A while ago I wrote an article bemoaning the States’ tardiness in addressing ‘social issues’. These included equality for women, civil partnerships and equalising the ages of heterosexual and homosexual consent. Afterwards I was contacted by someone representing people with disabilities in Guernsey, asking me why I had left their situation off my list of ‘social legislation’.

It was a fair point, and my oversight was far from the first time that the rights and needs of those with a disability have been overlooked. This is strange as there are a huge number of us with some sort of physical or mental impairment. Mobility problems, poor eyesight, hardness of hearing, learning difficulties – the list goes on. Exact numbers obviously depend on how you define a ‘disability’ but it certainly runs into thousands.

Any other group of this size would wield very considerable political power. The deputies’ thought process, either conscious or subliminal, would be: ‘all those votes can’t be put in jeopardy so the issues affecting the voters concerned have to be given priority’. Why is it that this formula doesn’t seem to work in relation to disability? Instead, this huge group of islanders seems to create only a very small blip on Guernsey’s political radar.

It might well be a ‘chicken and egg situation’. In the absence of equal rights/access/ opportunity, disabled islanders are less visible in daily life. They are not represented anywhere near proportionally in our workplaces, our social venues, or even in public spaces. Indeed, those with more severe disabilities may find it hard to spend much time outside their homes or specific day centres which are created for them as a group rather than for the general public. As a result they may be to a degree – ‘out of sight – out of mind’ – not only for deputies – but for all of us.

In some areas this is beginning to change. For example, excellent work goes on in the service for those with learning disabilities and integration is beginning to happen. The new special schools are still separate but both are co-located with mainstream schools. The HSSD facilities in the new St Martin’s community centre are obviously in a multi-use building. The States have recognised the need for new community homes for people with learning disabilities to be prioritised.  It’s all a far cry from the 1980s when the residential facility for this group of islanders was ‘ward 4’ at the Castel Hospital. Despite these strides forward, a lot more remains to be done and other types of disability, such as mobility problems, are being addressed far too slowly. Of course part of it is down to limited resources. That will always be a problem, but just as important is the need to change attitudes and to listen properly to those with disabilities.

This is nothing new.  I remember attending a conference on disabilities in Guernsey at the Peninsula Hotel when I was president of the Board of Health.  When I got up to speak many people deliberately ignored me. They started chatting to their neighbours, walking around – even eating bags of crisps.

This was a deliberate stunt to show how uncomfortable it feels when one speaks but nobody bothers to listen. It was important to get this understanding across because that is exactly how those with disabilities feel far too often. They had the decency to warn me it was going to happen but many others present were seriously taken aback. So should we be – at our assumption that we know best what those with a disability need.

At that same conference I was one of the few political delegates who favoured a Guernsey Disability Act.

Of course, such a law wouldn’t in itself change attitudes, but it would start the process. By enshrining the reasonable steps that should be taken to include those with disabilities in all aspects of life, it would act as a mental trip-wire.

We would no longer be able to simply overlook the rights of disabled people because they hadn’t even occurred to us. It would force us to question our traditional thinking – or lack of it – and that is something we badly need to do.