Page 18 - Community Living Magazine 34-3

in conversation
We should be proud of who we are

Baroness Jane Campbell is one of the UK’s foremost disability rights campaigners. She talks to
Seán Kelly about her struggles, the exclusion of people with learning disabilities from the early
disability rights movement and matters that need attention today

“ isabled people have had a really same pace as children who could not read
She resented having to learn at the
rough deal this last year and I just
Dwant to say how proud I am of our
Instead of understanding that it was the
collective resilience and what disabled and write: “I wasn’t very nice to them.
people have done for other disabled system, I blamed the other kids, many of
people to keep us safe. whom had learning disabilities.”
“That is a testament to our strength and In her final year, a new headmistress
our reasons not only for being here but gave her one-to-one time and, crucially,
also for being at the centre of policy in helped her secure a place at Hereward
this country. And for all those who lost College in Coventry.
their lives, not nearly enough was done. It Hereward was committed to giving
wasn’t because we didn’t try – it was disabled students the best chance to
because the state failed us.” achieve in life. Many of Campbell’s peers
While Baroness Jane Campbell of there went on to become the first
Surbiton is now a crossbench peer in the disabled people to enter the professions,
House of Lords, it is clear that the passion becoming, for example lawyers, scientists
that fuelled her early years as a and teachers – “basically the first disabled
campaigner still burns. people to get proper jobs”, she says.
She believes that the government sees Campbell made enduring friendships
disabled people as a blanket group – “the from among the students and one,
vulnerables” – and wonders if it is not fast Graham, became her first husband: “Life
becoming “the expendables”. went from black and white to colour.”
Campbell cites the problems disabled Hereward also provided on-campus
people have faced such as a lack of Baroness Jane Campbell: “I had to go and get personal assistants. “That’s when I
personal protective equipment, difficulties angry. I had to understand the true nature of understood the liberation of having
in accessing sufficient food and being a social oppression as it affects disabled people” somebody under your direction rather
low priority for vaccination. than somebody caring for you,” she recalls.
She also refers to the social care as seeming to be unsure whether to arrest Campbell left the college with seven
easement powers in 2020, which lessened them or pat them on the head and give O levels and three A levels. “Not bad,” she
the legal duties of local authorities: “I just them ice-creams. So I was keen to hear accepts “from merely being able to read
thought they were a disgrace. They run more about her remarkable journey from and write when I arrived.” She went on to
completely counter to the Equality Act.” lawbreaker to lawmaker. study at Hatfield Polytechnic, not because
A little before we spoke, Campbell had As a young child, Campbell was found to of its special facilities for disabled students
called in the House of Lords for minister have spinal muscular atrophy. Her parents – almost nowhere had those at the time
Matt Hancock to raise the vaccine priority were told she would not live past the age – but because of its can-do attitude.
for people with learning disabilities; they of two years. After Hatfield, Campbell went to the
have been dying at about six times the “When I didn’t die by two, they said I’d University of Sussex to complete a
rate of the general population. be dead by 10. When I didn’t die by 10, master’s degree in feminist politics. She
She says: “I think Covid has really shone they said I’d be dead by the time I was 20
a light on how we treat our disabled and my end date continued to be
citizens in this country. And who has had rescheduled until they gave in,” she says.
it the worst? Of course, it’s always people Her parents rejected the medical
with mental health challenges and predictions and continued to expect the
learning disabilities.” same behaviour and achievements from
Campbell as they did from her older sister.
Roadblock radicals School, however, was not the great
I am glad to see the fires of outrage still springboard for those achievements. Like
burning within her. I recall that she and so many disabled children in the 1960s,
other disabled protesters made history by Campbell attended a segregated school
blocking Westminster Bridge. where she tells me she was “bored out of
Campbell memorably describes the my mind”. The teaching was basic. “I know Objections to a personal assistant in the House
police officers, apparently faced for the a lot about dinosaurs,” she says wryly, of Lords included a 1725 rule and her PA’s chair House of Lords
first time with protesters in wheelchairs, “and pottery and weaving.” not matching the benches

18 Vol 34 No 3 | Spring 2021 Community Living www.cl-initiatives.co.uk