Day 23: Did You Know? Equality.

People with Down Syndrome want to be treated the same as everyone else.

People with Down Syndrome may need slightly different support to people who don’t have Down Syndrome, but we all need support of some description and it’s always different to the support someone else needs. As an example, we couldn’t have got through the last few months as comfortably or as happily without the support of my parents, others had the support of child care in another form, and others didn’t need it at all. That in itself is not treating someone differently. I think Saba Salman explains this brilliantly in the introduction to Made Possible, a book of essays written by brilliant people like the performer Sarah Gordy MBE and Shaun Webster MBE. Opportunities shouldn’t be limited due to disability (and this is actually the law!) so any support required for someone to do what they want and to achieve what they want to achieve should be available. The fact that it is not is why me and many other social welfare / human rights lawyers are always so busy!