My work in the disability field began in 1990, when I became a committee member of the Hastings and Rother Disability Forum (HRDF). This is an organisation run by and for disabled people which aims to improve the chance for disabled people in Hastings and Rother to have full inclusion and equality in society. After a break of around five years, I returned to my post as a committee member in late 2001 and continued my work with HRDF. I took up the position of Acting Chair in May 2005, and was re-elected as Chair at their Annual General Meetings in 2006 and 2007. During this time I continued to build relationships between HRDF and other local organisations and decision-makers, as well as leading the Forum in its work around Hastings and Rother. In July 2008 I stood down from the committee in order to concentrate on my consultancy work.
As a recipient of a Personal Budget from East Sussex County Council's Adult Social Care Department, I have been involved since July 2010 in running a peer support group for users of Direct Payments. This group enables disabled people using Direct Payments to come together on a regular basis and share their experiences of the day-to-day issues that affect them in relation to receiving Direct Payments. I believe that Direct Payments give disabled people more choice and control over the way that care and support services are provided, and that, given the right support on a day-to-day basis, it can work very well - people just need to talk to and learn from each other about what's worked and what solutions there are to difficulties they've encountered.
As well as working in an administrative role for a local organisation supporting disabled people to find voluntary work placements, I spent over two years working for East Sussex Disability Association (ESDA). My role was to set up and facilitated forums of disabled people across East Sussex, enabling members to look at employment-related issues. These forums regularly invited speakers from key voluntary and statutory sector organisations. This enabled members to hear about services available and to raise issues of concern that affected them as disabled people. Key issues were then taken back to the East Sussex Employment Strategy Steering Group, where appropriate actions were agreed and useful dialogue instigated with key decision-makers.
My time at ESDA also involved carrying out a number of research projects to find out about the experiences of disabled people, including:
Being visually impaired myself, I has been a reader of braille since I was a child. Therefore the production of material in braille and other formats has always been important to me, and in particular, the quality of information produced. I began transcribing material into Braille on a small scale back in the mid 1990s, and decided to develop this into a business in late 1999.
Having completed my training as a disability equality trainer in 2001 I began trading as Equal Access Consultancy, initially offering my services in braille transcription and disability equality training. I have since extended the business to include:
Research projects that I have ndertaken on her own and with other associates include:
With the requirement for public authorities to pro-actively involve disabled people in developing their services, I have worked on a number of projects to create and sustain reference groups of disabled people.
Between November 2009 and March 2010 I worked as Project Manager on ESDA's User-led Organisations Demonstrator Site project, helping local organisations working with disabled people and their carers to develop as user-led organisations. This involved working with other Consultants to offer training and consultancy to nine organisations, providing opportunities for local disabled people to work alongside Consultants with organisations and to sit on the Project Board, and leading the production of a support pack to help future organisations develop as user-led organisations.
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