Lobbying and Campaigning - Involved in wider issues

An energetic and creative activist, Margaret Blackwood won the unstinting respect of the many politicians she lobbied on behalf of disabled people. The Association has accepted her campaigning legacy and is actively engaged in wider issues.

In recent years, we have:

• been the driving force behind the Ewing Inquiry, which quantified the appalling shortfalls in suitable housing for disabled people in Scotland.
• played a key role in setting up Scotland's first Disabled Persons Housing Service (DPHS), of which there is now a growing network across the country. We also established Ownership Options in Scotland (OOiS) to enable disabled people to access home ownership as a mainstream option. We continue to work closely with both organisations.
• chaired the Housing Reference Group, which produced A New Threshold for Disabled People?, its report into barriers to equality of housing opportunity for disabled people in Scotland. A New Threshold highlighted the fact that all the issues raised by the Ewing Inquiry remained outstanding and formed the foundation for our successful lobbying activities to positively influence the new Housing (Scotland) Act 2001. As a result, local authorities now have a duty to quantify and reduce housing shortfalls for disabled people, securing equality of housing opportunity for all.
• most recently, and again with OOiS, we have commissioned DTZ Pieda Consulting to report on weaknesses in the current housing system and design a model project to integrate multi-agency activities in a streamlined and effective solution.

At every opportunity we continue to lobby politicians at local, Scottish, British and European levels about the dreadful shortage of suitable housing for disabled people.

If you would like to download a copy of the DTZ Pieda reports you can do so from the Campaigning section of our Literature Library.