Conservatives

Theresa May has pledged to “build on the proud Conservative record of supporting those with disabilities”, referencing the 1995 Disability Discrimination Act. This is despite disabled people being the most adversely affected by seven years of Tory cuts. Its manifesto states that the party wishes for attitudes to disabled people to shift “as they have for race, gender, and sexuality in recent years.” But there’s no detail about how it would facilitate this. Under the banner of “confronting burning injustices”, it commits to getting another one million disabled people into work over the next decade, seemingly abandoning the longstanding target to halve the disability employment gap – while working with energy firms to reduce the extra costs disability can incur.. There’s also extensive promises to help people with mental health problems, from a new mental health bill (without costings) to reforming legal protections for workers.

Labour

The manifesto speaks in terms of fixing the harm the Tories have caused, by addressing disability poverty, the “scrounger” stigma and the disability employment gap. The party supports a social model of disability: that people with a condition or impairment are disabled by barriers in society. Legal frameworks to back this up include committing to incorporating the 2009 UN convention on the rights of persons with disabilities into UK law, enhancing the 2010 Equality Act to enable discrimination at work to be challenged, and annual recordings of disability hate crime. under the Istanbul convention British sign language would become a recognised language and there would be a push to improve awareness of neurodiversity. Labour has also released a disability manifesto which looks in detail at seven key inequalities affecting disabled people.

Liberal Democrats

The party’s commitments to extend diversity for women, LGBT+, and black and minority ethnic people in the workplace – such as requiring large companies to publish data on employment levels and pay gaps –omit disabled people. However, there are pledges to increase accessibility to public places and transport, such as making more stations wheelchair accessible, improving the legislative framework governing blue badges, setting up a benchmarking standard for accessible cities, and bringing into effect the provisions of the 2010 Equality Act on discrimination by private hire vehicles and taxis. A “review to pave the way” for MP job-sharing arrangements, which would help increase the number of disabled MPs, is also promised.

Greens

A pledge for benefit justice includes disabled people and the manifesto promises to “significantly improve” housing choice for deaf and disabled people. There’s support for job-shares in parliament, and policies to improve access in everyday life: from a phase-in of free local public transport for disabled people, to investing in low traffic neighbourhoods and walking and cycling routes that include safe places to enable people with disabilities to choose to make local trips on foot, by bike or mobility scooter.