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Action
Groups
Awareness
Group
Access
Groups
Equipment
Group
Transport
Group
Within
the Network there are currently five Action Groups. These
groups have been set up in order to take up issues and carry
on activities in between Forum Meetings.
In
June 2003, the Forum identified Transport as its first priority
and this group has since worked on several local issues and
now involves the Access Officer from CENTRO.
The
Awareness Group has been running since August 2003 and is
looking to publicise disability issues and help raise awareness
of the Social Model.
Each
group would welcome interest from possible new members. If
you would like to know more, please contact Martin Wright.
Transport
Group
The
Network’s Transport Group includes a disabled Solihull resident,
a representative from Solihull Association for the Blind,
the officer who runs Solihull Council’s Agesafe scheme and
the Access Officer from CENTRO. The group meets every 4-6
weeks in central Solihull.
The
group has worked on a number of issues, including
- The
policing of Disabled Parking bays at Tesco
- Disability
Awareness issues amongst West Midlands bus drivers
- The
Taxibus service which operates in the Meriden gap
- The
provision of Disabled Parking in the area of the new red
route in Shirley
- Solihull
Council’s new Cycling strategy
The
group sits on committees for Ring and Ride and for Birmingham
Airport and has applied to join the Transport Users Advisory
Committee for the WMPTA.
The
group is currently planning to develop a local version of
the national Baywatch scheme.
If
you work for a disability organisation or have a special interest
in this area and would like to know more, please contact Martin
Wright.
Awareness
Group
The
Network’s Awareness group currently includes a disabled Solihull
resident, a representative from the Epilepsy Action Group,
and managers from Age Concern, the Alzheimers Society and
Solihull Carers Centre.
The
group meets every 6 weeks in central Solihull.
The
group was set up to reflect the Network’s wish to raise awareness
about local experiences of living with disability and to promote
understanding of both the social model of disability and of
the important role of carers.
Efforts
are currently going into identifying opportunities to publicize
the stories of local people with disabilities through the
local press, through presentations and through the Network
itself.
Particular
issues revolve around the lack of easy access to information
for people who are newly diagnosed with disability and the
group is interested in piloting a scheme with local G.P. surgeries
to address this need.
Access
Groups
Work
on Access is very new at the moment and the Network is keen
to discuss these issues with anyone who might have an interest
in the area.
One
volunteer is working the Network on an informal audit of the
accessibility of railway stations in Solihull. Results from
this survey will be fed back to CENTRO in order to try to
stimulate thought as the deadline for the latest stage of
the Disability Discrimination Act approaches in October 2004.
We
have been working with Solihull Metropolital Borough Council
and Disabled Go on an access report on 1000 premises in Solihull,
which are now on the Disabled Go website. We are interested
in taking up any similar issues around local amenities.
Please
get in touch with Martin Wright if you have any ideas.
Equipment
Group
Work
is underway on developing a group to look at issues of the
availability of equipment for disabled people in Solihull.
There
are plans to work with Solihull Council nex year on an Equipment
Amnesty, similar to the one held this year.
The
Network also now sits on the steering group for the resource
centres for blind and visually impaired people at Solihull
and Chelmsley Wood libraries and for the resource centre at
Chelmsley Wood for hearing impaired and deaf people.
We
are very interested in developing this work further please
get in touch with Martin Wright or Kate Darby if you think
you can help.
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