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5 What happens next?
The Disability Working Group's recommendations provide both an agenda for immediate action and a platform for the future. The process has drawn on the expertise of a variety of disability organisations, but there are many other organisations and many disabled people with views which still need to be heard. New issues will no doubt emerge and new recommendations will need to be made.
The mechanisms currently under development for engaging disabled people with Scottish Executive policymaking should enable more voices to be heard, more issues to be identified and more solutions to be found. Together, the DWG's report and the mechanisms for engagement provide the essential starting point - the policy content and policymaking infrastructure - from which to work towards the overall goal of full and equal citizenship for all disabled people.
It is vital that words are now transformed into deeds. Too often the momentum generated by intensive discussion evaporates when the time comes to act. Recommendations, no matter how positive, are not worth the paper they are written on if they never go further than the paper they are written on.
Once the Scottish Executive has had the chance to respond to the recommendations, it will be necessary to develop a work plan with the involvement of disabled people. The DWG went some way towards specifying what it will need to contain - who needs to do what and when, success measures and deadlines. It will be important to monitor, evaluate and publicly report on progress at regular intervals. This might fit well with the reporting requirements under the DED.
The implementation of the report of the Disability Working Group should be reviewed after two years and a progress report published.
Group 2
This report will be launched in late 2006 and disseminated widely. It will be published in various formats to maximise accessibility.
The work of the DNG has shown that opportunities are not equal, and what can and must be done to make them equal for disabled people. No doubt more will be added over time as barriers are removed and the voices of more disabled people are heard. However, for disabled people to participate fully in society first necessitates their participation in identifying the barriers to full participation! If disabled people are not seen or heard because of the many social barriers that exist, the existence of those barriers will never be identified. It is high time to break through this impasse, to identify and break and remove the barriers to full citizenship for disabled people. Only with the unswerving commitment of policymakers and the proactive involvement of disabled people can it be done.
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