Dr. Rosaleen McDonagh:

I really want to bring to the committee a clear message on justifying attitudes. We have done this. We have talked about progress for over 30 years. We tried to explain how we experienced racism. We were always called upon to prove it. I believe that same rhetoric is being used now in finding out the attitude towards disabled people. We know it and we live it. It is absolutely transparent in our public policy, employment rates, health status and in how many of us are in sheltered accommodation who should not be there. Given the limited success of the UNCRPD we should no longer call upon disabled people to prove that ableism is out there.

It is there. It is in the universities, employment and everywhere. We do not need any more money to be spent on surveys. They may tell politicians and the public something but they do not tell disabled people anything we do not already know or experience.