Could we have a disability board?

For those with CP or parents of children with CP can I ask where you have found support (in addition/instead of MN)

Fabulous idea. As a disabled parent there's very few places to chat or get advice on certain issues.

Adults with physical disabilities? Being a disabled mum...

I think SEN(D) covers any child or young person that needs adaptation in the school setting. It doesn't mean a learning difficulty necessarily.

This is how I read it though I do prefer plain old disabled, to me that include ASD and other neurological differences.

Part of the problem with language is how you interpret it, though. My child had a disability, that disability leads to additional needs, some of those needs present at school, so are SEN.

I think SEN(D) covers any child or young person that needs adaptation in the school setting. It doesn't mean a learning difficulty necessarily.

As it happy, my child's disability is caused by autism and ADHD. But he's actually also very intelligent so he doesn't necessarily have special needs in the way I'm interpreting @whereonthestair to mean "special needs".

I used to post on the cerebral palsy thread until it died out. I have never really thought that my DS has special needs and always found the language unhelpful including when he was tiny. My DS is disabled, those disabilities are predominantly physical.

Over the years I have looked and even posted on the mobility aids section but it was tumbleweed. SN does nothing for me. I would like to chat about lifts, COVID, wheelchairs, cars, trikes, education and also to get different perspectives. I am a mother of a disabled child, not disabled myself and as Ds gets older want to talk to adults about his perspective rather than speak for him.

Although there are many others in the same position this is not a site to find them. If disability helps connect people great but without it I defected elsewhere many years ago.

Yes, please, from the parent of an early teen who is registered blind.

I think it worked better and was more vibrant when there were less boards. But I also remember there were lots of different disabilities discussed and everyone clubbed together for a “natter” of the Friday night thread with a drink(the drink bit was probably not universal ). MNSN was an absolute rock in a storm for me and I think if we can provide that with a namechange it would be foolish not to. It is very dependent on people actively participating though. “Nobody posts so I don’t post” can’t work, I think you have to BE how you want it to be.

Yes, the SN boards are dominated by ASC but if you separate these posters off is it just going to be an empty board

I don't see why? The whole point is that very few parents with disabled children post on the SN sites. Not because they are unwelcome, but because there just isn't traffic and other parents posting in a similar situation. By the time someone who may be able to advise toddles over to the SN Children site, that post has dropped off the end because the AS parents are post more frequently. I could advise on cerebral palsy, but very rarely go there despite all the knowledge i have built up over 12 years.

Maybe there should just be two boards - a Disabilities Board as suggested, and a Special Educational Needs & Disabilities board for parents of children and young people with SEN and/or disabilities. (Not all children with SEN have a disability and not all children with a disability have SEN).

Yes, the SN boards are dominated by ASC but if you separate these posters off is it just going to be an empty board????

It might be that other posters who are currently deterred by the number of ASD posts (e.g. me) will feel able to post. At the moment I don't feel I can post because the things I'd want to post about are so different to the posts already on the board that I'd feel like a gate crasher. A bit like a parent of a pre-schooler posting about potty training on the Teenage board - they might get some answers, but they would be out of place.

I think it would be really useful for parents of children with disabilities and for adults with disabilities too.

The problem is there needs to be a threshold of posters to make any board viable. The more specific you make it the quieter the board becomes and the less people post on it and it becomes a negative feedback loop.

I probably should be posting on SN teens most of the time now as my ds's are 18 but hardly anyone seems to be there so it never seems worthwhile & to be honest I have less need than I did in that awful period when we knew something was wrong but not what to do about it.

Yes, the SN boards are dominated by ASC but if you separate these posters off is it just going to be an empty board???? And whilst some of the issues are different between different disabilities other issues are the same like the nightmare of applying for PIP so it does not necessarily make sense to separate these off.

I think the division is not so much between invisible and visible disabilities as between ASD and everything else.
The current SN boards are definitely dominated by ASD but given how the term SN is usually understood and that Asd is probably the most common major disability in children that is not surprising.
Why not just have an ASD board and then boards for adult and children disability.?
People who post on the ASD can obviously post on the general disability boards too especially when (as is common) there are associated disabilities.

The number of current SN boards could usefully be reduced too. I think one that had legal, financial and benefits information all in place could be very helpful.
It could also be useful to have a general disability board dealing with the statutory aspects of education e.g. getting an EHCP or DSA as the same questions and information is given repeatedly but all over the place so that it is hard to find.

I think the visible/invisible split makes me feel very uncomfortable. I have a long history of going along with things and then realising ds has been parked neatly to one side of the group.. So I probably am over reacting and I post very rarely now so I think what fits today’s users is probably more important.

Yes please!

Yes please as it will be really beneficial for those of us who are disabled and also for those who care for a disabled family member.

@LilyMumsnet and @DawnMumsnet It would be great to have this new board especially if the chronic pain threads would be welcome there too.

I have a fairly newly (physically) disabled child, and have found it really hard to find and relevant threads on MN. I'm sure there must be plenty of other parents who have children with physical disabilities but other than the "wheelchair" section which looks like it's fallen into disuse, I found that the majority of threads in the SN boards related to ADHD or ASD and wasn't sure if it was ok for me to post there or if I was missing something. So I'd welcome a new section, or perhaps a better description for the existing ones?

In principle I like the idea of something like Hazelnut's list, but only if there is going to be more traffic on the renamed boards.

As it stands currently I think there are too many SN boards for the amount of traffic, some are incredibly quiet. Out of the 10 SN boards and the SEN board under Education:
4 of the boards have had less than 6 threads posted on in the last month.
5 of the boards have a page or less of threads that have been posted on in the last month.
And only 2 boards go on to a second page of threads that have been posted on within the last month.

Yes please.

Absolutely not. Years ago there was one thread for children with cerebral palsy and it survived for quite a few months, with different parents asking questions about CP, so it was very useful, but eventually it too fizzled out. But it was one thread among 50 about ASD. People post there about CP, epilepsy, dyspraxia but there isn't really a home because there posts go unanswered or get lost quickly. It's because the autism posts are so prolific the physical disabilities get pushed down and lost. With a dedicated board those posts should stay longer and be helpful to other people. Even if it's only a subsection of health, I still think that would be an improvement.

"To all regular posters here, please have a look at this discussion and your comments will be welcome
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/site_stuff/4231947-Could-we-have-a-disability-board?pg=1"