Disabilities: why it's a good time to be disabled

It is very easy to be negative about the current state of social care and how disabled people are being treated but every now and then it is good to look back and appreciate what has been achieved within the past 20 years, and simply smile.

Even five years ago, I am not sure I would have been able to write a column for Community Care as why would a professional magazine need to involve service users? Even then the concept of involving service users was in its infancy. And when we go back 20 years, the whole concept of community care, the basis of this magazine, simply did not exist.

Liberation of disabled people

I am 33 and feel I have personally witnessed the start of the liberation of disabled people in a manner that can be compared to the end of slavery in the US and apartheid in South Africa. It is a marvellous time to be disabled as people seem interested in what we do, especially if it is ground-breaking.

The media also seems more positive in the way they portray disabled people.

This is very different to how it was 20 years ago, when having a significant impairment was a very big deal. I have discussed in previous articles about being deemed a freak and that was indeed how it was.

Fighting hard to be hard

As I could walk and talk in my own fashion, it meant that while I knew I was different I certainly did not understand as a teenager how significantly different my appearance was. In 1988, disability was not on anyone's agenda and it was a matter of fighting hard to be heard.

The Disability Discrimination Act 1995, despite all its faults, was a catalyst in the social and cultural change we are currently enjoying. There is still a lot more needed to make the act as known as it should be, but in the 13 years since its enactment it has certainly put disability and the issues disabled people have on the political agenda.

The climax of this has been the recently announced Putting People First agenda. This puts disabled people and the values of independent living at the forefront of social policy and offers disabled people a new-found respect for their contributions to society.

The attitudes towards disabled people have changed greatly over the past 20 years, mostly for the better, and I am glad to be a part of this scene.

Simon Stevens is chief executive of Enable Enterprises

More on Putting People First and direct payments

Simon Stevens has is own blog