http://www.disabilitylibdems.org.uk/articlearchive.php Recent Press Articles from LDDA - The Liberal Democrat Disability Association en-GB LDDA - The Liberal Democrat Disability Association http://www.disabilitylibdems.org.uk/ Prater Raines Ltd http://www.praterraines.co.uk/ (c) 2008 LDDA - The Liberal Democrat Disability Association 2008-08-28T14:20+01:00 United Kingdom http://www.disabilitylibdems.org.uk/articles/000049/joinedup_thinking.html The disability movement has won notable victories over the last decade. But it is now time for it to cast aside narrow identity politics and join the mainstream fight for social justice, says Jane Campbell 2008-04-30T00:00+01:00 http://www.disabilitylibdems.org.uk/articles/000048/a_new_role_for_us_monitoring_sencos__what_will_it_mean.html The role of special educational needs coordinators (Sencos) comes under scrutiny this month as the government launches a consultation paper aimed at beefing up their status in schools. 2008-04-15T00:00+01:00 http://www.disabilitylibdems.org.uk/articles/000044/flagging_cabs_in_a_wheelchair.html Think you've got problems finding a cab? Try it in a wheelchair. Almost every time Baroness Nicky Chapman of Leeds comes to London to sit in the House of Lords, she is refused a ride in a black cab because she uses a wheelchair. 2008-04-14T00:00+01:00 http://www.disabilitylibdems.org.uk/articles/000045/a_positive_attitude_to_disability.html Denmark and France were quite different when it came to helping disabled people into work. As Preeti and I landed in Madrid after a two hour flight from Paris, we were soon to discover that Spain also had some common themes. 2008-04-14T00:00+01:00 http://www.disabilitylibdems.org.uk/articles/000047/beijing_paralympics_fact_sheet.html China expects to welcome 4,000 athletes and more than 6,000 journalists, coaches and officials to the 2008 Beijing Paralympics. The opening ceremony of the Games takes place on 6 September while the events themselves run from 7-17 September. 2008-04-14T00:00+01:00 http://www.disabilitylibdems.org.uk/articles/000041/early_support_for_dyslexic_pupils_could_prevent_two_million_failures.html I was delighted to learn from your article that at last there may be some recognition of the importance of diagnosing dyslexia at an early stage (2m children have dyslexic-type reading difficulty, study claims, March 14). These sufferers "are let down by the government's literacy strategy because it fails to target those pupils falling furthest behind", you reported. "Schools are not identifying children at risk, says the research, which found that 2 million have dyslexic-type learning difficulties." 2008-03-20T00:00+00:00 http://www.disabilitylibdems.org.uk/articles/000042/2m_children_have_dyslexictype_reading_difficulty_study_claims.html · Schools blamed for not identifying those at risk 2008-03-14T00:00+00:00 http://www.disabilitylibdems.org.uk/articles/000039/disability_rhetoric_must_be_made_reality.html Abandoned on a park bench as a baby, profoundly deaf and with a learning disability, "Miss D" deserved better - a lot better - from the local authority that became responsible for her welfare. In a scorching report today from the local government ombudsman, Birmingham city council is found to have "failed utterly" in its duty to her. Management of its adult learning disability service is described as having been "woefully inadequate". 2008-03-14T00:00+00:00 http://www.disabilitylibdems.org.uk/articles/000040/the_hearings_difficulties.html Yesterday on the Today programme, John Humphrys told his interviewee, Tomato Lichy, a writer and artist, that deafness is a "pretty serious disability", even after Lichy told him he didn't view it as such. The fact that Lichy himself is deaf didn't matter. Because Humphrys, never having been deaf himself, considers it a disability, he considers it "deeply disturbing" that Lichy objects to legislation that would force deaf people to reject deaf embryos for hearing ones. 2008-03-12T00:00+00:00 http://www.disabilitylibdems.org.uk/articles/000036/blueprint_for_a_peoples_health_service.html We are entering a new era for public sector reform. Labour's approach - more money and more central control - has reached its limits. 10 years of investment have helped improve our NHS from the desperate state of 1997, after decades of Conservative neglect, but it still isn't good enough. 2008-01-30T00:00+00:00 http://www.disabilitylibdems.org.uk/articles/000037/critical_condition.html The first step in fixing a problem is facing up to it. Yesterday's report from the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) made for depressing reading, but it did an invaluable job by making plain how unwell one part of the welfare state has grown. In the year that pensioners outnumber children for the first time ever, it hardly needs saying that personal care is in heavy demand. Yet it is being provided to more than 100,000 fewer households than it was when Labour first came to power. It is not a case of budget cuts - the money has been increased. But the swelling ranks of the desperately infirm require ever-more hours of care. Councils have provided it, but then balanced the books with arbitrary cuts elsewhere. 2008-01-30T00:00+00:00 http://www.disabilitylibdems.org.uk/articles/000038/being_deaf_has_one_big_advantage_when_youre_travelling_abroad__it_breaks_down_all_the_barriers.html From Hanoi all the way south to Saigon, locals used goldfish-like mouth movements to symbolise deafness 2008-01-24T00:00+00:00 http://www.disabilitylibdems.org.uk/articles/000035/how_am_i_supposed_to_get_up_there.html Nick Bishop has cerebral palsy. He explains how he deals with the obstacles he comes across in everyday life - such as the steps that come between him and a pint with his mates - and, below, puts 10 award-winning London restaurants to the test 2008-01-22T00:00+00:00 http://www.disabilitylibdems.org.uk/articles/000034/bar_and_restaurant_managers_should_be_given_shopping_trolleys.html Reading the article by Nick Bishop, who has cerebral palsy, on coping with getting around bars and restaurants, I found myself nodding in agreement (a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/jan/10/disability.longtermcare">How am I supposed to get up there?, January 10). 2008-01-22T00:00+00:00 http://www.disabilitylibdems.org.uk/articles/000033/without_medication_he_could_do_nothing.html Laurie Young spent seven months in hospital with an inflammatory bowel condition. Laurie, who has Parkinson's disease, was in intensive care three times and his heart stopped once - his family were told he was not expected to survive. He could not eat, lost the ability to speak walk and was hallucinating. 2008-01-20T00:00+00:00