Breaking barriers: new event in UK festival calendar
TweetA new festival opens this weekend, featuring some of the biggest names in the integrated music scene, uniting learning disabled and non-learning disabled musicians. The Rock House Festival in...
View ArticleMurals with a message need a new home
TweetThe public is being asked to suggest permanent homes for a trio of murals created to highlight disability issues. A group of disabled artists, the Vision collective, created the collaborative art...
View ArticlePrejudice and inadequate support: the situation for minority ethnic children...
TweetWhen Parmi Dheensa’s son Callum kissed a classmate on the cheek not long after starting at a special needs primary school, a teacher asked his mother if this was “culturally appropriate”. Dheensa...
View ArticleHow to get more learning disabled people into paid work
Tweet When I recently met Anthony Knight, an arboretum horticulturalist at Kew Gardens, his enthusiasm for work was infectious. Anthony’s knowledge about plants and trees is impressive – as is the...
View ArticleMade Possible: challenging attitudes to learning disability
Tweet Just launched: #MadePossible, edited by @Saba_Salman, a collection of essays by people with #learningdisabilities. https://t.co/wjOZUbGgjd — Unbound (@unbounders) September 6, 2017 So pleased to...
View ArticleMade Possible: diverse individuals united by a common cause
TweetJust 11 days since launch and Made Possible is already more than 40% crowdfunded – that’s down to 100 brilliantly supportive people so far helping to create this groundbreaking book by pledging...
View ArticleFresh perspectives on social care: a new exhibition
Tweet What does someone who is supported by social care look like? Transforming stereotypical perceptions of social care is the aim of a new photography exhibition showing in London this month – some...
View ArticleMade Possible hits the midway milestone
TweetThis post is based on a piece originally posted on the Unbound website There has been surge of support for Made Possible, the non-fiction book challenging learning disability stereotypes I’m...
View ArticleMade Possible is a month old
TweetIt’s taken less than four weeks for the book I’m editing, Made Possible, to become more than 50% crowdfunded – and this is all down to the project’s incredible and growing band of supporters. The...
View ArticleMade Possible: groundbreaking book hits 100% crowdfunding
Tweet Six weeks ago I launched a crowdfunding campaign for Made Possible, a groundbreaking collection of essays on success by high-achieving people with learning disabilities. The book is inspired by...
View ArticleRevival for play that celebrates learning disability
TweetA play that celebrates people with learning disabilities and that was written for an actor with Down’s syndrome is being revived this week at Bristol’s Tobacco Factory Theatres. Myrtle Theatre...
View ArticleI nailed it: DJs with disabilities take to the air
TweetI met DJ Martin Bell (“not the man in the white suit!)” at the station where he works, Direction Radio in Epsom, Surrey, for a Guardian story published today. Martin, who has a mild learning...
View ArticleScrounger or superhero, and little in between: learning disability in the media
TweetScrounger or superhero – and little in between. This is how people like my sister, who happens to have a learning disability, are generally seen in society and the media. The missing part of the...
View ArticleCommunity approach to social work delivers more personalised care
Tweet If you need social care support, why can’t services respond better to your individual aspirations – instead of fitting you into what’s already on offer? This aim – shifting traditional social...
View ArticleSuccess – as written by people with learning disabilities
TweetPeople with learning disabilities are pitied or patronised, but rarely heard from in their own words. Made Possible is an attempt to challenge this and change attitudes – it’s the crowdfunded book...
View ArticleWhat would a truly accessible city look like?
TweetBy 2050, an estimated 940 million disabled people will be living in cities, lending an urgency to the UN’s declaration that poor accessibility “presents a major challenge”. The Convention on the...
View ArticleA stepping stone to success: new mental health support for women
Tweet Being able to do her own washing and having responsibility for her personal possessions symbolised the freedom Michelle Stevens* wanted but was denied in institutional care. Stevens features in...
View ArticleMaking buses more accessible for learning disabled passengers
TweetFor Mario Christodoulou, buses are essential. “I use buses every day to get to work and to the shops – it is my only way of travelling,” he says. Christodoulou, from south-west London, is a peer...
View ArticleSocial Issue opinion piece: It’s just not my cup of tea
TweetBy Andy Merriman While imbibing a cup of coffee at the computer, my Twitter feed led me to an article in the Daily Mail with the strapline, ‘Babies with Down’s syndrome who are given green-tea...
View ArticleTheatre project challenges attitudes to learning disability and autism
Tweet“I hope I can get them to think a bit differently, and then to help make things happen a bit differently.” These are the words of Dayo Koleosho, an actor with the groundbreaking theatre company...
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