{"id":6150,"date":"2020-11-25T13:45:07","date_gmt":"2020-11-25T13:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/?p=6150"},"modified":"2020-11-25T13:53:05","modified_gmt":"2020-11-25T13:53:05","slug":"wellness-wednesday-disability-history-month-18-november-18-december-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wellness-wednesday-disability-history-month-18-november-18-december-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Wellness Wednesday: Disability History Month: 18 November-18 December 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"

Who would be the first person you\u2019d think of if I asked you to name a famous disabled person? Paralympic athlete and politician, Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson<\/a>? TV presenter, Invictus games athlete, ex-Royal Marine, JJ Chalmers<\/a>, currently in Strictly Come Dancing? Singer\/songwriter, Stevie Wonder<\/a>? Actor, writer and TV personality, Stephen Fry<\/a>? Paralympic swimmer, Ellie Simmonds<\/a>?<\/p>\n

The World Health Organisation estimates that 15% of the world\u2019s population is disabled, with 2-4% experiencing significant difficulties in functioning.\u00a0\u00a0 In the UK, the last statistics available are from 2014.\u00a0 In that year, the Department of Work and Pensions estimated that there were 11 million people in the UK with a limiting long-term illness, impairment or disability.<\/p>\n

Disability is a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010.\u00a0 Three disabling conditions are automatically covered by the Act: cancer; HIV\/AIDS; and Multiple Sclerosis.\u00a0 In relation to other capacities and health conditions, the Act defines disability as related to someone who \u2018has a physical or mental impairment, and\u2026 the impairment has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on (person\u2019s) ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.\u2019 The Act puts a duty on employers to facilitate reasonable adjustments at work to assist someone with disabilities to carry out work alongside their able-bodied colleagues. According to the Labour Force Survey, disabled people are now more likely to be employed than they were in 2002, but disabled people remain significantly less likely to be in employment than non-disabled people. The statistics from 2014 show that there is therefore a 30.1 percentage point gap between disabled and non-disabled people of working age, representing over 2 million people.<\/p>\n

Disability does not mean incapacity and never has.\u00a0 With the focus on Disability History, below there is a list of famous figures from history who were disabled but who still made a significant impact on the events of their day.<\/p>\n

Julius Caesar<\/a> (100 BC -044 BC), Roman general and statesman: disability \u2013 epilepsy or possibly Trans-Ischaemic attacks<\/p>\n

Claudius<\/a> (010 BC – 054 AD), Roman Emperor 41-54 AD: disability: lower limb deformity giving rise to mobility issues, deafness and speech impediment<\/p>\n

Ludwig van Beethoven<\/a> (1770-1827), German composer: disability \u2013 increasing deafness from aged 26 onwards<\/p>\n

George Gordon, Lord Byron<\/a> (1788-1824), British aristocrat, renowned poet and satirist: disability \u2013 lower limb deformity, club foot<\/p>\n

Florence Nightingale<\/a> (1820-1910), British nurse, public health pioneer and statistician: health was plagued over many years in the middle of her life when she was bed-ridden for long periods and possible additional mental health disorder<\/p>\n

Sir Winston Churchill<\/a> (1874-1965), British Politician, Prime Minister 1940-45 & 1951-55: disability \u2013 chronic depression<\/p>\n

Helen Keller<\/a> (1880-1968), American author, political activist and lecturer: disability \u2013 deaf and blind<\/p>\n

Franklin D Roosevelt<\/a> (1882-1945), US President 1933-45: disability \u2013 ongoing symptoms following contracting polio in 1921, wheelchair user for many of his later years<\/p>\n

Disability Information Links<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Kent Union has put together a series of online events to mark Disability History Month<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n

Disability as a protected characteristic<\/a>: Equality Act 2010 on legislation.co.uk<\/p>\n

Disability Facts & Figures<\/a>: Department of Work and Pensions on gov.uk<\/p>\n

10 Facts on Disability<\/a>: World Health Organization website<\/p>\n

Disability and Health<\/a>: World Health Organization website<\/p>\n

Social History of Learning Disability<\/a>: Langdown Museum of Learning Disability website<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Who would be the first person you\u2019d think of if I asked you to name a famous disabled person? Paralympic athlete and politician, Dame Tanni … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5725,"featured_media":6152,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[124],"tags":[167395,237849,212583,212605],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6150"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5725"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6150"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6151,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6150\/revisions\/6151"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}