“Making disability information accessible to individuals from Black & Minority Ethnic groups”

June 2009

A one year project funded by the EHRC (Equality & Human Rights Commission).

Introduction

Background

In April 2008, we received one years funding from the EHRC (Equalities & Human Rights Commission) to manage a project which aimed to explore and begin to address the dual disadvantage in accessing disability information often experienced by disabled people from BME (Black & Minority Ethnic) communities.

The first phase of the project, which was completed in July 2008, was to produce a literature review and report which brings together the national research and views of others working in this field into one place.

The report, which can be viewed on our website, includes

An overview of national and Surrey BME population statistics (including immigration figures, gypsy and traveller populations, faith groups and asylum seekers)
A review of research in other parts of the UK (national and local), looking at the particular issues and barriers to accessing information for eleven specific groups of disabled people (including carers) within BME communities (e.g. people with a visual impairment, older people). It also provides some examples of best practice which have been further explored and added to in the project’s second phase
The implications of the findings in each of the areas in terms of their relevance to SID’s project focus on promoting disability information provision in the context of Surrey’s particular demographics, infrastructure and services

For the second phase SID selected four of the eleven groups to focus on:

People with a visual impairment from BME communities
Refugees and Asylum seekers
Benefit take up by Muslim and Chinese elders
The health needs of Travellers and Gypsies

Methodology

The research has consisted of a series of meetings, both by telephone and face to face, training sessions and a workshop to:

Establish links and form new networks with both disability and BME service providers and voluntary community groups
Increase the awareness of the BME community groups who are the primary information providers, of the disability support available
Identify many of the barriers to accessing support and explore the ways of overcoming themIdentify many of the barriers to accessing support and the ways of overcoming them
Work in partnership with local organisations to design and distribute new materials
Create a central directory for Surrey of BME community groups and service providers with dedicated BME outreach programmes

This report includes:

Individual reports on each of the four focus groups containing outputs from the project, details of local and national organisations working in the field, statistics where applicable and a summary of findings
A “network” list of the Surrey organisations we met and/or worked in partnership with
A list of sources who can provide useful current information on BME issues
A list of PDF's that have provided a useful insight into national and local initiatives and research papers
Recommendations for future work

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The full document is available to download as a PDF