Why I Campaign For Disability Rights
The Changing Places Toilet campaign calls for more specialised, fully accessible bathroom facilities. Campaigner Jill Clark shares her story and explains why she began advocating for better facilities as someone living with cerebral palsy.
Words and photo by Jill Clark
Everyone has a favourite saying and mine is a ‘disability is an ability to do something’. So I always say my disability gives me the ability and power to campaign for human rights.
Firstly, let me introduce myself. I am 32 and live in Glasgow. My interests are music, shopping, and I am the biggest Mr. Blobby fan!
I live with a disability which is called cerebral palsy. It affects my muscles, my movement and my speech. I use a wheelchair all of the time and I communicate through a communication device. I use a tracker dot to access my programme on my device. The dot is on my head, and just like infrared.
For many years now I have been campaigning for more changing places toilets in Glasgow. Changing places toilets are specialised bathroom facilities that are built to be fully accessible for people with complex disabilities who may need assistance. A changing places toilet has equipment in it such as a hoist, a changing bed and it is big enough for a wheelchair user and two carers to move around in.
As I am in a wheelchair, I require a hoist to get to the toilet and sadly not all disabled toilets have a hoist. So, I started my campaign for changing places toilets.
Standard accessible toilets do not meet the needs of all people with a disability. Over a quarter of a million people in the UK with a disability need extra equipment and space to allow them to use the toilets safely and comfortably. These needs are met by changing places toilets.
The reason that I started my campaign was that I was very limited in where I could go because of the lack of changing places toilets. When I started my campaign there were only two public places in Glasgow that had a changing place toilet and nowadays there are about 26. These include Clydebank Shopping Centre, Central Station, Queen Street Station, Braehead, The Burrell Collection, the Riverside Museum, Glasgow Science Centre and many more.
With my campaign I have written to places to see if they can install a changing places toilet. I have had a few articles in the Glasgow Times and I have appeared on the TV programme, Inside Central Station. But my greatest success with my campaign was getting a changing places toilet installed in my local shopping centre. There is an organisation which has helped me a lot with my campaign, they are called TAG.
TAG stands for The Advisory Group; the Advisory Group has been going since 1996. It was originally set up by KEY Community Supports to enable people with disabilities to have a stronger voice in the services they use and in their local communities. In 2012, TAG became a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation.
TAG has over 500 members. There are 14 regional TAG groups across Scotland. TAG supports people to respond to issues and concerns raised by individuals both locally and nationally. But perhaps the most important work they do is making Scotland a more inclusive place for everyone to live.
TAG helps disabled people like myself by making life more inclusive through campaigns or by setting up activities in local communities, activities like football or dance clubs. Sadly, we live in a world where a lot of disabled people face challenges.
Talking from experiences and talking to other people, these challenges include: disabled access – difficulty accessing places like disabled toilets, or other places that are too small with no ramps; communication – disabled people being ignored because they communicate differently; public transport – particularly rude bus and taxi drivers who don’t help; social care – a lot of disabled people need to fight for the right care service; guide dogs – some places don’t let guide dogs in.
It is terrible that a lot of disabled people face these challenges, but that is where organisations like TAG – or people like myself who campaign to make sure that everyone is included in the world – come in!
Throughout June, we are taking part in the 'No News is Bad News’ campaign – which is founded on the belief that a well-informed community is more able to act together to shape its own future, that local news is fundamental to a healthy democratic society and invaluable in helping to create strong communities. As part of this campaign, any money we raise for the project during June will be doubled by an Indie News Fund.