Britain's Outstanding Purple People

Is Britain just lucky to have a wealth of disabled movers, shakers and general “Purple Talent”, or is there something we’re doing that the rest of the world has yet to catch on to?

Today, 3rd Dec 2015, the day of UN International Day of Disabled Persons, saw the launch of the Power 100 2016, the list of Britain’s most influential people with a disability or impairment.

The launch was hosted by Lloyds Banking Group and included a QA panel chaired by Ade Adepitan, Paralympian and TV Presenter with panelists Justin Tomlinson, Minister of Disabled People, Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, Paralympian Legend and disability rights campaigner, Roy O'Shaughnessy, CEO of Shaw Trust and Dom Hyams, Editor in Chief of Power Magazine.

And me.

Yes, little old me. I was honoured to be asked by Shaw Trust to join this line-up and spoke about the banking sector’s responsibility in taking a leading role in advancing the employment of disabled people.

But this isn’t a post about me speaking - though it was the probably the most awesome speaking gig of my career.

It’s about what you will find when you read the Power 100 2016 report.

What went through my mind as I flicked through the list during the pre-event briefing was initially “oh, that’s lovely” as I spotted people I’ve had the privilege of working with and in many cases can call my friends. Next was “oh, that’s interesting” when I saw someone that I had no clue had a disability or impairment.

Then there were the rest. And in total what an amazingly diverse bunch they are and who have achieved and are achieving amazing things and are shaping the world around us.

The kicker though was when Dom explained to us that they had gone out to the public for nominations, and what we were looking at in the Power 100 was a very significant sifting of many hundreds of nominations, the eventual published list being the very best of the best.

And this got me thinking - is Britain just fortunate in having such a wealth of Purple Talent or is there something that we are doing that is fostering it? Or are we just better recognising it? Dom isn’t aware of an international equivalent of Power 100, so there might be something in that.

My personal observation is that maybe we Anglo Saxons do have a different approach to disability which does help; we have by and large done away with the medical model which still dogs many parts of the world, and our legal system with respect to disability is based on (a) playing nicely and (b) creating a level playing field (i.e don’t discriminate and make adjustments).*

We don’t have to diagnose people as “disabled” in order to treat them right or include them in society, and many people who are disabled (under the law) don’t consider themselves to be so; they’re just the way they are, they get on with life and, as long as they get that level playing field, they do their damnedest to compete equally upon it.

This, I believe, gives us the Power 100 and the role models for the next generation.

* I know we’ve still got some way to go in getting all employers and service providers to make adjustments, but we’re getting there - and I'm committed to making that happen. And we need to stamp out disability hate crime because the scum who perpetrate it certainly aren’t playing nicely.