Action on Disability

The challenge

Disabled people are often excluded from decisions that affect their lives. Often, consultation comes late in the process, is inaccessible, or doesn’t translate into real change.

The result is services and policies that fail to reflect the needs and expertise of the people they are supposed to serve.

At the same time, there are too few pathways for Disabled people to develop the skills, confidence and network to become leaders, creating change in their communities.

The project

Action on Disability is a local Disabled People's Organisation based in Hammersmith & Fulham. For more than 40 years, it has worked to remove barriers and promote independent living, equality and a full participation in society.

We fund Our Voice, a project to develop more local Disabled leaders to influence the deisions that affect them.

Rather than a single intervention – where impact is often time limited – the project moved participants through four stages. This ensured that that over time people continued to engage and developed the confidence to become true leaders in their communities.

The four stages of the ‘Our Voice’ programme – ensuring participants learn key skills and concepts, before getting involved with campaigns and forums and, ultimately, becoming leaders.

The project has helped many Deaf and Disabled people in Hammersmith and Fulham increase their confidence to influence decisions that affect their lives. And ultimately, this has contributed to tangible improvements in services.

For example, Disabled residents were able to contribute to accessibility and redevelopment planning at an early stage, influencing discussions on inclusive design rather than responding to final proposals.

By developing leaders over time, the project will also have impact in the long term, beyond the lifespan of the project. It has helped local Disabled residents becoming tomorrow’s active co-producers, leaders, activists, influencers and participators.