17th August 2009

							Miro Griffiths is a member of the British Council’s Disability Advisory Panel. At
20 years old he already has a vast amount of experience in the field of
disability equality. A student at Liverpool University, where he has just
completed his second year of a degree in psychology at Liverpool University,
Miro has a “can do” approach and is involved in tackling barriers faced by
disabled people through his activities with several local and national
organisations. He spoke to June Jackson, consultant to the British Council’s
Diversity Unit, about his experience, his ideas about how to achieve disability
equality particularly in the transition of disabled people from childhood to
adulthood, and how organisations can be part of promoting and achieving
disability equality.




“When I meet people, or when I am spoken about, I
always like to think that I don’t want to be perceived
as Miro, the guy in the wheelchair who can’t do this.
I think my disability and my impairment should come
second to who I am. That’s one major thing. I don’t
want to be characterised by my impairment. I want
to be seen for my beliefs, my values and other
issues”.


On the right of the page is a photo of Miro Griffiths.




Miro’s interest and commitment to disability equality can be traced as far back as the
age of 13 when he was awarded a Millennium Grant from the Lottery Fund to work
on a computer programme aimed at raising awareness of disability equality amongst
young people. Achieving the grant led to a work placement with an international
electronics and media company where he was on a team developing the concept for
the computer game. At the end of the work placement, while he was looking to
upgrade to a high specification power chair, Miro came across Whizz-Kidz, a charity
that provides equipment for disabled children so that they can lead a more
independent life. When he approached Whizz-Kidz enquiring about a power chair,
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they told him that, as well as providing equipment, they also had a network of young
people who work to influence change in organisations. They invited Miro to join that
group which he did, becoming their North West representative. In that role he went
out and about to different organisations which have an impact on disabled people’s
lives, for example airlines and leisure facilities, informing them about what would
make things more accessible for disabled young people in particular and influencing
them to improve access.


Through his work with Whizz-Kidz, Miro then heard about Equality 2025, an
independent body set up to offer the UK government advice and expertise on
disability issues. Feeling that this would be an influential body, Miro applied, was
appointed and is now the co-lead for data and statistics. The name Equality 2025
reflects the government’s pledge to achieve equality for disabled people by the year
2025 and the members act as a conduit between disabled people, disabled people’s
organisations and the government. Government departments can come to the group
when they are designing new services or policies, and discuss them with the group
who then go out and carry out consultation with disabled people and report back
their views. This is very much in line with the social model of disability, which focuses
on solutions to barriers which disable people rather than on an individual’s particular
impairment.


Keen to encourage increased awareness about disability issues and to influence
change particularly in organisational services and policies which affect young
disabled people, Miro is a consultant to several bodies including the Council of
Disabled Children, which is part of the National Children’s Bureau and the
Qualifications and Curriculum Authority. He frequently writes articles for a number of
organisations including charities.


An area of particular interest to Miro is in the ‘transition’ for disabled people from
childhood to adulthood. He has a lot of experience to draw on which can contribute
to improvements to greatly enhance young people’s experiences of education, health
and social services. He explains this as follows. A young disabled person is usually
‘at the back of the queue, you are pushed back a little bit from society’. A young non-
disabled person gets to 16, 18, makes a few choices about school, education,
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making friends, etc. For them the transition, the life pathway between being a child
and becoming an adult, is an important event but it is not an ordeal. For a disabled
person it is completely different. For example, if you take education, you have to go
to various meetings, important meetings about your future, when you are around 14,
and talk about what is going to happen when you are post-16, post-18. If you have
health needs, or you require assistance for independent life, then you have to talk
about funding and maintaining a network of personal assistants (PAs). Miro says that
the communication between child and adult services are disjointed, and therefore
some issues fall between the two services and do not get followed up, “At the
moment the transition service is like being thrown from one side of the fence to the
other side”. Also, at the age of 14, you do not realise how important these meetings
are, you are just sitting there thinking about what you will do when you get home that
night, you don’t actually appreciate what is going on, “I was in the transition process
from the age of 14, it’s just a pity no-one told me until now”. Miro feels it is crucial to
address these issues and, because of his experience, he feels empowered to do
that.


Despite having had limited previous exposure to disability, his parents were able to
deal with the various bodies such as health and education. For example, when Miro
was 2 or 3 years old his parents were told that he would not be entitled to have a
power chair until he was 5 years old. They, however, wanted him to be
independently mobile at as young an age as possible. When all his friends were
running around they wanted him to be able to get around at the same speed as
them. In the end, they purchased a power chair themselves. This, Miro believes, was
the first step towards his independence. He is conscious that this is a cost to a family
with a disabled child, highlighting that even a family who are relatively comfortably
well off could go into poverty because of the need to spend money on facilities for a
disabled child.


Miro attended a mainstream school. Although he believes that special schools are
beneficial for some disabled people, he feels that some for whom they are not
suitable are enrolled in special schools because it is easier for the education
services. He finds that he speaks to a lot of young people and their families who
have just gone through the system in a very passive way, often deferring to authority,
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and they have made the wrong choices, have been given the wrong choices to
make, and they have had their hands forced in a certain way. They then find that
they cannot reverse their decision. He feels that, although there are exceptions, the
medical professions in general need to shift more from projecting the view that
disability is “a fate worse than death” to a positive approach of providing information
about what the facilities are, including the fantastic equipment, constantly
developing, which can enable independent living.


In adulthood disabled people can face poverty in that there is a range of help, and
certainly many charities, for disabled young people, however that support disappears
when they become adults. This can lead to a vicious circle in that if it has proved
difficult for a disabled person to access suitable education, then they will have
greater difficulty in gaining employment. In addition, facilities such as power chairs
are an expense and can cost as much as an average family car, “A non-disabled
person walking down the street doesn’t pay for that, but someone who needs a
power chair, an essential for mobility, has to pay for it”.


Miro manages a group of PAs, rather than purchase a service from the social
services. This is a strategy which he feels can contribute to achieving an
independent life in a society that has been constructed by non-disabled people for a
non-disabled society,


       “A disabled person has to try and navigate their way though it…It would be
       lovely if I could leave my house in the morning and do my day-to-day work,
       see my friends, and not feel discriminated against. But every day I wake up in
       the morning I know, and I am not thinking it all the time, being miserable, but I
       know in the back of my head that there will be ten things at least that are
       going to be a problem that day, that I am going to face some kind of
       discrimination. It may be an attitude, it may be a practical issue, it may be a
       physical barrier, but there will be some things. I don’t single each thing out
       otherwise I would be writing letter after letter. It’s more to do with what can we
       do at the top to make sure that things at the bottom are done”.




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He therefore prefers managing his own network of PAs, although it does mean that
he is therefore an employer and needs to do the related paperwork and
management. However, recruiting his own PAs means that he is in control. He
usually recruits PAs who don’t know anything, or don’t know very much, about
disability, as he prefers it if they learn about his individual need rather than come
with any preconceived ideas. His experience has taught him that there needs to be a
clear distinction between someone who is a ‘friend’ and someone who is working for
him as a PA. A friend may well help him when he is out socially, however that is a
relaxed relationship of give and take. If a friend is also a PA, then it needs to be clear
when they are in the PA role, i.e. when they are carrying out their tasks as an
employee.


Miro appreciates and values the work of past campaigners on disability equality and
believes that this has achieved progress,


       “It’s because of the past campaigners that we are now sitting talking about it.
       That’s why you have organisations setting up their own disability panels and
       bringing in external disability consultants. That’s why we are moving towards
       a better future where we will be able to unite on certain issues and be able to
       have common ground”.


Miro talks about the need to promote disability equality on a global level and for this
reason became a member of the British Council’s Disability Advisory Panel as he
believes that the UK experience of disability equality can be shared with other
countries. He saw this first hand when he participated in the British Council’s Young
Advocates Programme which brought together, at the Beijing Paralympics, disabled
and non disabled young people to promote social inclusion through sporting activity
and enhance cross cultural understanding in the context of the Paralympic Spirit. For
Miro, the Paralympic Spirit is not about sport, but about showing that disabled
people, if they are empowered, can triumph over any barriers.


Although an advocate of taking UK ideas and experience of disability and sharing it
with other countries, Miro stresses the importance of people taking the ideas and
adapting them to their own cultures. For example, in some countries people shy
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away from disability and are not used to showing images, for example of disabled
people on the television. In such cases there should be consultation locally with
people supporting disability equality in order to establish how and when to introduce
positive images of disabled people. The stages that he would like to work on are the
development of disability awareness, then promoting disability equality and finally
implementation of policies such as provision of equal access. Looking ahead, Miro
plans to build on his psychology degree by pursuing further studies on disability and
he is particularly interested in identity issues and exploring how people’s attitudes to
disability are formed, with a view to achieving genuine equality of opportunity and
access.




September 2009




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