An update on the future of Disability Now

32 years ago Disability Now was founded to provide a strong platform for debate and discussion of disability issues - a platform where disabled people had their voices heard. Scope has funded Disability Now for 20 years, and we are proud that in that time the publication has showcased the huge diversity of voices and talent …

DRILL: funding the future of disability studies

A new initiative for funding academic research seeks to tap directly into the lives and experiences of disabled people, says Ruth Patrick. Members of the disabled people’s movement have long campaigned under the banner of ‘nothing about us without us’. This powerful and simple slogan speaks to disabled people’s desire for self-determination and for a …

Product review: Verbalise talking watches – talking the talk, looking the look

Ian Macrae has been looking at and listening to a couple of new additions to the range of talking watches which aim to bring a certain style. Talking watches have moved way beyond their original and most likely consumer group, namely people with impaired sight. Their presence on sites such as Amazon and in the …

Access on the buses: still a stop/start journey

This year Euro Bus Expo was held at the NEC in Birmingham, UK. Helen Dolphin was interested in finding out what the future of bus and coach travel might be for disabled passengers. She found mixed prospects. This is the largest coach, bus and mini bus trade show in Europe and I thought a good …

Benefits cap calls Green’s ‘compassion’ into question

Work and pensions secretary, Damien Green claims to be bringing a more benevolent approach to reforming welfare. But Ruth Patrick argues that the decrease in the benefits cap shows he hasn’t entirely abandoned the old agenda and rhetoric. As a supposedly compassionate conservative, the new Secretary of State at the Department for Work and Pensions, …

The Download: Chasing disabled customers and bad news from the workplace

Presenter Paul Carter is joined by business coach Robin Hindle-Fisher and disability consultant Phil Friend. They discuss unexpected positive consequences from an examination of the extra costs disabled people face which was carried out by Scope, the charity which funds Disability Now. Also on the agenda some research from Nottingham University’s business school which suggests …

Portsmouth’s victory on blue badge abuse

There has been recent discussion on what appropriate penalties should be for people using blue parking badges fraudulently. But, argues Helen Dolphin, the answer lies in policing and enforcement rather than stronger punishment. At the start of the year the Department for Transport (DfT) released figures which showed that in 2014-15 legal action had been …

The Download Head to Head: Baroness Jane Campbell

In the latest conversation in our Head-To-Head podcast series, Ian Macrae meets Baroness Campbell of Surbiton. She talks about her suburban childhood and poor early schooling, the death of her first husband and its impact on her disability politics, her hopes for Teresa May's government and how members of the House of Lords react to …

PIP: now it’s personal

As the process of migrating disabled people from Disability Living Allowance (DLA) to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) continues at its own pace, Andy Rickell gives his personal account of the labyrinthine process. Eventually, it arrived. The letterbox flap rattled and a plain brown envelope with a return DWP address dropped to the mat. I knew …

Life, equality and the business of dying

In these times of deep uncertainty, Professor Mike Oliver takes a satirical look at how the opportunity of choosing to end your life early might be extended and made more equal. The film Me Before You and subsequent responses seems to have re-ignited the debate about whether we need a Dignitas-type system for “assisted dying” …