Disability Freedom

Sean, who has Down Syndrome, was born at 37 weeks. It is hard to think that it can be suggested to mums that the pregnancy can be terminated at 37 weeks just because the baby has Down Syndrome. Please email your MP using the link in the post below:

James lives in your constituency Zarah Sultana MP

Will you vote in support of James and other people with Down’s syndrome on 15 May - and vote yes to Dr Liam Fox MP MP's Down’s Syndrome Equality Amendment?

Find out more + ask your MP to vote YES on 15 May using our easy webtool here:
➡www.dontscreenusout.org/timeforchange/

It is World Down Syndrome Day! 21st of March was chosen as it represents the three chromosome 21 that people with Down Syndrome have. We are celebrating the lives of people with Down Syndrome.

I really thank God for sending Sean into our lives over 13 years ago although when we received the diagnosis, we did not think so positively. However, it turns out to be a real blessing. Having Sean help us to change our attitudes to disabilities, learn about how people learn and know a close and supportive community.

It’s the challenges of finding activities I could do with Sean that inspired me to launch Disability Freedom!

You can read more about mine and Sean’s story here: https://disabilityfreedom.org.uk/299/Happy-Down-Syndrome-Day

https://disabilityfreedom.org.uk/299/Happy-Down-Syndrome-Day

Blog | Disability Freedom An easy to navigate one-stop shop to help you find accessible and inclusive activities for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in UK.

Happy New Year! We have updated our website to make it easier to navigate: https://www.disabilityfreedom.co.uk/ Happy browsing!

Inclusive Accessible Activities for Disabled | Disability Freedom An easy to navigate one-stop shop to help you find accessible and inclusive activities for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in UK.

As part of Disability Pride Month, I would like to write about Ary Rahman-Jackson. I feel really privileged to know him and his family. He is a Y11 pupil at the University of Birmingham School and has just sat his GCSEs. He also happens to have cerebral palsy. However, that hasn't stopped him from participating fully in everything and enjoying life. ❤️ Full story is here: https://www.disabilityfreedom.co.uk/233/Meet-Ary-Commonwealth-Games-Baton-Bearer

Let's celebrate disability pride month. If you have anything you are proud of your young people with SEND, feel free to leave a comment here.

https://www.disabilityfreedom.co.uk/213/Disability-Pride-Month---A-time-to-Celebrate

Disability Pride Month | Disabiilty Freedom An easy to navigate one-stop shop to help you find accessible and inclusive activities for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in UK.

Those in Sheffield or visiting Sheffield should check this out: https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/whats-on/family-kids-news/hidden-sheffield-water-park-tucked-24358692

Excellent accessibility with wheelchair access and changing place toilets.

Summer is here and if you know of any splashpad that is accessible, do comment here or use the suggest a listing form on our website: https://www.disabilityfreedom.co.uk/15/Suggest-A-Listing

Concealed Sheffield water park nestled in the trees and completely free Rivelin Valley Water Play opens every summer as kids leave school

Do you know about Boccia? It is a truly inclusive game. Boccia England has written a blog about it: https://www.disabilityfreedom.co.uk/87/Boccia-A-uniquely-accessible-sport

So it has been almost one month. We now have over 50 listings. Woohoo!! Of course, there are more work to do and we need hundreds more listings to cover the whole country.

Please visit our site (https://www.disabilityfreedom.co.uk/) and see for yourself. In particular, we have a few clubs offering boccia (a game that I only came to know after I started this venture) and watch out for this space for a blog on the game.

Inclusive and Accessible Activities | Disability Freedom An easy to navigate one-stop shop to help you find accessible and inclusive activities for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in UK.

https://d1h1m5892gtkr7.cloudfront.net/s3fs-public/engaging-disabled-people_the-research.pdf?VersionId=Bv9kxj4MySSJmpahiIXUgVoSYkL2TYLs

A lot of good advice on how to engage people with disabilities in sports

d1h1m5892gtkr7.cloudfront.net

It's now easier to send Disability Freedom a message.

A number of years ago, my son was learning swimming in one of the local leisure centres. Unfortunately, the centre was taken over by a private company and the quality of teaching went downhill. I tried to find an alternative for him. Due to his disability, he needs to be in a small class and I searched on Google and found one that was going to start offering lessons in one of the primary schools nearby. But when I called them up and they learnt of the diagnosis, they just told me they could not support him (even before I told them what he could and could not do). I was disappointed and I called and emailed a few more providers. It was then I found Aqua Jems and they were so welcoming and Sean has now been with them for a few years and went from needing armbands or rings while in council swimming pool to being able to swim independently using all four strokes and has gained his stage 5 badge.

This illustrates the difficulty for us parents to find information but also that there are providers that are inclusive and welcoming. We just need to have all these information in one place for parents.

After months of planning, we launched disabilityfreedom.co.uk yesterday. As a parent of a child with SEND, I know how difficult it is to find accessible and inclusive out of school activities.

That is the objective of our website: to act as a one stop shop for you to find accessible and inclusive activities for SEND so that children with SEND can take part in swim class, gym clubs, football clubs, etc just as their neurotypical peers can.

To help us to achieve this, we would really appreciate your help. If your child is accessing a club or activity that you can recommend, please fill in the form: https://www.disabilityfreedom.co.uk/15/Suggest-A-Listing on our website. By doing that, you are helping millions of parents and children up and down the country. Thanks.

Accessible and Inclusive Activities | Disability Freedom An easy to navigate one-stop shop to help you find accessible and inclusive activities for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

Disability Freedom updated their business hours.