This blog post was jointly written with UNDP and UN Women and published in parallel by UNDP.

Across large parts of the world, girls and women of all ages with any form of disability face multiple forms of discrimination and inequalities, driven by multiple attitudinal barriers, prejudice and stereotypes. As a result, they are often excluded from the social and economic dividends of progress. They are at more likely to be illiterate, to be unemployed, living in poverty and hunger, and frequently are the targets of gender-based and sexual violence.

The impact of stigma and discrimination on people with disabilities – especially women – has long been recognized, but a strong understanding of disability stigma and how it affects opportunities and wellbeing has been hampered by the lack of robust data and internationally-recognised tools and methodologies. A lack of understanding of the underlying determinants that perpetuate stigma and discrimination has meant that we’ve sought to address these issues predominantly through social awareness campaigns.

Stigma Tool being administered by trained women with disabilities at the Disability Welfare Assoc. in Pakistan

The project Addressing stigma, discrimination and violence for empowering women with disabilities, jointly led by the UN Development Programme and UN Women, with funding from the UN Partnership on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, has been working with researchers and partners in Moldova, Pakistan, Palestine, and Samoa. These countries act as pilot sites in seeking to develop a comprehensive understanding of stigmatising experiences of women and girls with disabilities and how to tackle them effectively. Women with diverse disabilities have been closely involved in the work in the four countries.

A new tool, developed in partnership between researchers from the UCL Unit for Stigma Research and partners in the four pilot countries, promises to improve our understanding of the range of stigmatising experiences faced by women with diverse disabilities and the role of intersecting sources of inequalities.

From Moldova to Samoa women with disabilities report widespread stigma, ranging from their families to wider structural discrimination. In Palestine, women recount being told to stay at home when everyone else set out for a family wedding, fired by their employer following a move to less accessible premises, or hit by a brother, frustrated that his deaf sister wasn’t responding to his (verbal) requests. (more…)

Family carers save our economy £13.9 billion, yet our efforts to understand the cost of stigma on their lives has been minimal. Being treated negatively by others and discriminated against, in other words experiencing stigma, is a common experience for many family carers of people living with dementia and has been identified as a global priority. How we respond to this challenge will determine the well-being of carers in an ever ageing society which relies heavily on family carers.

There are two main conclusions of our recent study. First, we found a stigma measure that works for carers, meaning we can build up a picture of carers’ experiences as a basis for doing something about stigma they face. Secondly, the study tells us that on top of known challenges experienced by carers, the majority of carers in our study experienced stigma. But what does this actually mean?

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On International Day of Persons with Disabilities 2021, we are delighted to announce our new partnership with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and UN Women, as well as in-country partners and stakeholders on this  important project.

What is the project about?

Prejudices and stereotypes hold many of us back from fulfilling our potential and leading lives as free and equal citizens.  People with disabilities struggle to get equal access to education, healthcare, jobs and housing, because those prejudices and stereotypes lower expectations for them. Many see them as objects of pity or charity, some see their predicament as punishment for ‘bad karma’ in a previous life, or a shame to be kept out of sight.

Twenty percent of women in the world have some form of disability. Women and girls with disabilities face multiple barriers related to stigma, and discrimination, which hinders their progress. Such blatant exclusion hampers the achievement of the Leave No One Behind (LNOB) agenda, a cornerstone of Agenda 2030.  This is very much at the heart of UN Secretary General’s report on Our Common Agenda (also UNGA Resolution on this adopted on 17^th November 2021). (more…)

In response to the disappointing judgment by Lord Justice Singh and Mrs Justice Lieven in the UK High Court in the case brought by Heidi Crowter and Máire Lea-Wilson against the UK Government, I have decided to make my expert witness statement (written in support of their case) public. The judges rejected Jason Coppel QC’s argument (based in part on my evidence) that institutional stigma such as that inherent in section 1(1)(d)of the 1967 Abortion Act has a powerful role to play in either countering or promoting and maintaining negative stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination (experienced by people with Down’s Syndrome and learning disabilities resulting from other causes). They also rejected evidence by Professor Richard Hastings on the negative impacts of such stigma upon persons with Down’s Syndrome. The judges concluded that s.1(1)(d) does not perpetuate and reinforce negative stereotypes to the detriment of people with disabilities. They also rejected the suggestion that there is any causal connection between this legislative provision and discrimination that continues to be experienced by people with Down’s Syndrome – something Heidi Crowter and Máire Lea-Wilson know from first-hand experience (and researchers like myself from scientific evidence) to be blatantly not true.

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In recent years, the impact of austerity on people with disabilities has been largely overlooked by the mainstream media. There are exceptions: Frances Ryan, for example, has highlighted how people with disabilities have been disproportionately affected. Little, however, has been written about austerity’s impact on people with a learning disability. (more…)

The concept of wellbeing has gained increasing interest over the years. The World Health Organisation defines wellbeing as a state ‘which allows individuals to realise their abilities, cope with the normal stresses of life, work productively and fruitfully, and make a contribution to their community’.

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Dr Chloe Farahar | University of Kent | Aucademy.co.uk | SoYoureAutistic.com

This blog has been distilled into an animation of less than 15 mins on the Aucademy YouTube channel.

Is identifying with social groups beneficial to people’s health and wellbeing?  Whilst marking undergrad essays on this question back in 2020 – my mind began to wander, as it is prone to do, to Autistic things.  Although my PhD was in the field of social psychology – attempting to reduce mental health stigma with the neurodiversity narrative – I had become so engrossed in my little sliver of the field I forgot about other social psychological theories and approaches.  I researched the references my students were citing and made a short Twitter thread of my thoughts regarding the psychologically important difference between being a “person with autism” and an Autistic person. The difference between belonging to a stigmatised group, and the social cure properties of strongly identifying with an Autistic identity. In this blog I will expand on that Twitter thread, there are some important concepts that I won’t explain here, but you can link to this glossary. These issues have also been expanded in an invited chapter for the Routledge Handbook of Critical Autism Studies, titled: Autistic identity, culture, community, & space for wellbeing, due to be published September 2022).

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Reflections on some of the current issues affecting people with learning disabilities and their far-reaching implications.

Information and advice

At the beginning of the first lockdown I was thinking about ‘Grant’ who lives near me. Grant has a learning disability and autism and lives with his elderly mother. Usually he spends a lot of his time walking around town, going to cafes. He is a well-known (and loved) character locally. I’m always running into him in all sorts of places around the city. I think he gets some sort of support but he and his mum aren’t online and don’t have much access to various local services for people with learning disabilities.

The first lockdown must have been an utterly bewildering event for him. It was for me I know but I at least had access to lots of information, a team and friends and family who I could share things with.

I often wondered what Grant made of the first lockdown when everything suddenly changed. At the start of the first lockdown it was confusing to find clear and simple information. My inbox bulged with information and guides and updates – and more updates, and easy read guides,  then easier to read guides came along –  there was too much being produced!!

What I really wanted was one place where we could access clear and concise guidance. The sort of information that I would have been able to share with Grant.

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longsi

We as one of the UK’s leading research centres on stigma have started a petition calling on Government to introduce mandatory training for Members of Parliament (MPs) to help them understand what it’s like to be hard up and stop stigmatising people living in poverty. #Stopstigmatisingpoverty calls on the UK Government to introduce mandatory training for MPs, a week during which they are relieved of their parliamentary duties.  The ‘training’ would see each newly elected and all sitting MPs spend 1 week living alongside people in their constituency who are struggling to get by, on the equivalent of universal credit (around £95 at current rates). Members of the local constituency will lay on a programme of events to allow the MP an insight into some of the diverse concerns and stresses their constituents face, with a focus on those living in poverty.

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Celia Brown (top left), Michaela Osborne and Adrian Brown

Please scroll to the bottom for an Easyread version

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused the UK population to live in uncertainty, fear and isolation. A national and global emergency brings with it new challenges, but for people with learning disabilities, many of these challenges already exist as a result of unequal access to health, social care and education. A system that does not meet the needs of people with learning disabilities before a pandemic, is not well placed to meet them in the event of one.

The experiences of two self-advocates with learning disabilities, Adrian and Celia Brown, husband and wife, illustrate just this. Adrian and Celia shared their Covid-19- related story after coming through the other side safe and well. (more…)