11-year-old Adam has weakened muscles, speech impediments and autism, and is a full-time wheelchair user. Adam wants to go out with friends, but this depends on whether he has access to a suitable toilet and changing room. Standard disabled toilets are small and do not provide the changing benches or hoists to meet his special needs. He and his family risk health and safety by changing him on a toilet floor and manual lifting. Adam represents thousands of people with special needs who are not having these needs met, and is taking a theme park to court for not providing ‘reasonable’ disabled facilities. He wants the term ‘reasonable’ to include the space and equipment needed for a disabled person’s personal care. It is now expected that everyone has a right to live in the community and access all its facilities. Government policy promotes ‘community participation’ and ‘active citizenship,’ but for some disabled people the lack of a fully accessible toilet is denying them this right. See:

Research for the charity Scope reported that one in eight people hardly ever or never thinks of disabled people as the same as everyone else. Three comments from disabled people: ‘I’ve experienced loneliness as an adult, been excluded from social situations or activities due to my condition, and people make assumptions about what I am able to do or not do.’ ‘I’ve had people getting off the bus because they didn't want to share one with a cripple.’ ‘People used to see me as “one of them” but now, because I’m disabled, they see me differently.’ Scope’s CEO said that we need to increase understanding of disabled people's lives and step up our efforts to combat negative attitudes and misperceptions that hold them back in all areas of life, from work and leisure activities to shopping on the high street. Currently a million ‘disabled’ people who are ‘able’ are excluded from the workplace.

From 4 August to 11 November 2018 there will be a hundred days of prayer for peace, marking the centenary of the end of World War 1. Some 65 million men were mobilised across Europe during this war. On 11 November, people will remember them, but also will pray and work for peace. On 4 August 1918, George V called for 100 days of prayer across the country. This year, throughout those 100 days, there will be prayers and actions for peace. People can sign up to take part and spend just a few minutes of their day, adding their prayers to those of tens of thousands more throughout the season of prayers for peace.  The period will culminate in Peace Parties on 11 November in communities across the nation. For details of the many organisations providing resources needed to stage a local event, click the ‘More’ button.

Belarus has accused the UK embassy in Minsk of ‘creating problems’ by flying a rainbow flag for International Day Against Homophobia. The embassy said the banner directed attention to the discrimination that LGBT people encounter constantly. But the interior ministry said the majority of Belarusians ‘support traditional family values’, and ‘such statements are a challenge to these values’. Alexander Lukashenko, who has led Belarus for nearly a quarter-century, believes it is ‘better to be a dictator than gay’. Orthodox Christianity is Belarus’s major religion, with significant Roman Catholic, Protestant and Jewish communities. Homosexuality is not illegal but it is considered taboo: Belarus passed legislation in 2016 banning information that ‘discredits the institution of the family and marriage’.