Disability Campaign Part Two...

Inspired by a visit to the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery witnessing the wondrous works of the Pre Raphaelites before shopping for smart clothing to wear upon the overnight stay in London tomorrow; I thought of why isn't there more disabled artists and resources put aside for such projects to develop the youngsters.

Therefore, I extended upon the declarations I made in a previous blog in addition to aims:

Culturally, the disabled youngsters have little or no avenue to pursue their dreams and ambitions with only schooling to expand upon such abilities as artistic talents. The Way Ahead is partnered with Disability Arts Shropshire (DASH) is one such example whereby talented and hard working artists can blossom with the right guidance however the funding is required to prolong its existence.

Even recognized disabled artists require assistance such as Jayni Anderton through an LDAF initiative has recently put a piece of digital art work Artist @ Work on exhibition for a year at the ICI building in Manchester Square, London. Imagine the possibilities if more training, resources and man power was provided to teach and inspire disabled students outside of school for weekends, half term holidays specialising in such fields as arts, literature and music as well as sport and media.

We Demand Improvement. We Deserve Respect.

Short Term and Long Term Aims:

1. Apply pressure on the Government to eradicate doubt over the Convention and how finally expand upon their ratification i.e. how this applies to the young disabled students.

2. Improve communications between the Government and the disabled community emphasising they put more effort into doing so.

3. More localized projects to teach, inspire and develop the ambitious of disabled students in arts, literature, music, sports and so forth.

4. Improve the effectiveness of the DSA, Incapacity Benefits and DLA whilst creating more awareness of this additional financial support to students (To emphasis upon points made in the 2008 Review Group, see below....)

... Feedback presented by DIUS is summarised below: for the attention of the review group for the QAA Code of Practice: Section 3: Students with disabilities (1999).

Overall, those students represented felt that HEIs should adopt a holistic approach to improving the experience of disabled students, including:

· advice on the physical accessibility of estates
· efficient and appropriate methods of learning support
· awareness-raising and training for HE careers advisers/services
· improved accessibility to non-academic and extra-curricular facilities
· a streamlined funding application process.

Now, I can only hope our discussions and lobbying of the Government can force rapid action. Wish me luck and any other suggestions would be more than welcomed.