I asked David Cameron how he would help Britain’s disabled people. How did he do?

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/mar/27/david-cameron-britain-disabled-people-coalition

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Last night I was lucky enough to be chosen to put a question to David Cameron on C4 and Sky’s Battle for No 10.

The audience gathered together a couple of hours before the programme began. We were all quite nervous and excited. I had great conversations with people discussing the issues that we are passionate about and sharing our views.

Why did I want to take part? Because there are 11 million disabled people in the UK, but we hardly ever see disabled people in the media, and disability is seldom discussed by politicians. As we head towards a general election it is vital that all candidates are aware of the concerns of their disabled constituents.

I was the fifth person to ask a question and as I was listening to question four, I suddenly panicked and forgot for a second what I had planned to ask. Thankfully, as Kay Burley called out my name, everything came back to me and I said:

And in addition to that, if you are disabled you are twice as likely to be unemployed. So what did I make of Cameron’s response?

I was delighted when he responded by agreeing with my employer Scope’s goal of halving the disability employment gap – this would mean getting 1 million more disabled people into work.

The gap between the employment rate of disabled people and the rest of the population is about 30%, and has remained largely static for the past decade. Halving it in five years is an ambitious target. If things stay the same as they are now, it won’t be achieved. There needs to be radical change.

Scope has set out its ideas for how to make this a reality in its report called A Million Futures. We shouldn’t only be focusing on supporting disabled people to find work. We need to look at ensuring disabled people can remain in work and progress in their careers. Too many people are falling out of work when simple adjustments could be made to enable them to stay. The government’s Access to Work scheme provides vital funding for specialist equipment, workplace adaptations and transport. But too many employers still don’t know about it.

Workplaces need to be more flexible, offering welcoming environments where disabled people can flourish rather than struggle. Likewise, employer attitudes need to change. Disabled people are often seen as “risky hires” and Scope figures show that 74% of disabled people believe they have lost out on a job opportunity because of their impairment.

Employment programmes need to radically improve for disabled people – the number of disabled people finding jobs through the Work Programme is far too low. It is still failing to provide disabled people with the specialist, personalised support that they need to find work. Plans to boost jobs and growth in regions across the country must focus more on supporting disabled people to find jobs, and not be viewed as an “add on” to wider plans.

Employment is just one of the big issues we need to address. In the coming weeks I would encourage everyone to speak with all their parliamentary candidates and remind them of the key issues affecting disabled people. And I would urge more disabled people to apply to take part in similar debates where key issues of the day are discussed. Too often, disabled people are invisible in the media and our voices go unheard. We can change that but we have to be willing to play our part and get involved at every opportunity.

Did Cameron do enough to win my vote? Well, that’s a secret I’m keeping until 7 May, but I’ll certainly be voting. We all should.