As a disabled woman in public life I was angered, but not surprised, by reports that a minister who is a wheelchair user was excluded from the COP26 climate summit this week.
Karine Elharrar, Israeli Minister of Energy and Water Resources, was excluded because she uses a wheelchair. She was told that to enter the conference grounds she had to either walk or take a shuttle. But the shuttle was impossible to use as it had no wheelchair access.
She waited outside for two hours as organisers refused her entry, eventually returning to her Edinburgh hotel.
I have been in that position, shivering in my wheelchair while organisers criticise me for not “warning them” I’m a wheelchair user in advance.
George Eustice, our Environment Secretary even blamed the Israeli group for not “communicating that particular need of the minister”.
The expectation for disabled people to ‘inform’ people of our movements is unacceptable. We expect people to come to buildings - that’s why staff open doors in the morning. Why don’t we expect some of those people to be disabled?
In my work in public policy, I have often been told I’m the first disabled wheelchair-using woman to occupy a role. I contributed to the Lord Holmes Review into opening up public appointments to disabled people in December 2018, which found only 180 disabled people in public office out of around 6,000 public appointments.
Public appointments are significant positions that impact all our lives, and oversee the spending of more than £200billion a year in public funds across areas like healthcare, education, sport, arts, energy and defence. But numbers of disabled people in public roles is still declining.
I have arrived at meetings and government engagements many times and been unable to access the building or conference room. All too often people volunteer to carry my wheelchair into the building. They’re trying to be helpful, but they aren’t trained in safe lifting.
I have brittle bones so people grabbing at me, dropping parts of my wheelchair and trying to heave me up flights of steps is unsafe and undignified. I want access, to be able to do my work, just like my colleagues.
Lack of access issues happen all the time and are often ignored. What’s different in Minister Elharrar’s situation is not that lack of access happened, but that it’s being reported and corrected.
This exclusion doesn’t only hurt the disabled people who are kept out. It hurts us all because we miss out on the contributions and insights disabled people can offer.
Diverse organisations have better results, they don’t miss things that matter to the people they are supposed to serve. When we exclude we are losing out on the best person for the job, just because that person might need a ramp rather than a staircase.
The COP26 climate conference is essential for the safety of all our futures. To ensure a safe future for ourselves, our children and our world, we need all of us to be in the room.
