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Disability

There are a lot of charities out there, local, national and international dealing in every kind of disability. This is a fragmented sector. Let us guide you through it...


> Introduction
> The big players: working in Britain
> The big players: working abroad
> Visual impairment and blindness
> Hearing impairment and deafness
> Deafblindness
> Mobility and independence equipment
> Mental disability
> Specific mental disabilities


Introduction
There are numerous charities catering for almost every conceivable type of physical and mental disability. However, unlike charities dealing with cancer for example, the vast majority of organisations here provide services for disabled people, as opposed to trying to find a cure for a particular disability. If you want to give money to a charity that is pioneering medical research in a particular area, then browsing the health overview might be more helpful.

The biggest divide in this sector is between charities helping mentally disabled people on the one hand, and physically disabled people on the other. For the former, a notable feature is many charities’ focus on providing residential care and ‘specialist’ schooling and holidays. BREAK (see profile), which provides holidays for children with special needs and their families is a leader in this field. Physical disability charities, by contrast, often concentrate more on providing specific. Charities such as Whizz-Kidz (see profile) – which provides wheelchairs for disabled British children – and Guide Dogs (see profile) are examples of this.

Disability charities usually have a narrow focus, on a particular condition or service they provide. There aren’t many ‘big players’ which cover all disabilities. Mental disability charities are usually slightly wider-ranging, and many help people with learning difficulties and special needs in general.

It all seems very complicated. How do you choose which charity to give to? How much? What are the disabled charities that really need your money and which have enough mullah already? Which disabled charity provides that specific philanthropic niche that you’ve always been looking for? What you need is a comprehensive overview of what’s on offer. Fortunately we’ve written one…

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The big players – Brits
There is one big charity devoted to improving the lives of British people with disabilities in general – Leonard Cheshire (see profile). It provides a staggering range of services, including ‘care homes, supported living, domiciliary support, day services, resource centres, rehabilitation, respite care, personal support and training and assistance for those looking for work’.

Last year its income was a whopping £137.6m, £128m of which was from government grants and contracts. It should be noted, though, that Leonard Chechire also does do a lot of work outside the UK too.

The Disabilities Trust (see profile) is another generalist. It provides services for people with autism, brain injury, physical disability, and learning disabilities. It focuses on providing residential homes and specialist schooling. Though it is still a sizable outfit (spending nearly £29 million last year), it is far smaller and has a narrower focus than Leonard Cheshire.

Finally, Kudos Employment (see profile) and The Shaw Trust (see profile) both aim to help people of all disabilities find meaningful employment. They’re essentially recruitment agencies for people with particular needs – though they are both registered as charities, too.

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The big players - International
Aside from Leonard Cheshire, there are quite a few British overview charities that exist purely to serve those overseas, particularly in the Developing World.

Handicap International UK (see profile), is the small UK arm of a charity that was the co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997. It supports disabled people in the developing world through rehabilitation, vocational training and the provision of artificial limbs. It also has a large campaigning arm, focusing on trying to ban landmines and cluster bombs.

Action on Disability and Development (see profile) has a slightly different focus, campaigning for human rights for disabled people in twelve poor countries across Asia and Africa. It mainly works by partnering with local organisations, as they put it, ‘supporting organisations of disabled people as they campaign for their rightful inclusion in society.’ If you are more interested in supporting the legal, work and social rights of disabled people in the developing world, then this might be the charity for you.

POWER International (see profile) is a small organization working in Laos, Mozambique and Zambia. It helps disabled people in these countries through by providing clinics, prosthetic limbs and business and management training for disabled people and local charities.

The Cambodia Trust (see profile) works mainly in Cambodia, training locals in the prescription and fitting of prosthetic limbs and orthopaedic braces. But its impact stretches beyond national borders. Students at its prosthetics training school in Cambodia come from, East Timor, Georgia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Burma, the Philippines and Sri Lanka, as well as from Cambodia. The charity has also opened a second prosthetics and orthotics training centre in Sri Lanka, and has started a training project in East Timor.

The Motivation Charitable Trust (see profile) distributes affordable all-terrain wheelchairs around the world. Over 1,000 were distributed in 2005. The charity also campaigns for rights for disabled people and gives disabled people job training.

Also, Sightsavers International (see profile) helps in this area – see ‘Visual Impairment and Blindness’ for details.

It is important to note that all these charities concentrate most of their efforts on physically disabled people. Those with mental disabilities do not get much of a look in.

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Visual Impairment and Blindness
There are lots of charities which help people who have sight problems. The most famous is probably the giant RNIB (see profile). This offers information, support and advice to over two million people in the UK with sight problems.

Amongst many other services, the RNIB supplies products specially adapted for those with sight problems, such as mobile phones, kitchen scales, Braille and large print board games and talking books. It also has a telephone helpline (which answered two million calls last year) helps 532 blind and partially sighted children and adults at its schools, colleges and vacation schemes, every year. On top of this, it’s also in charge of running the National Library for the Blind. This is a big, busy and important charity – and if you want to fund a massive organisation that is working full-pelt to improve the quality of life of blind people, then you should seriously consider the RNIB.

Almost as famous is Guide Dogs (see profile), which mostly does what it says on the tin. However, it also campaigns for blind people’s rights, educates the public in eye care and invests millions in eye research. In 2006, it helped more than 2,500 people with everyday skills training. It is another big, impressive-sounding charity.

The Talking Newspaper Association (see profile) provides talking newspapers and magazines on CD, tape, e-mail, computer download and CD-ROM. Pretty clear really. Far smaller than the two giants described above.

SeeAbility (see profile) helps people who are blind, but who also have other disabilities, such as degenerative illnesses and mental health problems. According to its annual report, 90 per cent of users would recommend its services, which include research, rehabilitation and residential services. It has been going since 1799 and looks like another impressive charity providing a valuable service.

Sightsavers International (see profile) has a slightly different remit. It works with blind people all over the developing world and has treated 3 million people who have river blindness, protected another 14 million against the condition, and trains blind people in life and vocational skills. It also helps mainstream schools in poorer countries deal with the needs of blind children. If you are looking for a charity dedicated to helping blind people in the poorer regions of the world then this is for you.

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Hearing Impairment and Deafness
The equivalent of the RNIB is the RNID (see profile), helping the UK’s nine million are deaf or hard-of-hearing people. This is an enormous charity doing a lot of work, from lobbying the government, to engaging in cutting-edge research, to providing a huge range of services to deaf people (including training, help with equipment, and the exciting ‘RNID Typetalk’ that enables those with hearing impairments telephone those who don’t). Like the RNIB, it does virtually everything imaginable to help deaf people.

The National Deaf Children’s Society (see profile) offers similar services to the RNID, but is a lot smaller and is exclusively focused on the UK’s 35,000 children who have hearing impairments. If you want to help deaf children in the UK, then this is the charity for you.

Hearing Dogs for Deaf People (see profile) is another charity that does exactly what it says in its title. It trains dogs (70% from rescue homes) to alert deaf people to specific sounds in the workplace or at home. It income is miniscule compared to Guide Dogs.

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Deafblindness
Sense UK (see profile) is the largest charity in the country which helps people who are deaf and blind, a condition often brought about by the genetic disorders or from old age. Sense UK offers educational and holiday services for children and adults with blindeafness, as well as one-to-one support. It also provides different types of residential homes to adults depending on their specific needs, and campaigns for deafblind people’s rights.

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Mobility and Independence Equipment
These charities provide wheelchairs (of varying levels of technical complexity) and other specialized equipment. Some charities even focus on helping disabled people take part in sport. So if you are really interested in giving to an organisation that helps those who are disabled to play sports, then this is the section for you.

Whizz-Kidz (see profile) is an award-winning organisation (Tesco Charity of the year 2006) providing a whole host of mobility equipment (mostly tricycles and wheelchairs) to some of the 70,000 disabled children in the UK. In 2005 it helped 770 with training and supplied 279 with equipment. This charity has a simple mandate and seems to be carrying it out effectively.

Action for Kids (see profile), like Whizz-Kidz, supplies mobility equipment to children (helping 1,000 people over the past 10 years). It also extends its services to young adults (up to the age of 26), runs family support services, and runs work-related learning schemes to help young disabled people learn valuable skills and get jobs. If you are planning to give to this organisation, it’s important to remember that it does all its work in London.

Motability (see profile) is a rare charity that doesn’t just focus on children. Set up by the government in 1977 to assist disabled people ‘with their mobility needs’, it directs overseas the Motability Scheme, a government initiative that enables disabled people to drive, wheelchair or scooter by using their government-funded mobility allowances. Motability is linked very heavily with government, but it does do a valuable job in helping disabled people obtain transport, and it concentrates on adults.

Wheelpower (see profile) is the national charity for wheelchair sport. It is well-known for discovering and training British athletes for the Paralympics. It organizes various events, such as sport camps and an annual National Championship to encourage participation and competition in ‘wheelpower’ events. The National Lottery has taken over much of its funding, but Wheelpower is still in charge of nurturing the talent of young athletes. If you are enthusiastic about disabled sport, then this is probably the charity for you.

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Mental Disability Charities
It’s harder to categories mental disability charities since they aren’t often that specific about what conditions are provided for, preferring the catch-all terms of ‘special needs’ or ‘learning disabilities’. Most of these charities focus on providing residential homes and/or holidays for people with mental disabilities

None of the charities listed below have anything like the funding available to some of the big physical disability charities, which might be a factor in deciding who to give to.

The Home Farm Trust (HFT) (see profile) is one of the biggest mental health providers. Last year it spent £33 million, mainly on residential care-homes. But it doesn’t stop there: it also provides supported employment, day-care services, ICT training, short holidays, research and more. In many ways it is the (smaller), generalist equivalent of the RNIB or RNID in the field.

The other option would be MIND (see profile), which does similar work and is the self-styled ‘leading mental health charity in England and Wales’. It does pretty much everything that HFT does and is also heavily involved in advising the government on mental health provisions and legislation. It publishes a lot of informative booklets about mental health.

There are a lot of smaller charities that provide similar provisions to the HFT, but on a more local scale. The Westminster Society for People with Learning Disabilities (see profile) is a good example. It provides 11 registered care-homes, five supported houses and 17 independent living flats, housing up to 90 people with learning disabilities. Acorn Villages (see profile) provides the same service in Essex, supporting 62 adults in both residential and supported living accommodation. The charity organises activities such as horse riding, drama, dance and weaving for the residents.

If you want residential care and supported living with a spiritual bent, then Prospects (see profile) would welcome you with loving arms. It provides help for adults with learning disabilities, across the country. As well as the normal residential and day support, an arm of the charity, known as Causeway Prospects, works with local churches, helping them to provide worship services and Bible studies suitable for people with learning disabilities.

BREAK (see profile) is more child-focused. It provides residential child-care at six homes in Norfolk, one of which is specifically for children with profound disabilities. It also offers holidays for children with special needs and their families at three different centres. It doesn’t just provide for children though. Day care support for adults is provided and a residential unit specifically for women was opened in April 2007. If you want to support a charity that provides equally for both children and adults (a rarity in the charity world, especially for a smaller outfit), then you could do worse than this charity.

If you are looking for a small charity and one that fulfils a very particular need, then you could try The Log Cabin (see profile), which is an adventure playground in Ealing designed for children with special needs and disabilities. It opens after school hours and in the holidays, and the charity provides free transport to and from the playground for those whose parents or carers cannot bring them. Another option could be Bagbooks (see profile), a charity aiming to provide multi-sensory resources –very special books, in other words – for children and adults who have severe learning disabilities.

If you want to support a charity doing something a little different, why not consider the Elisabeth Svendsen Trust for Children and Donkeys (see profile). This charity provides riding lessons for 150 special-needs children a week on donkeys lent by the Donkey Sanctuary (see profile). The aim is to give children something positive to aim for (there are 14 riding levels) and give them confidence and dexterity in their own abilities and to make friends. Refreshingly, if you are a potential charity donor or beneficiary not in London, this charity has centres not in the capital, but in Sidmouth, Birmingham, Leeds, Ivybridge and Manchester.

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Specific mental disabilities
Some charities catering for those with mental disabilities do help people with specific conditions. Autism and Down’s syndrome are the most popular causes.

The Down’s syndrome Association (see profile) is apparently the only national charity that deals with all aspects of Down’s syndrome. Considering that fact, it is relatively small (with £1.6 million expenditure last year, and a staff of only 38) – though it seems very busy, with over 19,000 members and 25,000 people on its training courses. Its main job is raising awareness of the condition through a helpline, information to the media and government, and information booklets. It also runs training courses for professionals and carers. It could be that its size curtails it from offering more ‘hands-on’ care.

The National Autistic Society (see profile) is the equivalent society for autism, and is a lot lot bigger than the Down’s syndrome association (it spent nearly £70 million last year). It has a similar remit to the Down’s syndrome Association, such as publishing information about the condition and running training schemes, but also offers specialist schools for autistic children and residential and day care services for adults.

Treehouse (see profile) is another charity helping autistic people, but one that specialises in educating children. It’s a minnow compared to the National Autistic Society, but runs a school for children with autism, and also lobbies to raise the profile of autism in government.

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