Disabled By Society’s Post

It's Disability Pride Month, and what better way to kick things off than an article by the brilliant Jamie Shields? He writes all about why Disability Pride Month is so important, especially in the context of employment, from a perspective of both professional and lived experience 👇

Attention! Our policy paper is now live 🚨 The shocking results are in from the first ever ableism policy report. Let’s kick of Disability Pride Month with a bang! We asked Disabled people, around the world, in ‘The Big Ableism Survey’ how they really felt about ableism, how ableism affected them, how they dealt with internalised ableism and more. And your answers are shocking. 95% of Disabled People have experienced Ableism. 99% of Disabled people believe that non-Disabled people need more training and education on Ableism. Only 1.5% of Disabled people have never experienced Internalised Ableism. Only 6.6% Of Disabled people have never experienced mental health challenges as a direct result of their Disability. Our ground-breaking report paints a clear, stark and shocking of how Disabled people truly feel about being Disabled in today’s society. Despite being the largest minority group in the world of over 16% of the global population, over 1.3 billion people, larger than the population of China, Disabled people are being left behind in the movement towards better inclusion, opportunities, participation, representation and the breaking of barriers. Around every corner Disabled people face multiple barriers to participation and opportunity such as attitudinal, perceptions, stereotypes, and these barriers are at every single component of life such as work, education, community, social and technological are rife and consistent. Ableism is having a devastating consequence on the mental health, internalised Ableism, opportunities and outcomes of Disabled people. We cannot sit back and ignore this any longer. We must be forward thinking, proactive not reactive, and from the point of design with the correct and effective consultation of Disabled people move towards a better future for society that is accessible and inclusive of all Disabled people. The cycle of Ableism must be broken. Jamie Shields and Celia Chartres-Aris want to thank everyone who took the time to engage, promote and complete ‘The Big Ableism Survey’ and for your continued support to the work of Unlearning Ableism. With your help and contributions we are able to continue striving forward, empowering others, breaking down barriers and educating others to destroy ableism once and for all 💜 We are Unlearning Ableism. We are by Disabled people, for Disabled people. We make the uncomfortable comfortable. Visit our website to download your free copy of this report, which is available in 4 accessible formats including easy-read, large print text and audio: https://lnkd.in/eBwnbqgR This data is for all of us. This is the first time data like this has been captured and we want to make sure that these showing results are read by as many as possible to raise awareness of Disability discrimination - we encourage all of you to share, comment and work with the data of this report. #Disability #Disabled #DisabilityPride #DisabilityPrideMonth #Ableism