A Deaf Man has been given a Do Not Resuscitate Order without his consent, it has emerged. Doctors at NHS Scotland gave a deaf man a ‘Do Not Resuscitate’ order without his knowledge or consent. The profoundly deaf man is a resident at Deaf Action’s supported accommodation for deaf adults in Slateford Green, Edinburgh. He is in his 60s, with a good quality of life. He had no knowledge of the decision that had been made for him. At a recent routine hospital appointment, he was given the DNR order without any communication support to explain what it meant. The
Read More
Archives for Blog
Housing 2040: Scottish Government Accessible Housing standard
As part of the Scottish Government’s new Housing 2040 strategy it has published a new accessibility standard for housing in Scotland. The accessibility standard is a central part of the new housing strategy and will for the first time mean that homes in Scotland will have to meet a certain level of accessibility. The standard will create a single set of quality and accessibility standards and it doesn’t matter whether you own your home or rent it. The report says it will focus on improving the supply of accessible and adaptable homes, especially for young disabled people who currently face
Read More
Minister Praises Panels for Making Scotland More Accessible!
Minister Praises Panels for Making Scotland More Accessible! This year’s Access Panel Conference was held on Friday 28 June, at TouchBase in Glasgow. The annual Conference is an opportunity for Access Panel members to come together to share experiences and learn new skills. It was a pleasure to welcome the Minister for Older People and Equalities, Christina McKelvie MSP, to deliver our keynote speech. The Minister praised Access Panels for the positive contribution they make to communities across Scotland: “I would like to thank you all and everyone involved in the Access Panel Networks. The work you do as volunteers,
Read More
Access Panels recognised for their work on Inclusive Communication in Scotland
Access Panels recognised for their work on Inclusive Communication in Scotland Three Access Panels were last week recognised for the outstanding contribution they have made to sensory equality and inclusive communication at the Scottish Sensory and Equality Awards. Awarded runners up in the category of Outstanding practice, innovation and dedication to sensory and inclusion in a specific local area, Lochaber Access Panel, Perth and Kinross Centre for Inclusive Living, and Stirling Area Access Panel all received awards. Gillian Edwards, manager at the Centre for Inclusive Living Perth and Kinross spoke afterwards about the importance of the award for her Access
Read More
Centre for Inclusive Living Perth and Kinross
St Johnstone Football Club St Johnstone Disabled Supports Club was set up a couple of years ago with many changes being made by the club including ramped access to the club shop, radar locks on the disabled toilets, wheelchair users can order half time food without having to go into the kiosk, improved access to transport to away games, improved access to disabled bays at home games, seats for PA’s to sit next to the wheelchair user and headsets for visually impaired people to listen to the game. These
Read More
Third Sector Interfaces
Third Sector Interfaces provide support, learning and development opportunities for people and organisations through their programmes of work – whether you want to know more about volunteering; setting up and running a third sector organisation; or using social enterprise as a model to deliver social good; the interface is your local starting point. TSI organisations work across core strategic areas of: Volunteering Social Enterprise Sector Support Empowering & Engaging local voluntary action Volunteering Whether you’re an individual wanting to volunteer in your community or an organisation looking to attract volunteers your TSI is your local source of support and advice. TSIs
Read More
Transport Scotland Survey – Connectivity
In May 2017, Scottish Disability Equality Forum conducted a national survey on behalf of Transport Scotland. This was a baseline survey to allow us to gather information about disabled peoples’ experiences of travelling on public transport. The survey gave us lots of useful information, and some that we want to find out more about. As part of our ongoing work with Transport Scotland we are undertaking further research. Here is a short survey about Connectivity. Connectivity is about your experience of changing between different types of transport. It also includes journey planning and the timetabling of services so that people
Read More
5 Steps to Funding
Be sure you understand what can be funded. Funders do not usually fund the day-to-day activities of your organisation, though they may contribute to the organisational overheads involved in running a project. Be sure you know what is meant by a project. A project is a piece of work that is additional to the everyday work of your organisation. If your project involves extra staff or costs your grant may cover them; or if you are looking to fund a new project, or set up a new organisation, start-up costs, including staff and other core running costs, they will be
Read More
Search Engine Optimisation
Those Panels who use a WordPress based platform for their websites will probably be all too familiar with SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation. Here, I share seven top tips for maximising your web content to make sure it has the biggest impact possible. SEO means optimising a website so that people can easily find it when they use search engines like Google, Bing or Yahoo. When you’re writing articles for your website about certain topics it helps to make sure they’re optimised to search engines. To make sure you give your articles and content the best chance of being found
Read More
Food Buddies
Food Buddies is a way for people to encourage and support each other around food. Food Buddies started with the concerns and priorities of a group of people in their community. Each project builds on the assets of that community – the experience and skills of all the people involved, professional expertise and the resources in the local area. There is reciprocity, rather than some people receiving a service from others. The approach focuses on supporting and building relationships. Food Buddies aims to be sustainable and for the impact to continue beyond a project that gets activities underway in an
Read More