Last year, the Commons' Women and Equalities Select Committee investigated enforcement of the Equality Act 2010, including the role played by the EHRC (Equalities and Human Rights Commission).

Their report, Enforcing the Equality Act: the law and the role of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, concludes that the act is "not fit for purpose"...

Read more here

 

Deaf children across England are struggling at every stage of their education because of ‘a lifetime of being left behind’, according to the National Deaf Children’s Society.

On average, they fall an entire grade behind their hearing classmates at GCSE, and fewer than half achieve two A-levels or the equivalent, compared with nearly two-thirds of hearing pupils.

More details here

 

Free hospital car parking is one of the benefits of living in Scotland (or Wales).

Readers living in England are not so fortunate, and there is a worrying trend of hospitals introducing charges even for Blue Badge holders. Currently, 1 in 7 do so - but there is a campaign afoot to stop this practise, which could well breach their Public Sector Equality Duty.

Read more here

 

The Ramp People have some clever new dual purpose ramps. 

Their channel and bridge ramps can be used as standard channel ramps by simply resting them on the step. 

Or thanks to their folding feature, they can also be used to bridge thresholds...

Read more here

 

Many of us have strong feelings about end of life care, and how much or little medical intervention we would want to receive.

An Advance Decision should take care of that if we lose capacity to express our wishes when the time comes.

But research by Compassion in Dying has shown that GPs often have fears or misconceptions about this sort of advanced planning.

Read more here

 

The accessibility review website, Euan's Guide, has announced the successful distribution of 50,000 Red Cord Cards, an important milestone on the journey towards making every accessible toilet safer. 

The 50,000th Red Cord Card is now in place at Blair Drummond Safari and Adventure Park in Stirling, home of this cheeky red-ruffed lemur...

More about the campaign here 

 

Don't forget that you can apply to join the Independent Living Facebook group, if you would like to spend more time discussing these themes with other interested people. 

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Until next time, best wishes,

Frances