Disabled People's Cabinet Forum: report - easy read

Scotland's Disability Equality Plan

This plan says that disabled people should be involved in decisions that affect them.

The plan also follows the Social Model of Disability.

The Social Model of Disability says that people are disabled by barriers in everyday life, not by their disabilities.

Barriers are things that make it harder for disabled people to take part in everyday life.

The main ideas of the plan are:

• disabled people should help make decisions
• disabled people should be treated as equal partners

• the government should remove barriers that make life harder for disabled people
• different parts of government should work together

• disabled people's rights should be protected
• disabled people should be involved in checking how well the plan is working

To make this happen, the plan recommends these things:

• help disabled people with money and financial support
• help disabled people take part in everyday life and live independently
• make mental health support better for disabled people

The Forum wants to help the government make changes now.

It will do this by:

• listening to disabled people's experiences
• helping Ministers understand the problems disabled people have

• make communication better between disabled people and Ministers
• helping the Scottish Government understand disability better
• using what disabled people say to help with government work happening now

The Forum also wants to:

• make working together with disabled people a normal part of making policies
• make sure people get the same level of service in all parts of Scotland

• help the government protect disabled people's rights
• help the government take away barriers instead of making new ones

• make sure disabled people's experiences continue to be used to check how well the Disability Equality Plan is working