MDPAC

Julie Burchill is entitled to defend Jeremy Vine. Mike O’Brien is entitled to challenge him. But this goes far beyond one broadcaster, one columnist or one campaigner. What I will not accept is disabled people being divided into the “deserving” and “undeserving”, with wheelchair users held up as somehow more legitimate than people with mental health conditions or less visible disabilities. My wheelchair does not make my disability more valid than somebody else’s. Disabled people work. Disabled people pay tax. Some cannot work. Some need support to work. None of that determines our worth. We cannot allow ourselves to be divided to make welfare cuts and suspicion of disabled people easier to justify. Because once we accept that there is a line between the “good disabled” and the “bad disabled”, somebody else gets to decide where that line is drawn. #DisabilityRights #DisabilityBenefits #PIP #UnpaidCarers #DisabledPeople

We have to hold the line on this. Abuse and personal attacks are unacceptable, whoever they are aimed at, and I have called them out when I’ve seen them. But legitimate criticism is not abuse. Disabled people, chronically ill people and unpaid carers have every right to challenge powerful presenters, organisations and decisions that affect our communities. One individual advocate cannot be held responsible for everything that other people subsequently say or do online. I know Mike through the DPO Forum, and I will not stand by while one person from our community is singled out and expected to answer for the behaviour of an entire online audience. We can condemn abuse while still demanding accountability. Those two things can, and must, coexist. @Mikeo56977865 @areyoflight @DpacLeeds @Dis_PPL_Protest @1kilroywashere @paulapeters2 @GMCDP @relish_hendy @DPACSheffield #DisabilityRights #DisabledPeople #UnpaidCarers #Carers #DisabilityAdvocacy #DPO #DisabilityVoice