FTWW is a member of The Welsh Government’s Disability Rights Taskforce, and our staff, Trustees and Volunteers also represent the charity on the various working groups that feed into it. We’re delighted to share the Taskforce’s latest newsletter, which details progress made with their work since issuing the Winter newsletter in 2023.
Disability Rights Taskforce Newsletter – Spring 2024
- Vision for Wales: Improving outcomes for disabled people.
We want to ask your views on our idea for communicating our co-produced work and our vision for equality for disabled people in Wales. The idea builds upon the hard work and lived experience of our Taskforce and working group members. Awareness of the damaging effects of exclusion and ableism, and how this has led to an inequitable society needs to increase. Our idea for communicating our co-produced work puts the Social Model of Disability firmly at the centre of our vision for Wales and sets out how together we can transform society from a hostile environment to a country where diversity, talent and difference is embraced. We call this terraforming – terra is the Latin word for land, and forming means to shape.
Just as terraforming is often used to describe how landscapes can be shaped to accommodate diverse life, the Social Model of Disability challenges us to reshape society and to accept and embrace diversity, in all its forms. Terraforming requires the removal of barriers to create accessible environments, the Social Model of Disability seeks to remove barriers created by society. Both undertakings ask us to imagine a world where diversity in all its forms can thrive. As a nation we need to move away from disabled people surviving on the edge of society, to a nation where disabled people can move from surviving to flourishing, but we need the environment to be right for this to happen. We need to terraform Wales.
The pandemic has shown us that we need to work together – we are all reliant on each other for ensuring access to the built or digital environment for example. We must take a whole systems and intersectional approach to inclusion, embedding the Social Model of Disability and eradicating ableism. Intersectionality is a word used to describe the ways in which multiple, disadvantaged identities–such as race, disability, and gender come together at the same time and impact upon people’s lived experiences. Fair treatment of every person, especially those who face the greatest discrimination, disadvantage, and marginalisation must be realised.
Terraforming Wales is our vision for us all working together to change perceptions, challenge values, and reshape landscapes. Imagine a world where you can leave your accessible house, to take the accessible bus to get to your accessible office or university. Picture a world where you can catch the accessible train to an evening with friends at an accessible bar and move on to an accessible nightclub. Your holiday includes an accessible coastal path to an accessible beach. Your children can attend the same accessible school as their friends, and you are able to book an accessible taxi to an accessible health appointment. A key element of our terraforming vision is to transform our co-produced recommendations into sustainable actions to improve outcomes for disabled people, and to develop a communication and implementation strategy, to ensure we deliver on those actions.
We would like to hear your thoughts on terraforming. Please contact us via our Taskforce mailbox: DisabilityRightsTaskforce@gov.wales
- User research
As well as gathering the views of our taskforce and working group members on terraforming, we are also working with our communications and user research teams in Welsh Government to gather initial reactions and views on the concept from members of the general public. We will feedback the results of this insight work with you to help us all to determine whether this is the right approach to bringing everyone along with us in our journey to ensure equality for disabled people in Wales.
- Wellbeing
A wellbeing workshop took place on 6 March between 10:00 – 12:00 and 13:00 – 15:00, which all previous working group members received an invitation for. The workshop provided a space to discuss access to wellbeing enhancing activities that previous working groups had not covered fully– such as access to sport, culture, heritage, tourism and leisure, coastal walks, green spaces, and the natural environment, play areas, social activities, volunteering and more.
A survey was circulated to all current and previous working group members ahead of the workshop to help shape the workshop and how this was run. The workshop provided an opportunity to find out what Wales is doing to improve the wellbeing of disabled people and to co-produce recommendations on what more can be done.
We will update you on this work as it develops.
- Working Groups
Eight of our working groups have now concluded, these are:
- Embedding and Understanding of the Social Model of Disability (across Wales)
- Access to Services (including Communications and Technology)
- Independent Living: Social Care
- Independent Living: Health
- Employment and Income
- Travel
- Children and Young People
- Wellbeing
Working groups for Accessible and Affordable Housing’ and ‘Access to Justice’ are due to hold their final meetings in March 2024.
- Other Research
We are working with our Evidence Units and the Internal Research Programme on the co-production of evidence. The work seeks to strengthen the recommendations co-produced by the working groups. We are also commissioning research on barriers to employment. We’ll keep you posted as the research develops.
- Training
We are arranging Social Model of Disability Training for working group members. If you haven’t received this training, please contact our mailbox to book onto a remaining session.
In conjunction with DAAS, the Taskforce team has provided Social Model of Disability (SMD) training to Care Inspectorate Wales, Health Inspectorate Wales, and more recently Welsh Government’s Legal Services department.
Thank you from the Disability Rights Taskforce team for all your support and hard work. We are looking forward to further engagement with you and updating you on the progress of this work.
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Cymraeg