Transcript of Young Disabled Leader Sarah Yorke Interview with Baroness Grey-Thompson Sarah Yorke – Hi, I am Sarah [Maria] Yorke. I am in the Houses of Parliament, well I am in the House of Commons actually. I’ve been invited here by Young Disabled Leaders and today I am interviewing Baroness Gray-Thompson. So thank you very much for taking the time to do this. Baroness Grey-Thompson – My pleasure Sarah Yorke – Its really really… we are very thankful for you doing this. Well, you have been a key member in the disabled community for quite a long time. You have won so many awards in the Para Olympics, you have won loads of gold medals, silver and bronze. Can you tell us a little about that please? Baroness Grey-Thompson – Well I became a wheelchair user at the age of about 7 – I was born with spina bifida. I could walk until about six, but over a year I became paralysed. But my mum and dad were brilliant because, I am 41 now so back then life was very difficult for disabled people, and my parents encouraged me to do physical activity and sport because they thought it would be good for me, make me strong, it would make me more healthy and more able to deal with all the ‘inaccessible world’ bit that existed. And it was really that I did a lot of sport from the age of 7, then when I was about 12 or 13 I realised that I was actually quite good at sport. And it went from there really. So every decision I made was based around me wanting to be an athlete so I went to Loughborough University, because of the sport, you know, it was just a huge part of my life – I only retired 4 years ago. Then gradually through my competitive career, I competed at 5 Para Olympics games, I kind of recognised that there was lots of other work to be done around access and education because the experience that I had being a disabled person wasn’t typical because disabled people still experience quite a lot of discrimination and quite a lot difficulty. So gradually over a period of time I got more involved in politics – never thought I would end up in the House of Lords. But I have been here 9 months now and for me it is amazing because it is a different way to contribute, it’s a different way to make changes and to make sure that disabled people have the same rights and opportunities as non disabled people. Sarah Yorke – So you mentioned sport, when you were younger you said that you used to enjoy it a lot. Did you have any favourite sports? Baroness Grey-Thompson – Well I played lots of sport. I grew up in a, well, quite a rugby-mad family, so, that was always around. But I grew up watching lots of sport and I played lots of sport. So I played basketball, I went horse riding, I swam, I did archery. But really for me athletics was the one that I was best at and that is the one that I enjoyed more than anything else. So, from the age of 13 I just concentrated on the world of athletics and wheelchair racing. And when I was 13, I suppose no-one thought I would go on to represent GB or go on to win gold medals but for me a lot of that came from the encouragement that my parents gave me, which was ‘its about working hard, its about you know, not letting people put barriers in my way’ and just being really passionate about doing what I wanted to do. And I think those lessons that I learnt from athletics have transferred really well into other parts of my life. Being in the House of Lords, you know, things move quite slowly, some things move quite quickly – you have to understand the Rules of Engagement, you have to understand the game, which are quite like the rules of sport. And once you understand that, it makes it much easier to operate. Sarah Yorke – So you mentioned your family and your mum and dad giving you support. I belie it was your sister who gave you the nickname of Tanni. So you have quite a close bond to your family. But when you were younger were there any other people who inspired you when you were growing up? Baroness Grey-Thompson – I think for me there was Welsh athlete called Chris Hallam, a wheelchair athlete and he won the London Marathon in the mid 80’s and he was kind of a different character because up ‘til then you didn’t really see disabled people doing sport at a high level. You know, the Para Olympics, there wasn’t much coverage in ’84, there was a bit of coverage in ’88, and Chris kind of broke into TV – he was quite a dynamic person: he wore bright, outlandish racing suits, like he raced in leopard-skin suits and had dyed-blonde hair – he was quite ‘in your face’. He broke down a lot of the barriers for me, so I remember, because he was in South Wales as well, so I remember looking at what Chris was achieving in sport and he was amazing and he made it much easier for me to come through. But then, there wasn’t really any other disabled role models around, because at the time, you didn’t really see disabled people around much, you didn’t see them so much in work, certainly not on the TV. You know the only portrayal of disabled people back then was on a soap called ‘Crossroads’, where you had a character, who was meant to be a wheelchair user, but you kind of, well found it all quite patronising really. So, for me I had some sports people I admired, and then Chris as a disabled sports person. But I think my family were the biggest influence, because my parents were quite tough and they didn’t allow people to patronise me – so they fought very hard for me to stay in mainstream school, you know, the community I grew up in were all quite ‘strong’, so that made a big difference to me, because my parents were just there, you know, just not allowing me to fall into the trap of being pushed to one side. Sarah Yorke – So you have been talking to us about how it has been quite difficult in the past to have the same accessibility as other people. Have there been any legislations [sic] that have been passed recently that you think are making disabled people’s lives any easier. Baroness Grey-Thompson – Well that is a good question. I think for me a turning point was the Disability Discrimination Act, which was in the mid ‘90’s, and that was not what a lot of disabled people wanted. And you look back now and see that there were parts of the DDA that weren’t very strong but it kind of set a tone for the rest of legislation. So now I think there is lots more understanding that the rights and need of disabled people needs to be thought about in every single part of legislation – whether that happens is a matter of huge debate. For me, I have been involved in the […] Bill, which came through the Lords, and fighting for the same rights and opportunities for disabled children in school. I think what is great about the Lords, is that there is quite a number of disabled people here with different impairments, there are probably more wheelchairs users, but we have visually impaired Peers and we have Lord Ashley as a hearing impaired Peer, so there is disability around, it is seen. But it is quite important that we keep fighting, that its not just having legislation for disabled people, its every bit of legislation that thinks about the impact that it will have. And that is where the Equality Act will be quite useful as it is means you have to do an Impact Assessment and look at everything that goes through to make sure that it fits everyone. That is quite hard in terms of you having to look at everything line by line but that is our job here to try and make sure. But I think sometime the fact as a disabled Peer that you are sitting in the Chamber as part of a debate, and it might not about disabled people, but you are here as a disabled people, people think ‘oh okay’, so it is sort of … it keeps going, you don’t have to prod people too much. So it is getting better, but saying that, there is still a long way to go. A long way to change from what happens in the legislative process to actually people in the outside world really getting that disabled people need to be treating very fairly. Sarah Yorke – Yeah definitely. You work with Sports Leadership and you are a Chairman for the ‘V’ volunteering company. Can you think of ways where those two can be encompassed to bring about the knowledge of disability rights for society because that is one thing that you picked up on because it is very easy for different laws to be passed but it is meant to be Society that implement that. Baroness Grey-Thompson – I think there is something very different to legislation to what happens in the outside world. When I am on the outside I still get people who talk down to me, or treat me less fairly or if I am with my husband they speak to him and not me, which I find very frustrating but I think that is where we have to keep working. But I think disabled people are not this homogenous group, that are separate from society. If you think about society as a spectrum, disabled people are dotted all the way along it, and you know there are a million ways you can slice things up. You know the work I do with Sports Leaders, which is a charity that encourages young people to be leaders in sport and to get confidence, not necessarily as a performer but to get confidence in working with others. I think things like that are really important to encourage disabled people to think about that as an option. And I think the same with ‘V in volunteering’, you know disabled people probably don’t volunteer as much as non disabled people, not just because… well it can be because it is hard to get into volunteering but also because they have to deal with people’s negative views that you cant do it as a disabled person. I have a lot of friends who like me have grown up with congenital impairments, but because they become used to being discriminated against, because it is around them in the whole of their lives, sometimes they don’t realise that they are being discriminated against. So some of it is empowering disabled people that they have a right to fight to make things better for themselves, that actually the status quo is not alright, because it is better than it was 20 years ago, that doesn’t mean that it is okay. So there is still lots and lots to do to make sure that disabled people are seen in every aspect of society, but also the disabled people themselves don’t give up on the fight to get in…[coughs] Sarah Yorke – So, talking about working in the community and volunteering, are there any words of advice you can give to our young disabled leaders about achieving their goals? Baroness Grey-Thompson – Yeah I think I would say you have to be persistent and you have to be quite tough and you have to be quite focussed, but that is same for whatever you want to do. But I’d say its about finding people around you who can be positive, who can give you a chance and an opportunity, and that’s not always easy because I think the ‘Public’ – and that is quite a gross generalisation – but I think the Public can look at disabled people and think ‘that’s too hard’, so as a disabled person you have to be quite strong and that’s hard because not every disabled person is as stroppy as me! My sister who is older than me, she is a completely different person to me – it would be like saying to my sister: ‘Right, now you have to go and protest and start arguing to be treated a certain way’ – and you know, that is really challenging to do. But what I would say to disabled people is don’t give up, you know, you can find people around you who can be supportive and it will be difficult but the results are worth it in the end and I think there are some really, really good people out there who will give disabled people a chance. And I think one of the really good things that my parents taught me is that if somebody treats me less favourably because I am in a wheelchair, it is not my problem, its their problem! And I think sometimes it is really easy to kind of think it is your fault and you know my parents brought me up to believe, well you know what, just don’t spend time on people who are a negative influence, just bin them and find people who are positive. Sarah Yorke – Well thank you very much Tanni, that was brilliant and I am sure that you will act as a big inspiration for all our other young disabled leaders. End