Equality within my Borough (Part 2)

What are you views on discrimination within the London Borough of Sutton?

There are many different strands of equality and as a disabled person living within London Borough of Sutton I feel that the approach to equality in the borough is not always very equal.

With regard to race discrimination, the London Borough of Sutton has historically been a “white” area i.e. approximately 87% of the boroughs population is “White British” as opposed to 50% in some of the other London Boroughs.

In relation to “Sex Discrimination”, I do not believe there is a major issue with discrimination within Sutton and I am aware of any initiatives and schemes aimed at gender issues particularly relating to the number of women’s groups etc in all areas of the community.

Obviously disability is very personal to me and it was not until the beginning of the 21st Century that I began to feel that discriminatory barriers were being removed within the borough. At this time, disability appeared fairly high on people’s agendas and disability issues began to be taken more seriously. Unfortunately, I do now feel that after this initial appreciation of the issues it has somewhat abated and is not being treated as importantly as race and sex discrimination within the Borough.

I do not believe that there are that many experiences of discrimination within the Borough in relation to other equality strands such as Age, Sexual Orientation, Religion and Transgender.

Equality Bill 2009 & the Existence of Inequality

On 27th April this year, the current Government released the Equality Bill 2009 with the intention of simplifying and harmonizing existing legislation such as the Disability Discrimination Act, Race Relations Act, the Sex Discrimination Act, the Equality Act 2006 and many other anti-discrimination legislation.

With so much equality legislation in force, it is sad to see that we still have an increase in terms of actual inequality.

Ronald Dworkin, a political theorist, based his theory of equality on the principle that “every person is entitled to equal concern and respect in the design of the structure of society” and “real equality of opportunity can only be measured by its success in creating equality of outcome”.

He further argues that if everyone, regardless of physical and mental ability, are to have genuine equal opportunities, then an equal opportunity must exist for all participants to end the race at the same time whether they need more considered or continued support or not.

The Disability Discrimination Act is currently the only equality legislation that requires anyone to invest financially into real equality of opportunity but this in reality is minimal as the Act states that only “reasonable” changes can be expected at a “proportionate” cost.

For many employers and service providers accessibility is considered low down on their list of priorities and even the simplest of adaptations such as ramps, induction loops etc are rarely considered.

Only time will tell whether the new Equality Bill will make significant changes to providing genuine equality of opportunity to people with disabilities but it is my belief that until fundamental changes are made to people’s perception of disability, we will not see true equality.