Two weeks ago, I was asked to speak at the launch of a report commissioned by Disability Research on Independent Living and Learning (DRILL) called ‘Public Life Matters’ at Strathclyde University.

The report deals with how people with lived experience of mental health issues engage in civic and public life.

One of its conclusions was that not enough people with mental health issues are in political office and this is true of disability in general.

This section of society is totally under-represented in political life.

For instance there would be at least 28 MSPs with a disability if this group were fairly represented. Instead there is only one!

Consequently the Scottish Government set up Inclusion Scotland in order to attempt to overcome barriers that disabled people face when trying to become involved in politics.

Recently, Inclusion Scotland published its Access to Politics Charter to address these barriers.

That charter was published after In February of this year more than 50 disabled activists from across the country began the process, in February of this year, of creating a list of solutions to problems faced by disabled people when trying to access politics.

The charter was created and all the political parties represented in the Scottish Parliament affirmed that they would support and resource a disabled members group within their party.

They will commit to positive and proactive provision of disability equality training to elected officers, staff and party members.

However, more importantly they affirmed that they would actively support and encourage disabled people to stand for elected office and explore the mechanisms that ensure the election of a representative number of disabled candidates.

The charter was launched at the Scottish Parliament on Thursday, June 14, at an event sponsored by the Deputy Presiding Officer, Linda Fabiani MSP. The charter was signed by the leaders of each party represented in the Scottish Parliament.

This, in my opinion, is a major step forward for disability as well as democracy.