As one of the founder members and president of the Wheelchair Alliance, over the last ten years I’ve campaigned tirelessly on a number of prominent issues including accessibility, equality and welfare reform.
Since its launch in 2015, the Alliance has brought together wheelchair users, charities, representatives from the NHS and trade to highlight the challenges faced by wheelchair users each and every day.
And as a disabled person I always try to explain to people what my chair means to me. It’s not ‘a’ wheelchair, it’s ‘my’ wheelchair. It’s how I want to sit. It’s how I want to look. Without it I couldn’t do anything, so it means everything to me.
Being a wheelchair user often means that you need to be an expert in everything, whether it’s education or work or welfare or social care and a lot of the time it feels like you are having to make compromises. That’s something wheelchair users should not have to do.
Those who are disabled, along with their families, shouldn’t have to be the experts simply because the system doesn’t work.
It has been ten years since I posed for pictures outside parliament in a wheelbarrow to highlight how many disabled people are being provided with inadequate wheelchairs by the NHS – and we are still pushing for change.
It’s vital people get the right chair, at the right time.
Over the last decade I have worked alongside members of the Alliance to advocate on behalf of wheelchair users, highlighting inequalities in provision and services while ensuring the voice of wheelchair users is heard at the very highest level.
Much great work has been achieved over this time, including three individual reports which highlighted the huge disparities in the time it takes for people to access wheelchair services, the support they need plus the recommended next steps on how we overcome these challenges.
Unfortunately, the huge variation in quality of services across the UK remains a core objective for us to address. Without positive change in provision, a huge proportion of wheelchair-users will be left immobilised, frustrated and ignored.
It's a shame we need to campaign for this at all; but the reality is that we do. However, we will continue in our efforts to work together with wheelchair users, integrated care boards and providers to help ensure wheelchair users are listened to and provided a proper service, rather than being marginalised.
For me, the journey is not just personal, it’s about getting it right for everybody and doing the right thing. And, going forward, I truly believe that the Wheelchair Alliance can help make this happen.
Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, Paralympian and president of the Wheelchair Alliance
