Engagement Fellowship for David Proud

Instead of recognising the value of disabled people in the UK, vital support services are being cut and medical research and genetic engineering aim to eradicate disabilities altogether.

The more we see value in disability and diversity, the less we will try and eradicate disabilities with medical technology. Researchers should engage with people with the conditions they are investigating, but It is difficult to engage and integrate a community when efforts are being made to ensure no one is ever born like them in the future. How can society celebrate diversity and try to end it at the same time? The moral questions are complex and fascinating.

I intend to explore disability and the morality of medical efforts to engineer it out of existence. I will engage disabled people and medical researchers, and look at my own life as a disabled person. I will connect lived experience with medical research to meet the challenge of inclusivity. My vision for the future is one of full inclusivity for disabled people in education, employment and all areas of society.