One In Four Avoid Conversations With Disabled People, Resulting In ‘Epidemic’ Of Loneliness

One in four Brits have admitted to avoiding conversations with disabled people, research has revealed. MPs and disability charity Sense said damaging public attitudes are resulting in disproportionately high levels of loneliness among those who are ostracised.
They are campaigning for a shift in public perception, which they hope can be achieved by “increasing awareness of different conditions and battling misconceptions about disability”.

Disability charity Sense is a founding partner of the Jo Cox Commission on Loneliness, chaired by Rachel Reeves MP and Seema Kennedy MP, which aims to start a national conversation on the ‘silent epidemic’ of isolation across the UK.

Three-quarters (77%) of young disabled people and more than half of disabled people of all ages said they they experience loneliness, which isn’t helped by the fact one in four people avoid speaking to them.

Research from Sense revealed that fear of causing offence (30%), feeling uncomfortable (20%) and not knowing what to talk about (17%) were the most common reasons for avoiding conversations with disabled people.

Young adults under the age of 24 were revealed to be twice as likely (50%) to have avoided these conversations than older people. They were also least likely to meet disabled people, with a quarter (23%) of those surveyed unable to recall the last time they encountered someone with a disability.


http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/quarter-of-people-admit-to-avoiding-conversations-with-disabled-people-sense-research_uk_5964a769e4b09b587d61bb5e?utm_hp_ref=uk