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IEDP fees stay the same
It's that time of year again - your IEDP membership fees are due at the beginning of January. The good news is that the price will be the same as last year. Our individual associate membership is £110+VAT, with a reduced rate of £55+VAT for students, retired and volunteers. Don't forget there is also our team membership which is excellent value at just £550+VAT for a team of 6 to 30 people working for the same organisation. Full details of membership fees and benefits are on our website here.
IEDP accreditation dates
If you join the IEDP, or are already a member, you can apply for our accreditation programme. The closing date for expressions of interest for the next round of IEDP accreditation is 29 January 2016. Your application would need to be confirmed (and the fee paid) by 12 February 2016 and the deadline for the submission of your portfolio would be 31 March 2016. Further details on the accreditation page of our website where you can find all the dates for next year.
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Why disability history matters
By Simon Jarrett
 It is Disability History Month, and some people with disabilities might be forgiven for asking 'Who cares? As hard-won rights and benefits come under unprecedented challenge from austerity measures, the disabled community faces many battles.
Yet history is not as irrelevant as it may first appear. To understand where you are, it is often very helpful to know where you have come from. A sense of history, a reclaiming of the past, has been essential in many struggles for recognition and acceptance. The present has an unnerving habit of obliterating from memory those it wishes to remain invisible, or at the bottom of the pile. Claiming an historical identity, rejecting that invisibility, was an important part of the women’s liberation movement, gay rights campaigns and movements against colonial and racial oppression. It is now playing a similar role in the disability equality movement.
Disability history is often called a hidden history. It is nothing of the sort. People with disabilities gaze out from the past all the time. However, society tends to gaze back straight past them without noticing – a phenomenon which many people with disabilities may recognise.
In the middle ages thousands were disabled by the scourge of leprosy. Alongside them lived many more thousands of ‘creples’ ‘blynde’ and ‘deaff’, either disabled from birth or though accident or illness. There were constant debates about what this meant. Was it a punishment from God for sin, or did suffering on earth mean that people with disabilities were closer to God than the rest, and therefore superior? Some were cared for by monks and nuns, the small beginnings of hospital-type provision, but most lived in, and were very much a part of, their families and communities. The eighteenth century saw the building of the first great hospitals which cared for some ‘maimed’ war veterans and those who were both destitute and disabled.
Yet it was not until the nineteenth century that institutional provision came to be seen as the norm for those deemed disabled, with a massive building programme of segregated asylums, workhouses and other institutions. For the first time the life of the disabled person was framed as a life best lived away from communities and families, under medical supervision. Disabled people were no longer 
understood as people who lived and worked, (yes, worked), in society. The great wars of the twentieth century massively increased disability levels, bringing about radical advances in assistive technologies, rehabilitation, mobility, environmental adaptations and public attitudes. After the Second World War disability rights campaigns, some led by war veterans, led eventually to the demise of long stay institutional care and the ‘new’ idea of care in the community.
So why does this matter? It matters because we need to understand that today’s ‘correct thinking’ about disability is just as much a function of contemporary beliefs and opinions as were ideas of sin and holiness in the middle ages. Professionals should understand that the idea of care in the community is not a new idea they have dreamed up – it is exclusion that has been the historical exception. The asylum movement only occupied 140 years of a thousand years of history. For as long as society has existed, people with disabilities have been a part of it, shaping and influencing, just as society has shaped and influenced their lives. To understand that, in schools, in workplaces and in government, is to begin to understand that exclusion is not inevitable, inclusion is not some vague theoretical aspiration.
Disability history is also riveting history. Disability History Month takes place from 22 November to 22 December 2015. Get along to a Disability History Month event if you can.Click here for more information.
Simon Jarrett is arts editor of Community Living magazine and is researching the history of ‘idiocy’, with a Wellcome Trust scholarship, at Birkbeck, University of London.He is the author of Disability in Time and Place, an Historic England web resource. Illustrations in this article are reproduced with permission from Historic England.
Simon will be speaking at a Disability History Month event ‘Disability and impairment: a technological fix’ at London Metropolitan Archives on Friday 27 November, where he will be talking about impairment and mobility in the 18th century.
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The illegal love quiz (Recommended by Ruth Wilson)
You may have seen this quiz on social media, produced by AllOut.org. It consists of six multiple choice questions on laws relating to LGBT people around the world. I found it quite a challenge - but it lets you have as many goes as you like so you can get the right answers eventually! Could be useful in training sessions... Click here for the link.
Kahoot! (Recommended by Grace Wynne Willson)
Kahoot! is a useful resource that can be used in a range of ways and is great for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) training sessions. It is a free resource that you can download from the internet and you can create multiple choice quizzes on any topic. To use it you need access to the internet and a screen, and to participate the learners need a smart phone, which they use to select their reply. So people can take part individually or in pairs or small groups. It's not just a question of getting the correct answer, you get points according to how quickly you respond. It sounds complicated but it is quite simple to use, fun and engaging. Click here for the link
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Linda's letters
 Readers of this newsletter may be interested in a couple of letters our former chair Linda Bellos has written to the press in recent weeks:
The Guardian, 10 October
It was interesting to hear David Cameron support the notion of equality but his Government seem to ignore and reject the content of the Equality Act 2010. His hint at addressing social class would be supported if Section 1 of the Act contradicted was now adopted. Such progress which has been made on equality have come in large part from use of equality laws from the Sex and Race discrimination Acts of the 1970s. But we have seen a marked failure to train people on what equality laws say and how to bring them into effect.
Equality of opportunity in all aspects of life in the UK can only happen if people know what they can and cannot do to deliver and promote equality- emoting is not enough.
Regards
Linda Bellos, Former Chair of the Institute or Equality and Diversity Practitioners
Letter to the Guardian 22 October
Theresa May criticizes Police Services for failing to the employ any Black Chief Constables. Perhaps this is because neither she nor Police services are training their staff or members on what the new Equality Act requires public authorities to do to bring about equality of opportunity. This Act came into effect in May 2010 the exact point at which she became the Home Secretary. Is it mere coincidence that after the Stephen Lawrence Report Police officers embarked on equality training and the number of Black officers at all levels increased including in Kent ‘s Mike Fuller the first Black Chief Constable in 2004?
And by the way, John Draper is wrong in his claim that there is no proof about No Blacks, No Irish, No Dogs signs. I saw them myself in the 1950s and I believe they faded out after the 1965 Race Relations Act.
Regards
Linda Bellos
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Sound statistics
This is our feature giving up-to-date statistics that Equality and Diversity practitioners may find useful in their work, particularly in training. This issue's statistics have been taken by Ruth Wilson from a new report from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (ECHR) on inequality. The EHRC published 'How Fair is Britain' in 2010, and this report looks at progress in the last five years. The report looks at 10 areas in some depth and identifies areas of progress and remaining challenges. These are just a few of the statistics included.
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Education and learning
- Good news: In England is that the gap between the attainment of White pupils and Pakistani/Bangladeshi and African/Caribbean/Black pupils has narrowed. 60.2% of White pupils achieved 5 or more GCSEs including English and Maths, as compared with 58.1%.
- Bad news: In England children with Special Educational Needs (SEN) are seven times as likely to be excluded from school as their peers. 11.6% of pupils with SEN were excluded in 2012/3, compared with 1.7% of all pupils.
Employment
- Good news: There has been a narrowing of the gender gap in employment rates. 7.3% of men are unemployed compared to 6.7% of women. However this is mainly due to a reduction in the male employment rate. So not such good news then...
- Bad news: The gap between the employment rate of disabled and non-disabled people has widened across Britain. Disabled people are nearly twice as likely to be unemployed (11.1% compared with 6.4%).
Poverty
- Good news: The rate of older people living in poverty fell in Great Britain to 12.1% of those aged 65–74,
- Bad news: The rate of 16–24 year olds, who were more likely than all other adult age groups to be living in poverty, increased to 30.5% of 16–24 year olds
- Bad news: Poverty rates were higher for children in households headed by someone from an ethnic minority (41.9%) compared with someone from the White ethnic group (24.5%).
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One to know about:
Mental health
- A higher percentage of LGB or other people (23%) are at risk of having poor mental health than straight people (15%)
- Women are at greater risk of poor mental health than men (1 in 6 as opposed to 1 in 8)
- In the UK the suicide rate for males aged 45-49 increased from 19.4 to 26.8 per 100,000 people between 2007 and 2013
One to think about:
Discrimination and harassment
- 47.3% of lesbian, gay and bisexual people responding to an EU-wide survey reported that they had felt personally discriminated against or harassed because of their sexual orientation in the previous 12 months
- In the same survey, 65% of transgender people reported responding to an EU-wide survey reported that they had felt personally discriminated against or harassed because of being perceived as transgender
- 19.5% of BAME people in Wales report experiencing harassment, discrimination and abuse compared to 6.8% of white people
- 16% of disabled people experienced someone acting toward them in an aggressive or hostile way over the past year
- 17% of disabled people experienced being called names when dealing with members of the public over the past year
Sources
- Equality and Human Rights Commission, Is Britain Fairer? The state of equality and human rights 2015 The full report and the executive summary can be found on the EHRC website here
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UN - what price human rights?
By Drew Wilkins
 The Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United Nations, Faisal bin Hassan Trad, has been appointed to chair the UN Human Rights Council. According to the Independent, the appointment was made in June, but only in late September was the news made public.
Of course, Saudi Arabia has been in the news for other things recently. A blogger was jailed and sentenced to 1000 lashes for the crime of criticising the government on Facebook. There are calls to crucify and behead another young man who took part in anti-government protests. An Indian maid has accused her employer’s wife of chopping off her arm. The latest story concerns a 74-year-old man who was imprisoned for having bottles of home-made wine in his car – and it seems that the authorities have added 350 lashes to his sentence. There is one caveat here; it is against the law in Saudi Arabia to consume and transport alcohol. The concomitant risks are well-known and accepted by the expat population. But that doesn’t mean I condone corporal punishment.
But back to Mr Trad and his appointment. He is a high-ranking representative of a country in which human rights that we take for granted are conspicuous by their absence. Half of the population is controlled by the other half. Half of the population is not allowed to drive a car (something to do with potential damage to the hymen, according to one cleric). That same half is not allowed to travel outside the country without the permission of the other half. Opening a business requires the permission of …. Going to university requires the permission of … Going out in public requires the presence of …. Guess which half the women belong to.
Mr Trad may turn out to be a firm believer in human rights, and I sincerely hope that is the case. However, given the culture of the country that he represents, his interventions could well be met with derision.
15 reasons to celebrate HRA
 Amnesty International recently published 15 reasons to celebrate the Human Rights Act, to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Act. Click on the Amnesty International symbol to see what they are.
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Why are Iranian husbands standing up for their wives?
Drew Wilkins has recommended this article by Sam Judah from the BBC News website about Iranian men showing their support for women's equality. Click photo to read
Gender reassignment procedures as a staff benefit
 Denise Rabor has found an interesting piece by Shane Schutte on the Real Business website, about large employers like Facebook, Netflix and Tesla offering to cover the costs of gender reassignment procedures for their employees. Click photo to read
Time to end discrimination and finish the fight for real equality
 Denise Rabor has highlighted this press release from David Cameron's office on 26 October, about an initiative whereby organisations pledge to remove names from graduate applications so as to reduce race and gender discrimination in recruitment. Click photo to read
Matt Damon - here's what you should know about diversity in Hollywood
Ruth Wilson was interested in this article by Lilly Workneh, Black Voices editor of The Huffington Post, about diversity in Hollywood.Click photo to read
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Terrific TED talks
This issue's TED talks have been selected by Denise Rabor and Ruth Wilson
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Why gender equality is good for everyone - men included
Denise Rabor has selected this TED talk from May 2015 by Michael Kimmel, sociologist and author of 'Angry White Men', about the benefits of gender equality in the workplace and the home.
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We're all hiding something - let's find the courage to open up
Ruth Wilson liked this TED talk from 2013 by Ash Beckham, equality advocate, about different experiences of coming out.
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Account of the last IEDP board meeting
By Ruth Wilson
As usual, here is a brief account of the most recent IEDP board meeting. This was held on 27 October and was a Skype meeting.
Finance
Management accounts for the period up to 30 September had been circulated before the meeting and were briefly discussed. It was agreed that the Institute would benefit from attracting more corporate members, and board members agreed to take on responsibility for approaching organisations in their particular fields with a view to this. Any readers of this newsletter who work for organisations that might be interested in supporting our work through corporate membership can find further details here on our website.
Rebranding
The new IEDP logo was agreed and a process was discussed for taking forward the updating of the sebsite. Board members will look at the draft project brief which will be circulated shortly, and respond with any comments within a few days. It was agreed that it is very important to make sure that everything we want is included in the project brief. We are in the process of changing the LinkedIn group to merge it with the new group which has now been set up with the IEDP's new name - 'Institute of Equality and Diversity Professionals.'
Accreditation
Kate Hinton fed back from the most recent accreditation panel. There was a discussion based on the report on accreditation that was circulated before the meeting. There has been some progress with discussions with a university about IEDP accreditation earning credits towards their Master's degree.
Business Plan
It is time to review the Business Plan, and board members agreed to fill in the sections that they have been involved in and send them to the IEDP office to be collated by Friday 13 November.
Next meeting
The next Board meeting will be on 8 December 2015 at 5.30 and will be held by Skype.
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Contact us
The Institute of Equality and
Diversity Practitioners
2 Old College Court, 29 Priory Street, Ware, Hertfordshire, SG12 0DE
tel: 0844 482 7263
fax: 0844 8225 215
email: info@iedp.org.uk
web: www.iedp.org.uk
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And finally...
We hope you enjoyed reading this newsletter and would welcome any feedback or suggestions about how we could improve it for the benefit of our members. If you have any ideas for future editions or would be interested in writing an item for the next issue please contact Ruth Wilson on:
ruth@equalitiesineducation.co.uk
Please circulate this newsletter to anyone who may be interested in our work or who may wish to join the Institute.
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