New MN campaign around children with special needs

[RowanMumsnet]

Hello

Following on from this, um, lively thread from a couple of weeks back, we wanted to follow up on kungfupannda's excellent suggestion of an MNHQ-backed awareness-raising campaign aimed at - in kungfupannda's words - 'making it absolutely, uncompromisingly clear that in order to fully include children with severe disabilities, people might have to accept a bit of disruption once in a while.'

We were thinking about something along the lines of our We Believe You campaign on rape myths; that is to say, an ongoing awareness-raising project aimed at the general public, rather than a short-term campaign with specific policy requests attached. We would be thinking about pages on Mumsnet itself featuring the experiences of our posters, activity on our Bloggers Network, ye olde Twitter hashtagge, and any press coverage we can grab.

The suggestion on the thread was for the campaign to be called 'Tolerance is...', but we at MNHQ are a little unsure about the word 'tolerance' (which can suggest barely-contained irritation, rather than the kind of empathetic understanding and generosity of spirit we'd all like to see). So we were wondering whether something along the lines of 'This is my child' would work better?

Please feel free to use this thread to give us any feedback and ideas, and generally let us know what you think.

Thanks
MNHQ

how about.......don't DIS-ability !!

it already has been zzzzz further up the thread, those with visible disabilities seem to have an easier deal than those with invisible

who said it shouldn't be about under 18's ?
not me, I just was trying to point out that I didn't think it should just be about children.

what about the group who have both so don't adhere to the norm of the visible?

Can we please not compare to race campaigns... Or use race to up our cause. I can't see how that helps us.... That one-up-manship.
The thing is some people still do use nigger a lot. I was called nigger on the street randomly from a moving car just recently.
That "would you use the word nigger? " ... Kinda offends if you have recently been on the receiving end of that word . Yes is the answer ... Some would and do.
Ill shut up now.. Coz this isn't about that...

Not read everyones ideas yet but how about something like "Living together in Harmony"

what about 'live with us'

it could be blunt and edgy - the 'tolerate us' side of things, for situations where people are judging/tutting.

and it could be about inclusion - the way the majority see it, with inclusion in various sports/hobbies/jobs whatever.

or about helping an individual with whatever they need to get on with life, as best they can.

or even better, 'this is me; live with me' - live life to the full with me, help me do what I want, help me when I need it, encourage others to include me, etc etc.

I like 'Same. Different. Whatever' (can't remember who suggested it).
I think ideally it should be about people of all ages, and cover all disabilities, because the point, as I understand it, is raising awareness. What unites all of us, across visible and invisible, severe or moderate, conditions, is the fact that our everyday life is made (even more) difficult by the lack of awareness displayed by individuals and institutions. Awareness not so much about specific disabilities, but above all about the fact that a person with a disability is a person.

I like 'Same, Different, Whatever ' too

New MN campaign around children with special needs

zzzzz
it says children

I think it was said upthread that it definitely should not be about cute kids. But this thread is stickied on the SN parents board so will attract comment from a lot of parents. And as a fairly high proportion of posters on that board have DCs with ASD/Social communication like DXs it has perhaps become a little skewed in terms of the experiences we're discussing. But I don't think anyone seriously thinks the campaign should be based on cute kids with ASD.

but there is thr problem, it is stickied in the sn childrens topic(didn't know that as don't post there) so people will just think of children.
post 18 is an adult

I think MN thought about children with SN because of the infamous thread. Nothing to say that we can't sway them into talking about children and adults with SN.

I am at 20% of children having some sort of SN. Which shows how 'invisible' a lot of the SN are.
Also at the very high % of children who have some SN but no formal diagnosis.

I really like the education on the % of people affected and the relationship with your church, your cinema etc...

I saw it stickied at the top of 'active threads'

I also agree that while focusing on children with this being a parenting site is a starting point, our children will grow into adults with disabilities who will be part of society

I think this must incorperate people with disabilities not just children

Thats what I said earlier, this is a parenting site, so I dont think it is 'off' that children with SN is the focal point.

This is just a discussion about what and how this should be done.

This is the time to make suggestions, not to poo poo the whole thing based on one thread title and one OP from MNHQ.

I agree that it would be good to make it about people with disabilities not just children, now is the time to say that!

I actually think that talking about SN in general is crucial.

All well to try and support our children so they are 'included' but I would want to avoid the trap of people thinking that as soon as these children become adults, then their SN doesn't matter as much (eg even an adult with AS who is 'fully functional' might needs some simple adaptation to his workplace).

which is a whole different scenario to those who won't be able to function as an adult in adulthood or those who will be residential and almost kept away from the world.

Why don't you ask MNHQ to change it then - don't know about it being stickied on Children SN, but it is stickied on Active Convos, whihc is where the non-SN posters are seeing it.

Perhaps it has to be more inclusive, if you want us MNetters without experience of SN to join in.

I am very aware that we are all just one step away from a serious illness or accident - it could be any of us.