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100 signatures reached
To: Northern Ireland Executive Ministers
Open letter to the NI Executive: The Draft Disability Strategy needs significant revision.
We, the undersigned, have signed this letter to make clear that that the Northern Ireland Executive’s draft Disability Strategy does nothing to improve the lives Deaf and Disabled people and will not progress our rights in any way. We are calling for an urgent rethink and significant revisions to the final Strategy.
The Strategy was an opportunity to work with Deaf and Disabled people to address the barriers we face daily in our lives. The draft Strategy is a massive disappointment. It has been developed without input from Deaf and Disabled people and it's 58 commitments will fail to deliver any meaningful change to our lives or advance our rights as citizens. We feel devalued and disillusioned by the Executive and believe no strategy is better than this strategy.
The Strategy was an opportunity to work with Deaf and Disabled people to address the barriers we face daily in our lives. The draft Strategy is a massive disappointment. It has been developed without input from Deaf and Disabled people and it's 58 commitments will fail to deliver any meaningful change to our lives or advance our rights as citizens. We feel devalued and disillusioned by the Executive and believe no strategy is better than this strategy.
Why is this important?
We are inviting members of the public to sign the open letter below to the Executive with a clear message that the draft Disability Strategy is unacceptable. The letter was drafted by Deaf and Disabled people and their organisations who were part of the Expert Advisory Plan and the Co-Design Group between 2020 and 2022.
Deaf and Disabled people have waited over a decade for a Disability Strategy - we deserve better.
Deaf and Disabled people have waited over a decade for a Disability Strategy - we deserve better.
Dear Executive Ministers,
The undersigned agree that the Northern Ireland Executive’s draft Disability Strategy does nothing to improve the lives Deaf and Disabled people and will not progress our rights in any way. We are calling for an urgent rethink and significant revisions to the final Strategy.
Northern Ireland has been without a Disability Strategy for over a decade during which we have experienced austerity, the COVID-19 pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis. Deaf and Disabled people are amongst those most impacted by these changes, making pre-existing discrimination and inequalities significantly worse.
The Disability Strategy was an opportunity for our Executive to work with Deaf and Disabled people to demonstrate a real ambition and commitment to reduce the barriers we encounter daily and improve our lives. Instead, the draft Strategy, largely developed ignoring coproduction, lacks the strategic and resource commitments required to deliver change. The promise of an action plan, at an unspecified date, does little to reassure Deaf and Disabled people who feel disillusioned and devalued by the draft Strategy.
We are urging the Executive to rethink this approach and to engage in an urgent dialogue with Deaf and Disabled people to develop a Disability Strategy with commitments and an action plan containing measurable and time bound targets to address the barriers we face. We are asking for specific resources to be devoted to delivering the Strategy. Finally, we are asking that the Strategy do more to embed coproduction with Deaf and Disabled people at all stages of development and delivery.
We are committed to dialogue and working with you to improve the lives of Deaf and Disabled people and progressing our rights. We believe that the current draft Strategy fails completely in this regard. In many ways we believe no Strategy is better than this Strategy.
Deaf and Disabled people and their families, friends and allies deserve so much better.
Yours sincerely,