Members of the Disability Lived Experience Group at their first meeting on September 29, with council officers and Councillor Aaron Skinner, who chairs the group.
In Mid and East Antrim, People with Disabilities now have a formal place in the work of their council. A new group held its first meeting on September 29 with twelve residents, the mayor, and the councillor who proposed it. The residents were recruited over the summer, and their task is to shape how the council plans and runs its services so that People with Disabilities can use them. These are people who know the barriers firsthand, and the group exists so that what they know is reflected in council decisions.
The group's reach is wide. Members will look at how accessible and inclusive the whole borough is, including the way the council develops its property and facilities. They will also go through council policies and projects, point out where improvement is possible, and bring their own experience directly into the places where decisions get made. That puts People with Disabilities inside the planning itself.
The councillor who proposed the group, and who now chairs it, names the gap plainly: People with Disabilities have too often gone unheard. The group is meant to hand disabled residents a meaningful seat, plus real influence over decisions about their lives. Parents of children with disabilities are among those it speaks for, along with people who face barriers when they use council services. Through the group, these residents will shape policy and speak up for what has to change, rather than waiting to be heard.
The people who meet a barrier every day belong in the room before the plan is drawn. The mayor frames the group as the start of a continuing partnership with people and organizations that speak for People with Disabilities, and says the council looks forward to hearing from it in the months ahead. We already hold that removing barriers means consulting the people who know them best, from the first day of planning. The gap is ours to look at, because too often we invite their view after the venue is chosen and the plan is written, which is the very overlooking this group was formed to end.
Whoever we invite to our first planning conversation is ours to choose, and a parent of a child with disabilities belongs on that list. We can ask that parent to look over our plans and projects and name where improvement is possible, before we call anything final. A parent's view that reaches the plan on time is how we start building Vibrant, Diverse, Inclusive, Accessible Communities for People with Disabilities.
Put the people who meet the barrier in the room first, and removing it can start on day one.
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