ever had, we have been incredibly resourceful with what we have had.”

Sealey, who is Deaf, also said that if the budget for the opening ceremony had been “very inflated” she would have felt “very uncomfortable knowing what is happening with cuts around Deaf and disabled people”.

29 August 2012

Share this post:

Share on TwitterShare on FacebookShare on WhatsAppShare on Reddit

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

Image shows a man wearing glasses sitting by an open laptop The text reads: Free Career Support for Disabled People Our services include: 1-2-1 Coaching Online Career Resources Find Support near you Search for Inclusive Jobs Career Events and Workshops Visit the Evenbreak Career Hive today to find out how we can help you

Access

Latest Stories

Grenfell: Call for action over government’s ‘deplorable’ decision on evacuation plans

‘Severely neglected’ man found dead, three months after DWP assessment

Government brands DNS ‘vexatious’ for trying to obtain info on 90 DWP deaths

Government’s ‘milestone’ disability jobs stats ‘are meaningless when it comes to equality’

Concern over offensive LGBT+ comments at access awards event

Universal credit boss defends years of misleading information

Discrimination could be a cause of increased risk of Covid death, says ONS

Access to Work in crisis as figures show ‘massive’ waiting-list

Queen’s speech: Activists’ message to Patel over new protest bill: ‘We fight on’

Queen’s speech: Six bills that may change disabled people’s lives, for better and for worse

Advice and Information

The Department for Work and Pensions: Deaths, cover-up, and a toxic 30-year legacy

Readspeaker

Footer

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

  • Accessibility Statement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Site map
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2022 Disability News Service

Site development by A Bright Clear Web