UK Disability History Month
Celebrating the lives of disabled people now and in the past and challenging disabilism by exploring their oppression over time and now
2022 Theme: Disability, Health and Well Being
UK Disability History Month (UKDHM) is an annual event which aims to promote disabled people’s rights and their struggle for equality now and in the past. This year marks the 13th anniversary of the establishment of UKDHM, which will take place from 16th November until 16th December 2022.
Every year, UKDHM focuses on a theme, this year the theme is Disability, Health and Well Being.
The Covid Pandemic has demonstrated across the UK and around the world just how fragile the Rights disabled people have secured for themselves are and this year UKDHM will examine the history of welfare from disabled people’s point of view and provide examples of how this denial of human rights can and will be reversed.
Neurodiversity, Capitalism and Socialism
Janine Booth is a workplace trade union representative and Co-Chair of the TUC Disabled Workers' Committee. She is autistic, has an autistic son and is a walking advertisement for autism in the workplace.
In this 18-minute illustrated talk, first posted in November 2018, Janine looks at what the experience of autistic, dyslexic and other neurodivergent people is under capitalism, what socialism can offer and how we get there.
BBC Radio 4: What If Everyone Was Disabled?
“Every single day, I’m reminded of my disability. Yeah, it doesn’t stop me from doing much… but the reminders are always there.”
Mat Fraser – writer, actor, rights activist, thalidomide survivor – isn’t afraid to challenge, to provoke and to ask awkward questions. Sometimes he allows his imagination to run riot. In this programme, he wonders how different things might be if the vast majority of people, rather than the minority, had a disability and assesses how far we’ve come with accessibility and inclusivity, particularly in the last two decades, as well as considering what’s stopping us from going further. Money, power, politics, legislation and technology all play their part, but what about social attitudes towards disability?
Listen to What If Everyone Was Disabled