We are issuing this statement both to reassure our members and supporters that DPAC is actively responding to this situation, and to provide some clarifications following the statement issued by Novara media yesterday.
1) We would like it noted that it was DPAC who initially reached out to Novara following the Peter Singer interview and justifiable outrage which it provoked. Our intention was to educate Novara about disabled people’s oppression and to find a resolution agreeable to disabled people which could lead to a marked improvement in their coverage. We received a positive response from some members of the Novara team.
2) We have asked for a meeting with Novara in order for our members, especially those with learning difficulties, to express their dismay, hurt, and political objections to how the interview was conducted. We are pleased that this request has been accepted and await confirmation of the date we have suggested.
3) We are disappointed that prior to this incident Novara had consistently failed to take up advice from individual DPAC members concerning the importance of acquaintance with the social model of disability and the particular form of oppression that disabled people face. This led to a situation where Singer was given a platform to express views that encourage division and hate without challenge, and at a time of rising hostility towards disabled people and the explicit devaluing of disabled people’s lives that has characterised the pandemic – which we are still living through. Either the interviewer lacked even the most basic understanding of why Singer’s views are problematic for disabled people or he chose not to deploy those arguments. We are not in a position to know which. DPAC members are currently drafting a longer statement to explain our objections which we hope to make publicly available next week.
It is important that we challenge the exclusion and marginalisation of disabled people and all the more frustrating when we have to do this among those who consider themselves to be progressive.
As upsetting as this episode is, we (literally) cannot afford to let this distract us from important activity such as continuing the fight for #20More4All. A millionaire Chancellor has just passed a budget denying disabled people the ability to bathe, do laundry, eat and heat their homes. Please continue to pressure the Tories on social media, raise the issue through relevant radio/TV phone ins and local newspapers, write to your MPs and use banners and posters to draw attention to the issue.