International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD), 3 December 2021

This year, the theme for International Day of Persons with Disabilities is ‘Building Back Better: toward a disability-inclusive, accessible and sustainable post COVID-19 World.’ Pre COVID-19, there were two extremes of models describing disability alongside the experience and the interrelationships with the individual; these models being the Medical Model and the Social Model. 

Being disabled (as defined under the UK’s Equality Act 2010) is not a personal choice; I was born with my neurodivergent conditions (autism, dyslexia and dyspraxia) and over the years despite struggling and restrictive at infant and secondary schools in the 1980s, I have seen attitudes change. Being neurodivergent has moved from being a “handicap” to nowadays as a “superpower” by some. My visual impairment came later, it was diagnosed in my third year (October 1993) of university during a routine appointment with a high street optician.  

I do not have a life threating condition, but the without ongoing medical intervention the quality of my life would be a lot worse, or without finding loving friends and working now and previously alongside some amazing motivated people. For example, I so thankful for my wonderful compassionate wife and our insightful daughter or continue to be working as a ground engineer professional with my reasonable adjustments (workplace adjustments) in place within a supportive environment and passion. Yet I remain disabled 24/7, I have lived experience of disability; I am disabled by society’s lack of willingness to accommodate me.

All my hidden conditions interrelate, either as limitations or strengths; the manifestations of which are extreme reactions and are two sides of the same coin. They make me unique, they have shaped me, but they do not define who I am. Instead, they make me ask, what is considered normal and the uniqueness of all of us. Sure, my conditions and their interrelationships can drive me crazy at times, but they stir me to empower others at work and elsewhere. COVID-19 for all has meant extended remote work and detachment from others and meant the need for frequent face-to-face interaction with all human beings as a necessary component of good mental health.

Time must be taken with empathy applied to listen to the minority, the silent, the underrepresented ones, and sometimes we may know they are even among us. How can we design systems and services unless we take time to hear the voices not only of those who speak loudly but also from those who get? We should never model and design the future solutions based on our inherent bias, poor assumptions, and our incomplete knowledge. Six specific areas as takeaway points which will lead to societal Building Back Better are:

1. developing disability-inclusive public health communication, responses, and emergency preparedness,
2. enabling employment and flexible working opportunities for people with disabilities
3. addressing new requirements in services (buildings, public transport, shared spaces) and their delivery,
4. adopting the seven principles of universal and inclusion design at micro, meso and macro scales,
5. developing the current and future rehabilitation workforce: resilience, employment, and enhanced distance learning, and
6. recognising role models in the workplace, in society and the voice of the traditionally underrepresented ones.

These areas are an ongoing journey of accepting and proving opportunities for one another especially those with underlying health conditions and disabilities. What matters, is we continue to move together in the right direction for the greater good and hopefully empowering others to live well, to belong and ultimately to fulfil their dreams.  Without building using the rubble of the pandemic remains and the vain hope to retrofit everything together in a last-minute panic. 

Instead, creating greater acceptance, new models of disabilities, emerging inclusive structures will have to be established, to create a fair and equitable society. We see signs of this with the creation of the UK’s National Disability Strategy, the development of the British Standard on Inclusive Design for the mind – Neurodiversity and the built environment (BS PS 6463:2021), national broadcasters spreading awareness of inclusion of disability within society for example greater visible representation, more discussions / documentaries, formation of the cognitive inclusion toolkit and increased accessibility options on technology / devices and software, etc.

For instance, as we see more and more tools are incorporated into the technologies that we carry with us for use at work, or as part of our daily lives. These technologies reflect an understanding that the ways in which we interact with information and communicate are varied. They may change as a result of our setting (voice control and hands free when driving) a need or disability (large text or high contrast in low light) or resulting from the ways our minds process that information. Neurodiversity is one of the reasons why universal design is valued and reflects the principle that we are all different and one size does not fit all. Therefore, this may mean putting personal agendas aside to focus on the greater good of the people’s behaviours and interactions to one another.  

Between 2020 to 2021, I have experienced and learnt from many extremes of human behaviours, the good, the bad, and the ugly. We are still on this journey together, at the recent COP26 Conference, Israel’s energy minister Karine Elharrar-Hartstein tried to get into one of the conference’s meetings, but she uses a wheelchair, and no wheelchair-accessible entrance was available. After a few hours she gave up and went back to her hotel.  A high-level apology followed.  Similarly, a lack of sign language interpreters was also reported across the conference. That said and other examples, I will continue to work throughout 2022 and onwards to counter oppressive, unjust systems and existing inequities.