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Some “corporate” disability charities are perpetuating barriers to disability equality, activists have told a debate.

The disability charity RADAR organised last week’s debate in London to discuss whether disabled people’s organisations (DPOs) could campaign effectively for social justice without forging alliances with non-disabled campaigners.

The four speakers were the mental health service-user Peter Beresford, chair of the user-led organisation Shaping Our Lives and director of the Centre for Citizen Participation at Brunel University; David Morris, senior advisor to the Mayor of London on disability and deaf issues; James Partridge, chief executive of the charity Changing Faces; and the comedian Laurence Clark (pictured), chair of the Alliance for Inclusive Education (ALLFIE).

David Morris said DPOs needed to challenge corporate charities which pump millions of pounds into advertising campaigns which perpetuate indignity and the denial of basic human rights by promoting negative images of disabled people.

Referring to Leonard Cheshire Disability's Creature Discomforts campaign, he said: "I was looking at the disabled people whose voices were meant to be coming out and telling us about equality. They're talking about institutions, speaking from places of incarceration. They're speaking with a voice that gives aspirations which are laughable."

Laurence Clark said ALLFIE had been working successfully with organisations not run by disabled people for years, and he said Scope's Time To Get Equal campaign was a good example of DPOs and non-DPOs working together to raise awareness of the issues that oppress disabled people.

He also contrasted it with Leonard Cheshire Disability's Creature Discomforts campaign, and said: "Time to Get Equal used words like disablism and focussed on barriers such as access to transport, living in the community and employment. But if we contrast that to Creature Discomforts, we're still looking at a message that goes back to the government's See The Person, Not The Disability campaign from about 10 years ago. It's still focussed on abilities and not barriers."

Peter Beresford said disabled activists had never advocated staying aloof from organisations run by non-disabled people campaigning for social justice, like the feminist, environmentalist and Black Panther movements.

"Disabled people created the disabled people’s movement. But they also made a point of highlighting its relation to other movements. They highlighted the importance of linking with them and emphasised the overlaps in all our identities - we have complex identities, we may face many oppressions. Over the years, much has been done by disabled people to work in alliance from their different movements and organisations."

But he said that as long as DPOs lost out to big charities for funding, disabled people would not be able to speak for themselves and fight for more human rights.

James Partridge said that Changing Faces had collaborated successfully on awareness-raising campaigns with organisations not run by disabled people.

But he stressed that he would never collaborate with organisations if he felt that their values were at odds with those of Changing Faces.

He said: "Achieving social justice for people who have disabilities is about shifting our whole society's attitudes and practices and it will not be enough to only work with those of us who have these experiences. We must shift the mindsets and the behaviours of a large number of other people."

16 October, 2008