Here’s what Britain’s been buzzing about: a wave of reports of violence against people with disabilities. In some of these reports, vulnerable people are attacked on the street; in others, they are befriended by groups of people who then exploit and kill them. No one disputes that the stories are grisly. Still, it’s not clear whether such crimes are on the upswing, or whether they are being covered more frequently in the media.

Disability columnist Tom Shakespeare, writing in the BBC’s Ouch magazine, writes from personal experience about “nasty incidents” in which he was chased, mocked and photographed by groups of teenagers. He sees experiences like these not as hate crimes but as incidents of bullying in an increasingly polarized society.

Hate crime, rare as it is, should perhaps be regarded as the tip of the iceberg. Of equal concern is the widespread experience of bullying and social exclusion which is usually unreported, but which makes many disabled people feel unsafe and unhappy.

We need a culture of zero tolerance against abuse of disabled people in any form, and we need to take collective responsibility for inclusion. Of course, the police should take hate crime against disabled people more seriously. But parents, teachers, employers and even passers-by have a role to play too. Bullying is ubiquitous and it is getting worse. We need to stop it now.

Related stories:

• Man admits urinating on ill woman
• Men tip woman out of wheelchair

Other stories listed on Shakespeare’s site.

And this one from Canada: Wheelchair victim: Brutal assault on man outside church

This entry was posted on Friday, September 28th, 2007 at 12:29 pm and is filed under abuse, law, NOT2BEMISSED, public attitudes, stigma. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.