Crippen Cartoons cartoons at the cutting edge of disability

Some of you will be aware that my name recently appeared under a letter published in the letters section of the Guardian newspaper. The letter was from the organisation ‘Broken of Britain’ and was an open letter to the Minister for Disabled people Maria Miller.

My first reaction was to be extremely angry about the use of my name in this way, as I hadn’t given permission for this to happen. Since then however, following some dialogue with Broken of Britain it appears that a Face Book message was sent to me from them, which I then appear to have agreed to sign. Not having received such a message nor having signed anything, it appears that my phantom Face Book hacker has been making mischief again!

I do however stand by my original response to Broken of Britain in which I explained why I would not have signed anything in their name.  As a disabled activist who has built his work and reputation on the principles of the Social Model understanding of disability, this is at the very core of both my work and my personal experience as a Disabled person. The language used in the Broken of Britain campaign does not reflect my Social Model perspective and indeed runs contrary to this approach. In my view, the kind of language used in their campaign emanates from the medical/charitable model understanding of disability/impairment.

For those of you unfamiliar with the social model/barriers concept, here is a cartoon that I recently produced for the Disability History Month organisation.

Crippen's Social Model/barriers explanation

Please do not reproduce this cartoon as it is copyright to the Disability History Month organisation.