Crippen Cartoons cartoons at the cutting edge of disability

Not content with launching a national disability survey that has only had at best, a tokenistic involvement with disabled people, the government’s Disability Unit has revealed a side of itself that has overtones of “low level eugenic thinking” according to disabled journalist Adam Pearson.

The survey was launched on 15 January and the responses received up until the end of last week are supposed to be influencing the government’s national disability strategy, which is expected to be published this spring.

They claim that more than 14,500 people have so far completed the survey, which has already led to a series of letters to ministers from disabled people’s organisations, criticising it for being rushed, inaccessible, over-long and poorly-planned.

But those aren’t the only complaints. Apparently if you don’t click the box indicating that you are a disabled person, the on-line survey assumes that you’re non-disabled and starts asking you, what some have described as “degrading” and “insulting” types of questions.

For example, if you are a non-disabled person the disability unit want to know: “would you be happy to have a physical relationship with a disabled person?”

With his tongue obviously very firmly in his cheek, Adam told ministers he was “assuming this is an error that ‘slipped though the cracks’ and you don’t intend to use this low level eugenic thinking to inform your disability strategy”.

However, in an article in Disability News Service (DNS) a government spokesperson when asked if the question on relationships had now been removed, said: “The question on relationships has NOT been removed and as with all questions within the survey, was developed to ensure that we gather as wide a range of direct insight and lived experience from disabled people, carers and the general public as possible.”

Ah, so there’s your answer Adam. It wasn’t a mistake!

Note: The National Federation of the Blind of the UK (NFBUK) are inviting you to sign their petition, challenging the government to come clean about this farcical  survey.

Description of cartoon for those using screen reading software

It is the office of the Disability Unit’s National Disability Survey team. A young white man is at a desk covered in returned survey forms. He is holding up a couple in his hands and is saying to an Asian woman who is standing alongside of him: “It’s another one saying that they’d want a physical relationship ONLY with a disabled person!” The Asian woman is replying: “Perverts!”