THE effortless way in which the Paralympics have grasped the
baton from the Olympics is remarkable. The enthusiasm of the crowds
has not waned in the slightest. The one handicap they appear to
have recognised is that of being in the Cabinet. (The only people
booed at the Games this week were the Chancellor and the Home
Secretary.) The hope, of course, is that the experience will change
the image of disability for good. The task will be to translate the
remarkable shift in focus - looking at what an individual can do
rather than what he or she cannot - into everyday life.
Politics has a hand in this. It has not gone unnoticed that
Atos, one of the sponsors of Paralympics GB, also holds the
commission to carry out work-capability tests on those claiming
Disability Living Allowance. The Government intends to remove
500,000 of the 3.2 million people presently claiming the benefit,
as well as bringing in a replacement system of Personal
Independence Payments in 2013.
There is no dispute about those who are severely disabled,
although the amount of provision they are allowed needs to be
reviewed. The difficulty comes with those who want to be treated
normally, among whom are most of the Paralympians. People with a
disability are no different from others who struggle to find work,
housing, and purpose in a tough economic climate. They have the
same aspirations and failings as able-bodied people. The one
difference is that disability is expensive. It costs more to
overcome mobility problems; work patterns might need to be lighter;
care assistance might need to be paid for. As a rough rule of
thumb, raising a disabled child costs three times as much as an
able-bodied one. Before the Paralympics, however, there was
evidence of a growing reluctance to provide adequate disability
support.
The Paralympics have provided an opportunity for the public to
absorb a positive message: not that these are poor people who need
to be looked after, but that they are ordinary (and extraordinary)
people who need a degree of help so that they can look after
themselves. The ethos of Livability, the largest Christian
disability charity in the UK, is instructive: "Our vision is of a
transformed society where disabled and disadvantaged people can
live life to the full." This is a useful target against which to
measure the conduct of the Government and the public at large in
the months to come.