UK Disability History Month 2022
16 November – 16 December marks UK Disability History Month. ELBA wants to celebrate and amplify disability, and shout out the importance of equality and inclusion in all that we do. ELBA stands in solidarity with @UKDHM and all of our partners that are working to make those principles a reality.
16 November – 16 December also marks a range of important and related campaigns: Anti Bullying Week (14-18 November), UN International Day of Persons with Disabilities (3 December), Human Rights Day (10 December) and #PurpleLightUp.
In 1944, the Disability Employment Act was introduced, this meant that employers required at least 3% of roles to be offered to people with disabilities. In 1995, the Disability Rights Act came into place, this meant it was illegal to discriminate against people and their disabilities, and reasonable adjustments were to be made for disabled people to access services. 2010, the Equality Act passed, this protected people from discrimination within the workplace and wider society.
There has been a lot of improvement when looking back 100 or even 50 years, but there is much more to be done. ELBA is on a journey to do more on disability and we want to work with our partners to make positive change.
- 5% of disabled people aged 16 to 64 were in employment compared with 81.6% for non-disabled people. When looking at the type of employment, 13.8% disabled people were self-employment compared to 12.5% non-disabled people.
- 1% disable people aged 16 years and over in England reported feeling lonely compared with 3.6% of non-disabled people.
- 6 out of 10 disabled people’s anxiety levels were higher compared with 3.0 out of 10 for non-disabled people.
(Statistics year ending 2021, sourced from: ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/disability/articles/outcomesfordisabledpeopleintheuk/2021)
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