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| TX: 10.10.08 - Disabled Protest PRESENTER: LIZ BARCLAY |
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| Downloaded from www.bbc.co.uk/radio4 THE ATTACHED TRANSCRIPT WAS TYPED FROM A RECORDING AND NOT COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL SCRIPT. BECAUSE OF THE RISK OF MISHEARING AND THE DIFFICULTY IN SOME CASES OF IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS, THE BBC CANNOT VOUCH FOR ITS COMPLETE ACCURACY. BARCLAY Comedian Liz Carr is an experienced traveller and a wheelchair user. In the last of her columns for You and Yours she reflects on her visit to San Diego - the home of the disability rights movement. What lessons can be learned by campaigners in the UK and should direct action still play a role? CARR Most people spend their holidays relaxing, sunbathing or sightseeing but I prefer something slightly less conventional. So in April this year I travelled to Washington DC for five days of protest on the capital's streets. I joined Adapt - the American campaigning group who believe in using civil disobedience to secure the rights of disabled people. This includes anything from handcuffing themselves to buses, to blocking roads and having sit-ins for hours or days. Once other methods of campaign have failed Adapt activists will do anything that causes disruption, draws attention to their cause and leads to change, as long as it's non violent. If you're sceptical about the effectiveness of this type of protest just look at Adapt's credentials. Over the past 25 years they've played a major part in securing accessible public transport throughout the USA. For the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which outlaws discrimination and they've helped thousands of disabled and older people to leave residential care. Currently in the US whilst states have to provide institutional care - the people who need assistance in their daily lives - they have no obligation to provide home or community based services. So if someone like me lived in the wrong state they'd have no choice but to live in an institution. That's why Adapt is campaigning for the Community Choice Act. If passed older and disabled people will have the choice to live in their own homes instead of having to go into residential care. This is a very personal issue for many of the Adapt activists. I met disabled people who had either escaped from institutions themselves or who'd supported others to make this move. They made me appreciate both the need for and the success of Adapt. Five hundred of us wheeled and marched in the road to our first target. As the iconic white dome of the Capitol building shadowed over us the group spontaneously began to chant "We'd rather go to jail than dye in a nursing home". It was clear that people were prepared to do whatever it takes, including being arrested. Disabled people barge their way inside the Health and Human Service building whilst the rest of us blocked every doorway with our wheelchairs. After a handful of arrests and three hours of holding the place captive a meeting was secured with the Secretary of Health and Human Services to discuss progressing the Community Choices Act. Adapt had achieved its aim and now the follow up work of meeting, negotiating and maintaining the pressure begins. Could this approach work in the UK? It already has. Organisations like CAT - the Campaign for Accessible Transport - and now DAN - the Disabled People's Direct Action Network - have been using civil disobedience for over 20 years to secure and protect the rights of disabled people in the UK. Activists have chained themselves to buses to secure accessible public transport. Disabled people marched on Westminster the demonstrate the need for disability discrimination legislation and for a law that allows us to buy in the assistance we need to remain in our own homes. We've been busy on this side of the pond too. There's still widespread discrimination against disabled people yet whilst Adapt protests are growing in numbers here in the UK it seems that less of us are taking to the streets in protest. Have we lost our passion and commitment? Perhaps there are just too few disabled activists and too many campaigns to support or maybe it's just that everything in the US really is bigger ... and better? In the UK many of our disability organisations are either struggling for survival or having to close due to a lack of funding and political support. Maintaining a strong disability lobby is becoming harder and harder at a time when it is more urgent than ever. Despite this activism is not dead. Whilst I was in Washington members of DAN occupied the office of Disability Works and Pensions in London. Their protest was against welfare reform proposals which they believe will penalise those on incapacity benefit and do little to tackle the real obstacles to employment for disabled people. After a five hour sit-in DAN secured a meeting with the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions James Purnell. Like their American counterparts DAN used civil disobedience to achieve their aim, but unlike the American equivalent DAN did it with only activists - size really isn't everything. Back to the You and Yours homepage The BBC is not responsible for external websites |
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