Disabled Guide for Airport Travel Launched
An advice guide aimed at helping disabled people travelling through airports has been produced.
The guide covers a wide range of accessibility issues and concerns within airports which currently affect disabled travellers and also users with restricted mobility.
Unfamiliar environments, such as busy airports, can be a daunting experience for anyone who is restricted by a disability. This can make simple tasks, such as stowing luggage and boarding the aircraft extremely problematic.
The guide includes common worries and frequently asked questions:
• What happens at security and customs?
• General airport assistance
• Advice before you travel
• Return journey help
• Travelling with autism
• Travelling with medication
• Travelling with kidney disease
• Breathing related mobility restrictions
• Visual impairments
• Deaf or hearing impaired
• Assistance at the car park
• Wheelchair advice
• Assistance pets
• Tips and advice
Matthew Lobas comments:
"We have created this guide to help relieve some of the stress and worry for disabled people using airports. We regularly get emails about wheelchair access and other related questions therefore it made sense to collate all this information and to produce an easily accessible document which contains everything. The aim is to help everyone regardless of their needs to travel comfortably."
The free guide is available from the ParkAt website in PDF and text format. Please visit:
http://www.parkat.co.uk/disabled-travel-guide.pdf
Mencap launch Disability Hate Crime Campaign
Mencap is running a 3-year campaign against hate crime, 'Stand by me'. 'Stand by me' will challenge the police, the criminal justice system and the courts to end hate crime against people with a learning disability. There are many ways to support the campaign. Mencap's research report 'Don't stand by' about how police services currently tackle hate crime against people with a learning disability was published in 2011.
Click here to read more about the campaign and how to get involved:
http://www.rdn-wm.org.uk/News/Mencap-launch-campaign-on-Disability-Hate-Crime.aspx
The employment rights of personal assistants
An impending surge in the number of personal assistants is set to highlight a range of employment issues. Skills for Care's recent report on the adult social care workforce suggests that the drive to ensure service users hold their own personal budgets means there will be a five-fold increase in the number of personal assistants in England by 2025, from 168,000 in 2010 to 722,000. However a range of employment issues could arise.
Skills for Care, together with Association for Real Change (ARC), has developed a toolkit to support people to employ their own personal assistants. The toolkit helps small employers deal with the basic issues and legalities of employing their own staff.
To view the toolkit visit:
www.skillsforcare.org.uk/recruitment
Skills for Care commissioned a project that focused on personalisation and partnership. The goal of this research was to establish what contributes to a successful and an effective working relationship between the disabled employer (funded via Direct Payment and/or Independent Living Fund) and the employed personal assistant.
To view the report click on the link below:
personal assistants - effective relationships
Personalisation and Learning Disabilities:
New Handbook published
A new handbook, edited by Andrew Tyson, policy lead at In Control, has been published.
http://www.in-control.org.uk/news/in-control-news/personalisation-and-learning-disabilities-new-handbook-published.aspx
SCIE Report 37: Personalisation, productivity and efficiency
A new handbook, edited by Andrew Tyson, policy lead at In Control, has been published.This report examines the potential for personalisation, particularly the mechanism of self-directed support and personal budgets, to result in cost efficiencies and improved productivity as well as improved care and support, resulting in better outcomes for people's lives.
It provides an overview of some emerging evidence on efficiency from the implementation of personalisation so far
Download the report here.
Resources for hospital patients with learning disabilities
These resources are freely downloadable and helpful for patients with LD or autism who are visiting hospital.
Please click here for more information:
http://www.widgit.com/resources/healthcare/index.htm
New Shopmobility Service for Chelmsley Wood
Chelmsley Wood now has its own Shopmobility service, based at the Connect Office. People with mobility problems can hire electric scooters, powerchairs and manual wheelchairs to get round the shops and businesses they want to visit.
Download Shopmobility flyer pdf here
Giving Us a Voice
Giving Us a Voice is a joint project being developed ARC, BILD and Mencap to produce a Charter for Inclusion for people with learning disabilities who use services and their families from BME communities.
Giving us a Voice is a 24 month project working right across the country to involve people with a learning disability and their carers in regional meetings to inform local policy makers about what they need and expect from services. There is clear evidence at present that services are not reaching these communities and their families, who are effectively excluded from local participation by lack of contact, language difficulties and the belief that no-one will listen.
Giving us a Voice is a systematic way of tackling this problem and challenging local statutory bodies and providers to sign up to the Charter for Inclusion which the project will produce from meetings with users and families. 9 Regional Summits will also inform future decision-making about services and encourage participation in local consultations.
To learn more visit: