The North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner elected in May 2021 resigned on 14 October 2021. On Thursday 25 November you can vote for the next Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner (PFCC) for North Yorkshire. As we did…

Yesterday night, there was a meeting that lasted over 4 1/2 hours. It was considering additional information which had been requested at the meetings on 25th October. Once the information had been considered, the councillors were asked to…

Today’s guest blog post comes from the In With The Bins campaign and talks about the need for sanitary bins in men’s toilets. Note: Cis is short for cisgender which describes a person whose gender identity is the…

Jamie has kindly written a guest blog for us, talking about the footstreets issue specifically around a Freedom of Information request he made. You have the right to ask to see recorded information held by public authorities and…

Dyslexia Awareness Week was held at the start of October but as anyone with dyslexia knows, it’s about much more than one week a year! My name is Lydia and I was diagnosed with dyslexia and irlens syndrome…

The footstreets issue continues to be an important issue for many disabled people and Blue Badge holders. We mention both groups as we know not everyone who is disabled has a Blue Badge, and not everyone who has…

Thanks to Olivia, who has written about our first online event about Disability Hate Crime. York Disability Rights Forum (YDRF) hosted its first online Disability Hate Crime event on Thursday 14th October. Its aim was to raise awareness…

There’s some exciting things coming up! Book through the eventbrite links, or email hello@ydrf.org.uk. York Disability Week is 27th November to 4th December and the programme will be out soon so keep your eyes open for that! How…

We have another guest blog from the lovely Pippa, this time she’s talking about working with a disability; the challenges and the rewards. She’s also part of a team which are running an online career networking event especially…

Ambulatory is a bit of a mouthful but it just means you can get around on foot. Open Country is a Yorkshire-based charity with over 30 years of experience in enabling disabled people to access and enjoy the…

City of York Council have yet another survey out about the footstreets extensions. We fully appreciate that it’s exhausting responding again and again, especially when the topic hasn’t really changed. However another way of having your thoughts raised…

If you’ve been paying attention to the news, or recieve Universal Credit, you are probably aware that the £20 increase in Universal Credit is being cut. If not, we’ve got a quick summary: In March 2020, as the…

National Hate Crime Awareness Week runs from 9th to 16th October with the purpose of raising awareness of Hate Crime. York Disability Rights Forum has taken this opportunity to raise awareness of Disability Hate Crime. We formed a…

The footstreet issue has dominated our activity for the last 17 months and, as we’ve had the same conversations repeatedly, we thought it’d be good to set out clearly the reasons the council has put forward for making…

Being a good ally to any community is an ongoing process. It requires being open-minded, reflecting and learning from that. Even as disabled people, we need to work at being a good ally. How to be a good…

Disability hate crime is on the increase As part of Hate Crime Week, join us to find out more about disability hate crime, including how to report it and how you can be an ally to anyone experiencing…

Edited to update: Dial & Ride do run to the city centre, the information we used for this post was based on their website at time of writing. Whilst Shopmobility and Dial & Ride are great services which…

Image: Diagram labelled ‘Wheel of Power/Privilege’ showing the different degrees to which a person can be marginalised or have power over others in society based on their characteristics. In the centre is the word “power”, and on the…

Helen has a condition which causes chronic pain, as well as periods of severe acute pain and is here to tell us about Pain Awareness Month. Before we get any further, if someone tells you they are in…

One of our members, Jamie, tells us about cycling as a disabled person and an upcoming event in York: I’ve been an everyday cyclist in York – simply because it’s the fastest and most convenient way of getting…

We’re pleased to welcome volunteers Olivia and Kirsty to York Disability Rights Forum! Olivia has recently graduated with a degree in Criminology at Anglia Ruskin University and is aiming to do an MA in International Criminology in autumn…

On 28th August, a letter appeared in York Press from Councillor Andy D’Agorne making a statement on ‘York’s Blue Badge battle’. York Disability Rights Forum would make like it very clear, we do not want a battle, we…

Helen loves reading and disability activism, and enjoys reading about other people’s experiences of disability. Today she takes us on a quick tour of her bookshelves: The War on Disabled People by Ellen Clifford offers a comprehensive look…

Yes, once again, we have presented a statement to the council on city centre footstreets… Despite it being over a year since we first spoke at a council meeting on this very topic… On this particular occasion, it…

Please note, since the publication of this blog post, some of the links are no longer valid. Bill has recently set up York Access Hub and is here to tell us a bit more about it: “I’ve been…

It’s that time of year when many young people are getting exam results and thinking about their future. But what if you’re disabled or chronically ill? York’s very own Pippa Stacey is here to tell you more about…

Objections to the footstreet proposals must reach City of York Council by 6th August. To make this easier for individuals, we provided templates and have recently reached out to other organisations in the city for their support. We…

On 22nd June, the Executive Member for Transport (Councillor D’Agorne) made the decision to publicise the proposals to make the current footstreet arrangements permanent. We spoke against the decision and are continuing to raise our objections. Since then,…

For background to this motion, please see our recent blog ‘Statement Presented to the Council: Ensuring Access for All’. We were disappointed that Cllr D’Agorne’s amendments were passed and as a result of those amendments, the motion itself…

On Thursday 15th July, York Labour took a motion to a full council meeting (agenda item 8) that seeks to make the city centre fully accessible. The motion passed but with significant ammendments and we will be posting…

We have a guest blog from Councillor (Cllr) Katie Lomas who was one of two councillors who faced discrimination at Full Council on 15th July 2021. We would like to take this opportunity to say that we have…

30th June is Arthrogryposis Awareness Day and Abi, one of the Steering Group members, tells us more about this mouthful of a word: Your first question is probably how do I say that? Followed closely by what is…