Call for help for young disabled

A disability charity has called for one in 10 newly built social housing units to be made suitable for wheelchairs.

Livability spent a year researching the lives of more than 500 young people with disabilities. It found graduates were being forced to live with their parents because of a lack of accessible housing.

In launching its report Freedom to Live, the charity said government departments and organisations are failing to work together. The report found 40% of disabled young people are inappropriately housed.

As well as widening access to housing, Livability wants the government to make training and jobs more accessible to young people with disabilities. The charity says school leavers are being denied access to work experience or college places because they are deemed a "health and safety risk".

It is also contacting every MP to call for accurate information on the numbers, needs and locations of disabled young people to be gathered urgently.

Rachael Christophides is the author of Freedom To Live report which used interviews with 504 young people with disabilities aged from 16 to 24. She says it reveals a snapshot of a society where disabled young people are routinely denied access to the choices in adulthood that non-disabled people can expect.

"At the root cause is the lack of any reliable data about the numbers and needs of disabled people in this country - without this basic information how can we possibly be sure that services can meet this need?" She added: "An urgent inquiry is needed if we are to create a society that no longer disables young people."

The report found that at the age of 16 to 17, disabled young people are twice as likely to be unemployed as their non-disabled peers. By the time they are 18 to 19 this is increased to three times as likely. By the time they are 26 they are four times as likely to unemployed.

Mary Bishop, chief executive of Livability, says disabled young people have "spoken loud and clear" in the report. At a time when they should be excited about the possibilities adulthood brings unfortunately too many disabled young people find themselves at the beginning of a vortex that strips away their hopes for education, work, relationships and somewhere suitable to live life to the full," she said.