Disabled people call for role to 'make Scotland better'

Campaigners have urged the Scottish government to give disabled people a key role in "making Scotland better" after the Covid pandemic.

Inclusion Scotland said the country must "not go back to an old normal" for disabled people.

The group has published its manifesto ahead of May's planned Holyrood elections.

The document, titled 'Rights and Renewal', makes five key requests of the next Scottish government.

Inclusion Scotland wants the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities incorporated into Scots law.

The manifesto also calls for Scotland's social security powers to be used to cut the number of disabled people who are living in poverty.

'Marginalised and excluded'

In addition, it says social care must be recognised as a "fundamental basic right" and that disabled people must have equal access to education and jobs.

Finally, it insists that disabled people must be given a key role in "making post Covid-19 Scotland better".

Inclusion Scotland chief executive Sally Witcher said: "Disabled people have told us about the problems they face daily, both before and as a result of Covid-19, and what needs to change.

"Before Covid-19, disabled people were already some of the most marginalised and excluded in society.

"We were more likely to live in poverty, be unemployed or earn less than non-disabled people, and less likely to leave school with qualifications, because of the barriers and exclusion we face in our day-to-day lives.

"The Covid-19 crisis and responses to it highlighted this, aggravating existing inequalities and generating new ones, and putting the human rights of disabled people at further risk."