Step into the irreverent world of disabled cartoonist Crippen aka Dave Lupton, who has been in the vanguard of disability arts movement for more years than he cares to mention. His work has appeared in mainstream press, on TV and film and is now probably the best Disabled cartoonist in the world!
A moving tribute to disabled activist Rowan Jade, who died suddenly at the age of 40 whilst on holiday with her partner and child. The tribute is by Baroness Jane Campbell and echoes many of our own thoughts and feelings regarding this amazing young woman. Jade will be sadly missed by all who were fortunate to know her. To access the tribute please click here. ...
On Sunday 3rd October a huge protest march is taking place outside of the Conservative Party Annual Conference, which is being held this year in Birmingham. The protest is about the cuts being imposed upon people who rely upon benefit payments and the draconian measures being taken by the current Coalition Government against Disabled people in particular. The marchers will consist of representatives from Trades Unions, many groups and organisations involved in Welfare Rights, individuals and...
Many of you will know that I run a Face Book account as Crippen - Disabled cartoonist and post links to various disability related events that are going on as well as links to this blog and other disabled artists. When the ConDem Coalition came into being I began to create cartoons that supported the stand being taken by groups and organisations who were protesting about the benefit cuts being planned. My posts carried cartoons created for the 3rd October Disabled People's Protest group and the...
A lot has been written both for and against the Pope’s visit this week. Apart from the fact that he continues to tell people in the third world that to use condoms as a protection against HIV and AIDS is a sin, the main thing that rankles for me is that the Catholic Church has never publicly updated its belief in the origins of Disability. Talk to many older Catholics and they can remember their Priests telling them that a person was born disabled due to a sin committed by one or both of...
I recently created some cartoons for the Disabled people's anti-benefit cuts campaign group 'Black Triangle'. The plan is to load a different cartoon every few days onto their web site on the build up to the big protest planned for the 3rd October (Tory party annual convention). One of the 'toons (this one) got posted straight away and resulted in someone putting a block on the web site link in Face Book. Apparently the cartoon crossed the line for some people! What do you think? I'd be...
In a recent survey commissioned by Scope, almost half of those approached claimed that they didn't know any Disabled people! Now either they only count wheelchair users as being Disabled people and are using this as their yard stick, or they move in circles that exclude all but the non-disabled members of our society. A worrying thought when over 90% of these same people felt that Disabled people should have the same opportunities as everyone else. This response shows that we crips are still...
I'm often asked to produce some artwork or a cartoon for a piece of poetry or prose that has been created by a fellow artist. This one in particular fired my imagination and made me want to share it with you. BIN (for jimmy fingers, with peace love and understanding) The place has walls, I can touch them if I wish, I could no longer tell you their colour they are the same colour as all the walls in all the other places. Here I wander Here I touch and feel Here no-one can hurt me. Here I am...
A recent survey shows that society has completely fallen for the latest piece of CONDEM misinformation that millions of pounds are being claimed fraudulently, especially those benefits that are designed to assist Disabled people to compete more equally in the work place. They also endorse the use of paid Bounty Hunters to track these alleged cheats down. The fact that the government’s own figures show that this fraud claim is a complete nonsense and that millions of pounds lay unclaimed...
One of the groups of Disabled people I enjoy producing artwork for are the editorial team of Discover magazine, the ‘voice’ of disabled people in Cornwall and the quarterly publication of Disability Cornwall. Not for them the black and white photocopies of several A4 sheets, stapled at the corner and containing inaccessible text and artwork (often my cartoons, which I produce in full colour, end up looking like an indecipherable mass of greys and blacks with no real clue as to...
Wow ... from Tuesday 24th August you'll be able to order your very own 'mini-Mandeville', the soft toy manufactured in China to represent the crip part of the 2012 Olympics. It's only 25 pounds plus 4.95 delivery (guaranteed delivery within 2 days, or if you can't wait that long you can pay extra for next day delivery!). Sorry to report that the boxed sets are already sold out, but you can always make your own box I would have thought?! The only thing that worries me is that it says in the...
If like me, you've never visited Northern Ireland, take my advice and go there immediately! I arrived at Belfast's International terminal to discover an oasis of green rolling hills and fields surrounding a city that boasts more interesting architecture, live entertainment, theatre, exhibition spaces, museums and friendly open people than most other places I've been to. Gallery and Events Officer Leo Devlin was there to welcome me at the offices of the Arts and Disability Forum (ADF) and...
Back from a three week break which has included a visit to Belfast's Disability Arts Forum (of which, more to follow) Crippen resumes his blog with news from the West country. I've had what some would ironically call a well deserved acolade! Having recently moved into a new, purpose built set of offices, Disability Cornwall agreed to hold a competition to decide what to call their all singing, all dancing suite of accessible toilets and changing rooms. Care to guess what they came up...
I have been musing on the attacks on Disabled people's day to day lives that this CONDEM coalition have already started making and watching with interest ways in which crips are grouping to try to resist. High on the worry-list is the apparent complete lack of understanding by the government of the nature of Disability Living Allowance (DLA). As we Disabled people and our allies all know only too well, the basis of this financial support is actually to go some small way towards...
Rumours have been circulating about a TV programme that would enable celebrities to aquire an impairment for a week in order to see what it's like to be disabled (I kid you not!). It now turns out that the former Mrs McCartney, Heather Mills is working on such a programme although she has refused to say which broadcast company it is with or when it will be aired. She has said however that she wants to get people like tv presenter Eamonn Holmes to spend a week in a wheelchair to see what it's...
I'm using this week's blog to reproduce an email circulated by Bob Williams-Findlay regarding the attack by this government on Disabled people who are claiming Disabled Living Allowance (DLA). "Since the Budget there has been a major uproar over the ConDems plan to 're-assess' people on DLA. What is clear is that there is now a new smear campaign, not unlike the ones against IB, to discredit DLA claims. For those with access to the BBC iplayer I've included a link to Jeremy Paxman...
Our old friend George is carrying a useful piece of advice in his current blogspot which relates to the sorts of underhand techniques that some sales persons resort to when selling to Disabled people. Having worked in the dim and distant past for Motability in Harlow and then as a mobility consultant for several vehicle converters I can verify that many of these companies are only focussed on one thing - to get you to part with your money. I doubt that the standards have improved very...
Disability Pride is an odd concept which seems to be quite difficult for many non-disabled people to grasp.
I mean, why would be be proud of our impairments?
Here's a link to Vince Laws' current blog where he explains what Disability Pride means to him.
Click here to visit his blog and leave a comment.
Cheers
The following is an extract from Baroness Jane Campbell's recent comment in the Guardian. "Disabled and terminally ill people have had to deal with fear, prejudice and discrimination since the beginning of time. Our lives have been devalued by statements such as "he/she'd be better off dead". In recent years, calls for a change to the law prohibiting assisted suicide have grown louder and more frequent. "They capitalise on fear. Fear of pain, fear of loss of dignity, fear of...
On Wednesday the 16th June the Disabled people's Direct Action Network (D.A.N) will take to the streets in solidarity with the National Day of Action against the dismantling of the Welfare State. D.A.N demonstrations will be taking place in Manchester and London and will welcome all people who identify, or who are regarded as disabled, whatever their background or impairments. For those of you who have never been on a D.A.N demo it's important that you know that D.A.N. uses the strategy of...
There are growing concerns that under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 the Court of Protection has been handed sweeping powers without adequate scrutiny and openess. This departs from the general principle of open justice held by other courts. Holding its cases behind closed doors, the Court has the power to order that people with severe learning difficulties are sterilised, undergo abortions or have life-support switched off. It can even impose “experimental” treatments on these...
Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, is writing to all primary and secondary schools in England inviting them to become Academies and therefore independent of local authority control. This could mean thousands of schools leaving local authority control. Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT (Teachers Union), argued that it was wrong to stop local authorities from having a say in proposals for new schools, and that [the proposal] represents a costly and unnecessary solution to a...
Oh dear it's started. The slow but sure slide into a reduction in pretty well... well, everything! Starting with the reduction in posts within the Civil Service, which means that whenever a Civil Servant leaves, they won't be replaced. Now, as I understand it, the posts that have a higher rate of burn-out and staff turnaround are those in the front line of employment, welfare, benefits services, etc. This means that the staff processing our applications for funding for support services,...
I've recently received an email from a Disabled equality trainer in Australia asking if she could use some of my cartoons about labelling within her courses. She hadn't come across the concept before and felt that it might help her to get across the equality message to both non-disabled and disabled Australians. "No problem" I replied, and then began to wonder if other readers of this blog in other parts of the world were as ignorant of this concept as she was. With this in mind I've...
I’ve had some correspondence recently with a colleague known in crip circles as Deaf Bitch. Her shared insights into Deaf culture have helped me to understand a great deal about the many forms of oppression that Deaf people face within our society. Here’s some of what she wrote followed a recent programme about children having cochlear implants. “I was watching a programme about a one year old boy who was about to have a double cochlear implant. "During the...
Crippen is currently in the UK meeting up with his many contacts in the world of cripdom and gathering fresh material for this cartoon blog and other projects that he has underway. He'll be back with us next week, and in the meantime has left us with one of his typical 'us and them' creations! FaceBook Our hardworking Editor Colin has been on a drive to get membership of dao's facebook group site increased. He's just got another 30 members to join in the past couple of days - so we're now up to...