Milestone Anniversary For SCAN
In 1991 a new initiative was launched by Elisabeth Berrisford to seek public support for the establishment of a new Access Action Group. Lis became the first chairperson of SCAN and its elected membership of disabled people has been very broad based and has attempted to achieve a barrier free environment for people with disabilities and impairments.
Any information extracted from the early issues up to 2003 has been scanned, are being transcribed and should give an opportunity to review some of old articles and look at how things may have changed over the intervening 30 years - whether good or bad – but hopefully not ugly.
I would like readers either who have a connection with disability to contact me with your own experiences, even if you are under 30 years of age. See below for ways to contact me.
I'm hoping that I can also re run a few of the stories behind the series of Creature disComforts adverts that were compiled by Leonard Cheshire disAbility and Aardman Animations in 2008/2009. Combining the real voices and experiences of disabled people, they explored the barriers and attitudes faced by disabled people every day.
Director General of Leonard Cheshire Disability in 2008 said: “We want people to change the way they see disability, to think and act differently and to make a positive difference to the lives of disabled people. “Creature Comforts is well known and much-loved for its ability to bring home messages in a simple, everyday way.
Our campaign builds on this, making a serious point with humour.” It has been noted that the animals involved have only been given physical disabilities. Although other disabilities are just as important, there are difficulties when presenting such ideas on screen or in printed images.
The characters were;
- Brian - English bull dog – manual wheelchair
- Flash – ‘Sausage’ dog – wheels strapped to ‘rear end’
- Slim – Stick insect – uses walking stick
- Spud – Slug – powered wheelchair and
- Peg – Hedgehog - manual wheelchair
- Tim – Tortoise – one withered rear leg and walks with crutches
- Millie – Mouse – Cerebral Palsy and
- Roxy – Rabbit - manual wheelchair
- Callum – Chameleon – blind with ladybird in harness
- Ozzy – Owl – amputee/manual wheelchair
- Cath – Cat – Deaf
- Sonny – Shrimp – manual wheelchair
The first of the special issue newsletters will be April 2022 so I will need any contributions to be submitted no later than 20th March. Space in the paper newsletters will be limited, but anything I can’t include each month will still be entered on our web site.
Either email me on info@spelthorneaccess.org.uk or visit our web page https://e-voice.org.uk/spelthorneaccess/ and fill in the ‘Contact SCAN’ form on the page.