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Disability Alliance Conference 2007
Philip Connolly is the Employment Campaigns Officer for RNIB. He is tasked with removing the institutional barriers that impede the employment of blind and partially sighted people. He was the campaigns and communications manager for Living Streets prior to joining RNIB and specialised in transport and the built environment. He co-authored the book "Respect in the Neighbourhood." He has also been a research chemist, a college lecturer and a direct book salesman. He has campaigned on peace, environmental and development issues since 1981 but is now coming closer to home. Philip is registered with optic atrophy himself and attended a special school for the partially sighted.
Doug has an impairment that forces him to use a wheelchair and he has care needs. As such, he faces much discrimination.
He has a first class honours degree in Geophysics, also employment history, but is prevented from working or earning due to punitive government rules.
Up until 1997, Doug had no need for care or equipment, though has progressively come to rely on such over the years since. In 2001 he was forced against his will to move into a residential home due to lack of appropriate provision of support and housing in the community.
He is not as he puts it "the stereotypical residential home resident" in that he is relatively empowered, articulate and knows his rights. As such the institutional environment of the home came as a shock and his independent rights-based approach came as a shock to the home.
I don't think anybody is a "typical" resident - but the home perhaps has to personalise its service more for me than for others!
Terry Rooney is Chair of the DWP Select Committee. You can view his biography on the parliament website.
Liz is Chief Executive of RADAR, the UK’s leading pan-disability organisation. She is a member of the Disability Committee of the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
Before that she was Director, Policy and Communications, for the Disability Rights Commission, where she led on creating a new Disability Agenda for policy for the next 2 decades, as well as a Formal Investigation into physical health inequalities experienced by people with mental health problems and/or learning disabilities.
Previously she was Director of Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham Health Action Zone. She spent 8 years as Policy Director of Mind, and one year as a Harkness Fellow in the USA, studying the impact of the Americans with Disabilities Act and related policy initiatives.
She was a member of the UK Government’s Disability Rights Task Force (1997-99). With personal experience of mental health difficulties, she has published widely on mental health and disability issues including From Psychiatric Patient to Citizen (Macmillan-Palgrave 2000).
Paul is the Director of Policy and Services, responsible for leading the policy and lobbying work at Disability Alliance. Previously, he worked as policy officer at London Advice Services Alliance and as a welfare rights worker for Child Poverty Action Group. He currently chairs the Social Security Consortium and is a leading member of the Disability Benefits Consortium.
His work has covered a range of policy issues including the current welfare reforms, particularly in relation to incapacity benefit reform. He has also highlighted the need for independent advice provision across London, child poverty issues and Legal Services Commission contracting.
