• 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 / Activism and Campaigning / Lottery funding will help young disabled people dig into city’s activist past
A wheelchair-user holds a megaphone at the front of a group of people marching along a road

Lottery funding will help young disabled people dig into city’s activist past

By John Pring on 28th November 2019 Category: Activism and Campaigning

Listen

A new lottery award is set to help young disabled people research and record the history of the disabled people’s movement in one of England’s biggest cities.

The Forging Our Future project will see younger disabled people – aged between 16 and 25 – provided with training so they can research the origins and history of the disabled people’s movement in Bristol from the early 1970s.

They will also record the stories of some of the disabled activists who played a role in the development of the movement.

Deaf young people will have the option of researching key moments in the city’s Deaf history.

Among the milestones in the city’s history of disability activism are protests and lobbying by disabled activists that resulted in significant access improvements to public buildings, heritage centres, and public transport in the city; campaigns to secure a centre for independent living in the city; and the early adoption of direct payments.

More recently, disabled asylum-seekers and activists came together two summers ago (pictured) to seek fundamental changes to the systems and agencies that were blamed for the brutal murders of two disabled refugees – Kamil Ahmad and Bijan Ebrahimi – in Bristol.

A group of older disabled people will support the young researchers, and will also receive training in how to assess the accessibility of heritage locations.

The disabled young people will produce a disability history resource for schools based on their research, and the older group of disabled people will develop guidelines for good practice in access to heritage organisations.

The project will be launched on Saturday (30 November), as part of this year’s Disability History Month.

The project is being run by the disabled-led charity Bristol Disability Equality Forum (BDEF), which has secured a grant of nearly £90,000 from the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF), and is supported by Bristol Museums and consultants Rowan Associates.

The forum hopes the project will connect young disabled people to their own history and inspire the next generation of disabled activists.

Laura Welti, BDEF’s manager, said: “We are delighted to have been given funding for this project.

“Deaf and disabled people’s experiences and achievements have been largely ignored when it comes to recorded history. Now we can begin to redress this.

“We believe access can only be got right when it reflects the diversity of Deaf and disabled people and involves them from first thoughts to post-implementation review.

“The project will therefore create a reference group that can be used in this way (for a reasonable cost) by any heritage destination seeking to be more accessible.”

She also praised NLHF, and said it was “amazing to have a funder who wasn’t expecting us to compromise on being accessible to all Deaf and disabled people, regardless of their access needs”.

The event will be held on Saturday (30 November), from 2pm-4pm, at the city’s M Shed museum of Bristol’s history

 

A note from the editor:

Please consider making a voluntary financial contribution to support the work of DNS and allow it to continue producing independent, carefully-researched news stories that focus on the lives and rights of disabled people and their user-led organisations.

Please do not contribute if you cannot afford to do so, and please note that DNS is not a charity. It is run and owned by disabled journalist John Pring and has been from its launch in April 2009.

Thank you for anything you can do to support the work of DNS…

Share this post:

Share on TwitterShare on FacebookShare on WhatsAppShare on Reddit

Tags: Bristol Bristol Disability Equality Forum Disability History Month disabled people's movement Forging Our Future National Lottery Heritage Fund

Related

Tomlinson faces third angry letter from DPOs over ‘shambolic’ national disability survey
18th February 2021
Disabled people ‘should push for radical overhaul of society after pandemic’
17th December 2020
Councils face calls to re-think COVID streetscape changes
1st October 2020

Primary Sidebar

Access

Latest Stories

Government questioned over ‘unforgivable’ failures on vaccine priority

Regulator fails to record key details from scheme sending COVID patients into care homes

‘Why did it take disabled man’s death to lead to rail safety action?’ campaigners ask

Ministers silent after sitting on report on discrimination in politics for more than a year

Claim that government reduced the disability employment gap is wrong, experts tell MPs

Two flagship DWP disability jobs schemes slated in front of MPs

Government’s 2016 welfare reforms ‘had devastating impact on disabled people’

ONS suggests NHS disability discrimination may have increased risk of COVID deaths

DWP records ‘show Tomlinson is either a liar or a fantasist’ over engagement claims

Audio recording option set to be introduced for all PIP assessments, says DWP

Advice and Information

DWP: The case for the prosecution

Readspeaker

Footer

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

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

Copyright © 2021 Disability News Service

Site development by A Bright Clear Web