the country's only news agency specialising in disability issues
Younger disabled people are at a far higher risk of dying from coronavirus than non-disabled people the same age, even after allowing for factors such as underlying health conditions, according to previously unreported official figures. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) […]
Three separate user-led groups have questioned the government’s “unforgivable” failure to ensure that disabled people with underlying health conditions are treated as a priority for the COVID-19 vaccination programme. They fear that hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of disabled people […]
The government has sat for more than a year on a report that is set to expose the barriers faced by disabled people in accessing elected office, and the discrimination they face at the hands of political parties. The report, commissioned […]
Two of the government’s flagship disability employment schemes have been heavily criticised by a pair of disabled campaigners in a parliamentary evidence session. The Commons work and pensions committee was hearing evidence for its inquiry into the disability employment gap, the […]
Disabled campaigners have given a guarded response to the government’s new health and social care white paper, with particular concerns about the continuing social care funding crisis and ministers’ failure to pledge proper co-production and engagement with service-users. Much of the […]
The government has been accused of a “shameful manipulation of reality”, after its Disability Unit sent out desperate emails to its regional disability networks, begging for positive accounts of how its policies have improved disabled people’s lives. The note was sent […]
The minister for disabled people has been told by 10 user-led organisations of their “serious concerns and disappointment” about his efforts to engage with disabled people on the government’s proposed national disability strategy. The letter from 10 members of the Our […]
A government department has sent warning letters to companies that provide goods and services to disabled students, after receiving allegations of price-fixing. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has sent “advisory letters” to “a number of firms” reminding them of their […]
A new report, based on the views of hundreds of disabled people and organisations, has called on the government to produce a national disability strategy that is “radical and ambitious”. The report by Disability Rights UK (PDF) follows a three-month engagement […]
Police chiefs appear to be refusing to remind officers across the country that disabled people do not need to provide written proof if they are exempt from wearing face coverings during the pandemic. The refusal of the National Police Chiefs’ Council […]