United Response welcomes inquiry into disability harassment

3 December 2009

The national learning disability charity, United Response, has welcomed plans announced by the Equality and Human Rights Commission today to launch a formal inquiry into harassment experienced by disabled people.

Su Sayer, chief executive of United Response said:

"Thankfully we live in a time when overt racism is no longer acceptable, yet as a society we continue to look the other way and allow people with disabilities - especially those with learning disabilities - to experience harassment on a daily basis. Any inquiry which seeks to tackle this issue and offers disabled people the freedom to live their lives free from abuse, is something which we fully support.

"Through our UR On Board project, we have worked very closely with councils, transport authorities and the police in Greater Manchester and Liverpool, to try and tackle harassment. With support from all sides, what began primarily as a project to tackle the bullying experienced by people with learning disabilities on public transport, is now looking at harassment across several areas of daily life. It has also led to the police setting up several hate crime reporting centres, where people with learning disabilities can go and report harassment, safe in the knowledge that they will be listened to. This project has shown us just how much can be achieved when public authorities not only take an issue seriously, but involve disabled people from the beginning in finding and delivering a solution.

"However projects of this kind on their own will not end the harassment that people with learning disabilities experience. We need to see a change in public attitude, whereby the abuse of disabled people is no longer met with indifference, but by public outcry. Calling public authorities to account is a welcome start, but this must not be used as an excuse to transfer responsibility from the individual for their own actions. Disability harassment is an issue which we must all play our part in addressing."

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