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Scope

We're Scope, the disability equality charity in England and Wales.

About Scope


Tags: Disability support Health & Medical Social Welfare & Support Advocacy, awareness & campaigning

Our vision
We won’t stop until we achieve a society where all disabled people enjoy equality and fairness.

Our mission
We’re a strong community of disabled and non-disabled people with a shared vision of equality.

We provide practical advice and emotional support whenever people need them most. We do this through our Scope helpline, our online community, a range of employment and child sleep services, community engagement programmes, partnerships and more. Everything we do is with the aims to achieve our strategy, Everyday Equality.

We use our collective power to change attitudes and end injustice. We partner with others to increase our reach and impact. And we campaign relentlessly to create a fairer society.

The social model of disability is a way of viewing the world, developed by disabled people. Scope's Everyday Equality strategy is based on this model of disability.

The model says that people are disabled by barriers in society, not by their impairment or difference. Barriers can be physical, like buildings not having accessible toilets. Or they can be caused by people's attitudes to difference, like assuming disabled people can't do certain things.

The social model helps us recognise barriers that make life harder for disabled people. Removing these barriers creates equality and offers disabled people more independence, choice and control.

Not everyone uses the social model and that’s ok. How anyone chooses to talk about their impairment is up to them.

Negative attitudes based on prejudice or stereotype can stop disabled people from having equal opportunities. This is sometimes referred to as disablism.

Examples of negative attitudes include assuming that disabled people can’t:

- work
- live independently
- have sex
- have children

The medical model of disability says people are disabled by their impairments or differences.

The medical model looks at what is 'wrong' with the person, not what the person needs. We believe it creates low expectations and leads to people losing independence, choice and control in their lives.

Your Impact

As the broken benefits system pushes so many people to breaking point. The demand for our helpline has never been higher. We’ve had a 30% increase in calls year on year.

More than 1 in 3 calls are now about benefits.

By donating today, you can make sure our helpline advisers are always here when a disabled person is pushed to breaking point.

£8

Could cover the cost of a call to our helpline, so a disabled person can find hope after being pushed to the brink.

£38

Could fund a call back from a helpline adviser, so a disabled person with a more complex case can get the ongoing support they need.

£100

Could help to train a specialist benefits adviser, so the whole helpline team is more ready than ever to give life-changing support.