I went along to the Labour party conference in Brighton, wearing a tee-shirt which said, 'too disabled to be...a social worker?' and handed out the plinth poem, 'For those left standing' to a number of startled politicians to remind them that one in five of the UK population is 'disabled'...by society's low expectations of us. Various journalists also got the poem. Health should not be a determining factor in retention in any of the professions in England, as is currently the case.
The fact of poor access, progress and retention of disabled students in higher education is shameful, and needs to be challenged. Anyone in Manchester want to hand the same poem to the Conservatives in their Conference? Creativity, hope and perseverance are not the sole domain of the able-bodied.