Hansard

Thank you, Presiding Officer. It is nice to know that I have a wee bit of time today.

I welcome this debate and I am glad to take part in it. Many members will be aware that my wife, Stacey, has multiple sclerosis and therefore has mobility issues. Because of that and her day-to-day struggle with access, I am aware of some of the issues that disabled people face in Scotland. The minister, Jeane Freeman, is correct that the problem is not disability but the barriers that we put up for disabled people.

During my time as a councillor in Renfrewshire Council I became a member, and remain one to this day, of the Renfrewshire access panel. Through that, I became involved in a national access campaign and became the patron of the Scottish disability equality forum, which is the national forum for all Scotland’s access forums.

If someone does not have a disability or a family member who has a disability, they are completely unaware of the many challenges and barriers that disabled people face. I remember attending a disability awareness day in Paisley town hall many years ago at which we were asked to use either a wheelchair or a specially designed pair of glasses that would give us an example of how it would be if we had a visual impairment. We progressed from the town hall across to Renfrewshire House to see how difficult it was to access services in the council building.

I was stuck with the visual impairment glasses, and I was shocked by how difficult it was to access the building. I had difficulty with depth perception on the stairs and there was a situation when I stood at one of the information monitors. I do not think that the council ever expected a visually impaired person to be 6 foot 3, because I banged my head on a monitor that I could not see.

I and the then provost, Celia Lawson, did that exercise and we found that everything was changed. In 21st century Scotland, however, those problems should not exist. We should ensure that disabled people can get access to all buildings where that is possible. That is why I welcome the Scottish Government’s disability delivery plan and applaud its ambitions. The first ambition is to

“Support services that promote independent living, meet needs and work together to enable a life of choices, opportunities and participation.”

That gives us a start in making sure that people get involved in public life in general. The second and third ambitions are:

“Decent incomes and fairer working lives. Making sure disabled people can enjoy full participation with an adequate income to participate in learning.”

“Places that are accessible to everyone.”

We really need to work on that one. It involves ensuring that

“Housing and transport and the wider environment are fully accessible to enable disabled people to participate as full and equal citizens.”

The fourth and fifth ambitions are:

“Protected rights. The rights of disabled people are fully protected.”

“Active participation. Disabled people can participate as active citizens in all aspects of ... life in Scotland”.

All those ambitions can and should make a difference to the lives of disabled people in Scotland.

Susan McGinley, disabled person and member of Glasgow Disability Alliance’s drivers for change network, said:

“The Scottish Government Disability Plan is much needed and the particular commitments around both establishing a strategy to tackle social isolation and loneliness and funding opportunities for disabled people to volunteer are backed by thousands ... I firmly believe that with the right support and connections, we can make our important contributions.”

That is what this debate is all about—the right support so that Scots with a disability can contribute to life in Scotland.

That support can come in various guises, and one example is access to transport. Stacey and I have been at the other end of various public transport journeys from hell. We need to ensure that people with disabilities get the support that they need to be able to access employment, volunteering and social activities. That is why I particularly welcome the Government’s commitment to its accessible travel framework. That is the subject of action 66, which states that the Government will

“Develop our Accessible Travel Hub”

and

“Scope requirements for training with disabled people and transport providers/operators”.

You have no idea, Presiding Officer, how simple it would be to do that, and how much easier it would make things for people and families who live with disability.

The plan also states that the Government will

“Specify and agree common standards of service for disabled people if their public transport journeys are disrupted”

and

“Produce information about bus layout designs which improve accessibility”.

That is another important action. For people who have a mobility issue, it is almost like the Normandy D-day landings when they want to organise a night out. Individuals have to be confident that the facilities are there for them. Morven Brooks, the chief executive officer of the Scottish Disability Equality Forum, stated:

“Accessible transport is vital to disabled people being able to enjoy their rights as citizens of a fair society.”

This is all a step in the right direction. The important point to make is that the delivery plan is based on a social model of disability. Unlike in the medical model, where an individual is understood to be disabled by their impairment, the social model views disability as the relationship between the individual and society. The delivery plan recognises the human rights of disabled people and it must underpin all our activities across the whole range of policy and legislation that affects disabled people. The Law Society of Scotland praises the Scottish Government for taking a groundbreaking approach.

Incidentally, it is telling that the Conservative amendment seeks to drop from the motion everything that mentions human rights.

The focal point of this debate is the main differences between the ideologies of the Scottish Government and the UK Government. While, here in Scotland, we try to find a better way forward for our people, the Government at Westminster continues to pursue its failed austerity agenda and does not care whose lives it destroys in the process. For me, this is about standing up for disabled people in Scotland and protecting them from the dark cloud of Westminster and its attack on the disabled.