Comm 440 post

 Continuation of Comm 440 Blog post:

 Six of the country’s biggest disability groups have warned that they are being labeled as scroungers. This is leading into an increase of resentment and abuse directed at disabled people.

According to Peter Walker of the Guardian, many charities are contacted on a regular bases “by people who have been taunted on the street about supposedly faking their disability and are concerned the climate of suspicion could spill over into violence or other hate crimes.”  

Some disabled people said that the climate is so hostile they avoid going out. Part of the problem is that since they do not look disabled and they use a designated parking spot, they will be taunted and abused.

Fazilet Hadi, head of inclusion for the RNIB, said, “I think they should be more careful. At the moment it feels like the government is not on the side of disabled people.”

In general, most people do not have that much exposure to disabled people. You don’t see them in the lifestyle pages or the fashion pages.

“The only reference they see is in these stories. And that’s why the language is so important,” Hadi said.

The government has committed to making cuts to disability benefits.