Category Archives: disability

What next for the independent living fund?

August 21, 2012   Carers, disability

The closure must be matched by a clear strategy detailing how devolving responsibility to local government would work

 

The ILF has been invaluable for people who have received support from the fund.

In the last days of the parliamentary term, amid the usual flurry of policy documents and statements, almost unnoticed the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) issued a slim consultation document on the future of the independent living fund (ILF).

The writing has been on the wall for the ILF for some time. In June 2010 it announced it was closing to new applications for the rest of the financial year because of insufficient funding. In December of the same year the government confirmed the fund would be permanently closed to new users and funding for existing users would be maintained until the end of the current parliament in 2015.

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Disability activists use social media to put care cuts on the political agenda

August 21, 2012   Carers, disability, internet

Disability activists use social media to put care cuts on the political agenda

Success of Twitter-driven approach put down to ability to engage many campaigners confined to their homes
• Behind the Paralympics, the reality for disabled people in Britain 2012

 

Many disabled people who might otherwise have been unable to be heard have become engaged by campaigns on Twitter.

While there are fears that traditional methods of disability activism are on the wane, a new campaigning spirit is been forged using the social media revolution.

The past 18 months have seen the first flowerings of a new network of activist groups and a shared, inclusive approach that has thrust their engaging campaigning style into the public eye.

Galvanised by the government’s draconian welfare reform agenda, the new activism arguably is helping to renew a disability movement thought by some to have lost its way in recent years.

The staggering Twitter-driven success of the “We Are Spartacus” campaign in January announced the emergence of this new wave. This carefully planned viral campaign steered by a tiny band of activists almost single-handedly put the previously arcane issue of cuts in disability living allowance on the public agenda.

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Limbless swimmer Philippe Croizon links continents

August 18, 2012   Carers, disability

Philippe Croizon said he wanted to be an inspiration to other disabled people

18 August 2012 Last updated at 11:53

French amputee swimmer Philippe Croizon (R), and his friend swimmer Arnaud Chassery, celebrate after swimming between islands in the icy Bering Strait on 18 August 2012

A Frenchman who lost all his limbs in an electrocution accident has completed a swim to link five continents.

Using tailor-made flippers, Philippe Croizon finished his quest by crossing between the US island of Little Diomede and Great Diomede in Russia, joining Asia and the Americas.

The 44-year-old has swum three other straits since May.

Reaching shore, he said the icy waters had been a challenge.

“This was the hardest swim of my life, with a water temperature of four degrees Celsius (39 degrees Fahrenheit) and strong currents,” he told AFP news agency. “We made it.”

He swam the 4.3km (2.7 miles) stretch in the Bering Strait in one hour and 20 minutes, accompanied by friend and long-distance swimmer Arnaud Chassery.

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