As the Parliamentary Champion for the Conservative Disability Group (CDG) in the Senedd/Welsh Parliament, Mark Isherwood MS yesterday spoke at a CDG Q&A session about his journey into politics and experiences as a hearing aid wearer, as part of the Group’s ‘Accessible Politics’ project.
When Mr Isherwood entered front line politics in 2003 he was personally dependent on hearing aids, and taking part in Thursday’s virtual event, he spoke about the challenges he has faced since that time.
Discussing his experiences, he said:
“Fortunately, the Assembly was very supportive and has always provided me with the equipment I need to follow proceedings in the Chamber and Committee. However, I had to persuade the Assembly Commission - our Parliamentary Service - to extend this to Cross Party Group and other meetings held on the Parliamentary Estate.
“Although the Welsh Parliament prides itself on being disability accessible, they’ve had to be reminded frequently that barriers to disability access exist or have been designed in because of an apparent failure to involve lived experience.”
Mr Isherwood also spoke about his journey into politics and his involvement with disability charities and groups:
“After 22 years working in the Bank and Building Society Sector, during which I became a Qualified Banker – unlike the idiots allowed to wreck the Banking Sector - I was first elected to what was then the National Assembly for Wales in 2003, leaving my position as Area Manager for a Building Society in North Wales.
He added: “Since becoming a Member of the Senedd, I have been honoured to become the Patron or equivalent for a number of Disability Charities.
“I also work very closely with the sector as the voluntary, elected Chair of seven Cross Party Groups, equivalent to All Party Groups in Westminster, including those on Disability, Autism, Neurological Conditions, and Hospices and Palliative Care.
“The purpose of the Cross Party Group on Disability is to address key pan-impairment disability equality issues including implementation of the Social Model of Disability and the right to Independent Living.”
Mr Isherwood spoke of the importance of “giving voice, choice, control and independence to the lonely and isolated, to disabled people and to everyone who needs a helping hand” and said “too many self-important officials in Welsh Public Bodies continue to tell Disabled people what they can have, rather than work with them to agree their needs and ask them what they want to achieve. I know from my own casework that this is damaging, costly and entirely avoidable”.
He also spoke of his regret that the Labour Welsh Government didn’t support Welsh Conservative calls for an Autism Act for Wales and that a survey published in November 2018 by the Cross Party Group on Neurological Conditions, which Mr Isherwood Chairs, on “People living with neurological conditions and the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act (2014)” concluded that people living with neurological conditions in Wales are being failed by the implementation of the Act.
Mr Isherwood concluded by encouraging his Party to “incorporate the Social Model of Disability into everything it does, from news conferences to Party Conferences, legislation to service design - recognising that people are not disabled by their impairments, but by the barriers to access and inclusion which society places in their way.”
He added: “We must work with disabled people to remove these, seeing the world through their eyes, giving them the voice, choice, control and independence they seek and deserve.”