Yesterday I went for an extended 3 hour walk and then attended a lecture describing living with a disability in the face of the recent U.K. austerity program and the associated benefits cuts. The speaker was from the U.K. and the circumstance she described was completely horrific.

A significant portion of the cuts are being born by the disabled. These are people with severe physical and mental disabilities, persons unlikely to qualify for any form of commercial employment. I attempted to take notes but was not very successful. The most shocking information involved reports that persons with a disability were made subject to public attack, tipped out of their wheelchairs, and accused of being charlatans.

Simon Brown. Disabled in the U.K. military, now suffering from cuts.

I searched for information on the U.K. cuts and found the following report: The Tipping Point. The opening paragraph is a statement by Simon Brown (pictured above). As a member of the U.K. armed forces operating in Basra he lost his left eye and has only ten percent vision in his right. He is now facing significant cuts to his disability living allowance.

I am not particularly shocked by the stories from the U.K., or the similar accounts provided by the disabled persons from Ottawa in attendance at the lecture. My own experience of a birth injury is that “normal” society is quite ready to discount the experience of someone who is “different” and to mark them out as a target.